Open Letter Calling on Province to Identify Community Gardens as Essential Food Service

Author: Josie Di Felice

Posted: March 31, 2020

Categories: Community Gardens / GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Ontario / Working Group News

Sustain Ontario is facilitating an open letter—for any organization in the province to support—that identifies Community Gardens as essential community food services which must be exempt from the recently announced closure of recreational spaces by the Province of Ontario.

Please scroll down to sign the Open Letter

Organizations are further encouraged to share this information in their own communities and send indications of broad community support to their local municipal and provincial representatives.

To Doug Ford and all Members of Provincial Parliament in Ontario:

Everyone is working hard, and we are trusting this is just an oversight, but please immediately remove outdoor community gardens from the list of closures for recreation activities released March 30, 2020, and place them on the list of essential food services in Ontario.

Tens of thousands of families rely on community gardens to produce food for their families each year. There has been a marked increase in demand for this service since the beginning of COVID-19 across Ontario. People throughout the province have already invested in their seeds, and started seedlings, for this growing season. Land is being negotiated to actually strengthen community gardening availability in many communities across Canada, not limit it.

This model of community food production is seen as integral to the COVID-19 response in countries throughout the world, particularly as food prices increase and global food supplies are increasingly uncertain. Food banks also receive literally tonnes of much needed fresh food from local community gardening efforts in communities all around Ontario.

Members of Ontario Community Growing Network (OCGN)—including representatives of public health departments—are working to achieve safety protocols informed by public safety requirements. Community agencies involved in community gardens are partners in communicating critical public health messages to our communities, and we all take safety seriously.

Please take immediate action today to clarify for everyone in Ontario that community gardening is an essential food service.

Thank you very much!

Moe Garahan
Executive Director, Just Food Ottawa
Co-Chair, Ontario Community Growing Network,
A Network of Sustain Ontario

Rhonda Teitel-Payne
Co-Coordinator – Toronto Urban Growers
Co-Chair, Ontario Community Growing Network,
A Network of Sustain Ontario