Local Food Helps Locals

Many families, friend groups, and neighbors get together over food. Whether it's for a specific event, celebration, or just a hang out session.

We'd love to see neighbors working together to grow produce for the neighborhood. Food is healthier when it's harvested right as it ripens, as opposed to ripening within a warehouse or in a truck on it's way into into town.

We think that you and your neighbor(s) should start gardens. Pool your resources, expenses, time, and then share the harvests. Save money by sharing tools with neighbors across the street, place seed orders together so that there's only one shipping fee, or take one car and buy local from a local nursery. - Skip the big box stores.

A small veggie patch can grow a lot of food and the more veggie patches a neighborhood has the better. It's a treat to watch things grow. It's a treat to get your hands in your own dirt. Mowing the lawn is a chore and we think that that time should be put into growing something you can eat. The more gardens the merrier.

We're here to help get these processes started. We're helping by teaching people how to garden efficiently, and by doing garden installations to get people up and running, so that communities can grow their own food.

In Vancouver, there are some amazing organizations that are helping increase the amount of food grown here.

These organizations help showcase how great our community can be to one another. 

If you’re interested in working with these organizations, reach out to them. They're the experts in their fields (pardon the pun).

If you’re not in Vancouver, organizations like these may exist in your community. If they don't exist, maybe you know just the person to get them started! Maybe it's you!

​If you're interested in starting any organization related to local food in your community, YOU CAN DO  IT!

In every city there are some very cool things going on within our local food webs.

The world needs more gardens. We can all help make our own communities better. 

As we make connections with new organizations involved with growing food in our community, we'll add them here.

Community Focused Organizations We Support:
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​Food4Thought
An urban garden-matching program that transforms under-utilized residential garden spaces into thriving sources of organic food, connection, and neighbourhood resilience.
 
Food 4 Thought designs and runs proven systems that pairs apartment dwellers who are eager to grow their own organic vegetables but lack access to land with homeowners who have sunny front or backyard spaces to share. The result is productive, nutrient-dense gardens that nourish both the gardener and the homeowner, while bringing unused spaces back to life.
 
They provide a clear, step-by-step guided program that supports new and novice gardeners through every phase of the growing season, from planning and soil preparation to planting, maintenance, and harvest. Along the way, they foster trust between neighbours, encourage skill-sharing, and create a sense of shared stewardship over food and land.

For busy homeowners, or those with limited mobility or aches and pains, this means enjoying the benefits of a beautiful, productive garden without having to do the physical work themselves.
 
Food 4 Thought was launched in Vancouver, BC in March 2020, inspired by years of conversations with apartment dwellers who visited their own urban garden and said the same thing again and again, “I wish I had a space like this.” They turned that long-held idea into action and began pairing people with gardens.
 
Food 4 Thought sits at the intersection of urban agriculture, education, and community building. Their work supports healthier people, more connected neighbourhoods, and practical pathways for cities looking to regenerate unused land while strengthening local food systems. They are passionate about building scalable, human-centred systems that create abundance not only in food, but in relationships, skills, and shared purpose.
 
If you're too busy to plant or maintain a garden this season or finding that physical limitations are getting in the way, their locally vetted, passionate gardeners are ready to plant and care for an organic vegetable or flower garden in your space. You share the garden, they grow and tend it, and you both enjoy the harvest and blooms. From empty to plenty, without lifting a finger.
 
Have questions? They would love to connect.

You can find out more at: https://garden4food4thought.com/

Community Garden Builders
This small business transforms empty lots into community gardens and/or dog parks. They build raised beds and place them on top of pallets so that the growing containers are raised up off of the ground or gravel. This helps with ergonomics and allows for plant growth on sites where there is dirt that can't be grown in or where there is gravel, concrete, etc. They can install fences in the abandoned lot so that a single area can have two functional spaces (community garden + dog park) if both offerings are desired.

If you have questions about what it takes to get a vacant lot near you turned into a community garden, they can be found at: https://www.communitygardenbuilders.com/