Canada: A Vancouver Nonprofit Strengthens Communities Through Urban Farming
Over the past 15 years, she says, “we’ve been moving throughout the city and trying to stay close to the Downtown Eastside.”
By Leigh Matthews
Montecristo Magazine
Dec 20, 2024
Excerpt:
When the patrons of the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House sit down to their free festive turkey dinner this year, some might be feasting on veggies they grew themselves. That’s thanks to Sole Food Street Farms, a nonprofit social initiative celebrating 15 years of providing “good food and good jobs” to residents of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
“Every season we try to donate a third of what we produce,” says Kaum Kulatilake, Sole Food’s co-manager of community and administration. This includes regular donations to Saige Community Food Bank, Mom2Mom, A Better Life Foundation, and the DTES Neighbourhood House, which provides free weekly meals to Downtown Eastside residents facing food insecurity. The rest Sole Food sells through farmers markets and a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program—whereby customers subscribe to the season’s harvest and collect a weekly assortment of produce—as well as directly to restaurants.
This bounty is as local as local gets, thanks to Sole Food’s ingenious conversion of unused city lots into green and plentiful urban agricultural farms.
Founded in 2009 by Michael Ableman and Seann Dory, Sole Food provides low-barrier employment for individuals typically ostracized from the workforce, many of whom are unhoused, living with addiction, or grappling with mental illness. Very few have previous farming experience, but according to Kulatilake, Sole Food now has “career urban farmers” who have been farming with the nonprofit from its earliest days 15 years ago. “What Sole Food does best is depth of impact,” she says. “We employ people, and they’re there long-term.”
Read the complete article here.
Source: https://cityfarmer.info/canada-a-vancouver-nonprofit-strengthens-communities-through-urban-farming/
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