Action Communiterre (Greater Montreal Area) | building, community, interesting place, public garden

 building, community, interesting place, public garden

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www.actioncommuniterre.qc.ca
514-484-0223

Action Communiterre is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to social and environmental development through the establishment and operation of collectively-managed vegetable gardens. We run 10 organic gardens, known as the Victory Garden Network, in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce area in Montreal. Our mission is to bring local residents together in a common effort to enhance food security in our neighbourhood, improve the urban environment, preserve bio-diversity, and strengthen community ties.

The people who work in our gardens are volunteers recruited through a variety of community groups in NDG. They gather once or twice a week to share the labour and the harvest of each garden. They are assisted by a garden animator responsible for coordinating the groups' efforts and educating participants in organic growing.

It is free to join, and no gardening experience is necessary. Our gardeners take home a share of the produce each week as it is ready to be harvested. Surplus vegetables (which can amount to up to 3 tons in a season) are distributed through the NDG Food Depot, and other food security organizations in NDG. We partner with many organizations, sharing goals, ideas and resources. Some of those include: NDG Food Depot, Head & Hands, CLSC-NDG, the Unitarian Church, the NDG Y, Forward House, Coop la Maison Verte, Eco-Quartier, Carrefour Jeunesse Emploi NDG, the Good Food Box , the CSDM, the People's Potato of Concordia University and many others.

We are a bilingual and multicultural organization with a permanent office staff of two, and additional animators during the gardening season. We run a greenhouse for certain vegetables that need an early start. All of Action Communiterre's gardeners are offered workshops in such things as organic gardening, recycling & composting, environmental protection, empowerment in food security, community involvement and the politics of food.