Please don't promote all community gardens as a place to get free food. Our members share some surplus produce but our half acre garden is not a place to come shopping. Most of us have invested in seeds, plants and building raised beds. Our garden also charges a small yearly membership fee. We are not located in a food desert. Our members like to grow hard to find Asian vegetables and other items from their home countries not found in the local stores.
I get that. I'm not speaking for a specific community garden, just in general. This article shares ways community gardens can help by providing mutual aid. At the community garden I work at, we have local organizations who cover our costs so members don't have to pay. I also think it's great to provide a place to grow cultural foods that can't be found in stores easily.
This series is about mutual aid though, which is helping and sharing as equals. I am promoting a different type of economy here, one that is shared and not hoarded. I understand that your garden doesn't want to give away everything, and that's fine. That's the beauty of it being your garden. But I'm still advocating to build mutual aid networks that help people when the state won't, and a community garden is a great way to do that.
We organized so that there was no monetary barrier to entry, given that housing, land, food, etc. is so expensive these days. Our garden does allow people to take what they need. No one has taken more than they need so far. If more was taken than what we had, I'd see it as an indication that we must plant more next time.
Also, I think you'll discover food insecurity is more widespread than one might imagine. The food desert map I shared was from 2016, and poverty has grow a lot since the pandemic. Thanks for your comment, and good luck with your garden.
Great Read! You found some good resources too.
That means a lot, Katie. 😁
Please don't promote all community gardens as a place to get free food. Our members share some surplus produce but our half acre garden is not a place to come shopping. Most of us have invested in seeds, plants and building raised beds. Our garden also charges a small yearly membership fee. We are not located in a food desert. Our members like to grow hard to find Asian vegetables and other items from their home countries not found in the local stores.
I get that. I'm not speaking for a specific community garden, just in general. This article shares ways community gardens can help by providing mutual aid. At the community garden I work at, we have local organizations who cover our costs so members don't have to pay. I also think it's great to provide a place to grow cultural foods that can't be found in stores easily.
This series is about mutual aid though, which is helping and sharing as equals. I am promoting a different type of economy here, one that is shared and not hoarded. I understand that your garden doesn't want to give away everything, and that's fine. That's the beauty of it being your garden. But I'm still advocating to build mutual aid networks that help people when the state won't, and a community garden is a great way to do that.
We organized so that there was no monetary barrier to entry, given that housing, land, food, etc. is so expensive these days. Our garden does allow people to take what they need. No one has taken more than they need so far. If more was taken than what we had, I'd see it as an indication that we must plant more next time.
Also, I think you'll discover food insecurity is more widespread than one might imagine. The food desert map I shared was from 2016, and poverty has grow a lot since the pandemic. Thanks for your comment, and good luck with your garden.