Canada: How community gardens — in parking lots — can help B.C.’s food security
On June 4, in the parking lot of the White Rock Volkswagen dealership, a 64-plot community garden was built by 50 volunteers.
By Pippa Norman
Pique
June 14, 2022
Excerpt:
Aaren Topley, provincial manager of Can You Dig It, said the COVID-19 pandemic exasperated the issue of lengthy garden waitlists as more people became attune to the benefits of growing their own food.
“When COVID hit, people really wanted to get outside, they wanted to grow their own food, and they tried to create some of their own food security,” Topley said.
With this influx of people looking to get outside and sustain themselves, simultaneously, Topley said many community gardens had to stop accepting people onto their waitlists.
Part of the initiative with this dealership garden build was to offer plots to people on other community garden waitlists in Surrey, Topley said. To do this, Topley worked with the City of Surrey’s community garden portfolio manager.
“It was really nice to be able to offer folks that have been on these waitlists sometimes a couple of years and say, ‘Hey, while you’re waiting for a garden that may be closer to your neighbourhood, do you want to grow in this garden?’” Topley said.
