Results tagged “urbanagriculture”

Waste not, want not—so the old saying goes. Taking the adage very much to heart is a fledgling non-profit and its several hundred volunteers, who have been plumbing our city for hitherto forgotten bounty for the past couple of years. The organization is called Not Far From The Tree, and its mission is to rescue fruit growing in Toronto that would otherwise go to waste.

In the shadow of the Dufferin Mall and No Frills, FoodShare is planting the seeds of a radical food system. They’ve dug up the lawn of their new location in a public school on Croatia Street to plant rows of vegetables, nourished with compost made from the waste of their busy kitchen. Staff members are cooking meals to be delivered to the homeless and underhoused, and youth in the Focus on Food program (geared to those facing barriers to employment) are cooking to learn life and job skills. On Saturday, the twenty-five-year-old organization hosted an open house, welcoming the public to become a part of their vision for good, healthy food for all.

The food we eat, and the sources thereof, have become the subjects of increasing attention over the past few years. In an attempt to bring farmers and the people they feed closer together, Slow Food Toronto hosted its second annual Farm-to-Home Fair at the Gladstone this past Saturday. Local farmers and food producers came out in force for some agricultural show-and-tell, and local eaters (that's us) came to learn more about the importance of buying from sustainable, Toronto-area farms. Torontoist departed with two dozen pastured, laid-this-week eggs, and also a bit of insight into our local food culture.

View Torontoist's 2010 Toronto map (1.9 MB .PDF)