Canada: Vancouver Island charity delivers food-producing soil, plants to vulnerable people
This year, the program served 14 community partners, three First Nations, and 120 individual households.
Todd Harmer
Vancouver Island News
Sept 14, 2022
Excerpt:
A garden program aimed at increasing food security for Vancouver Island’s vulnerable populations has wrapped up its third year of providing fresh, healthy and affordable food.
FED Urban Agriculture, which runs the My FED Farm project, said in a release Wednesday that through its efforts this year it has added an additional 209 square metres of food-producing land.
The land takes the form of gardens, which community members or groups tend, which could potentially produce 2,525 kilograms of food for those in need within Greater Victoria.
The local food security charity says that between June and July, more than 700 planter bags and 3,674 seed packets and plant starts were delivered to households and community organizations throughout the region to increase access to fresh, healthy and affordable food.
The program was established in March 2020 in response to the economic hardships many households faced at the start of the pandemic.
FED Urban Agriculture says it saw a notable uptick in interest in the program this spring with cost of living on the rise, inflation at a record high and concerns about supply chain issues.
