Get, growing Victoria! – This new initiative is operated by the City of Victoria’s Growing in the City program and aims to grow and distribute vegetable and herb seedlings via non-profit organizations to home gardeners, with a focus on supporting communities that have been disproportionally impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has generated renewed interest in community resilience and food security, and many residents have expressed interest in learning to garden to supplement their food supplies. In April 2020, City Council directed staff to temporarily reprioritize the municipal nursery and greenhouses for the growth and distribution of food starts to be shared over the 2020 growing season. Using existing Parks nursery operations, as many as 75,000 edible plant starts will be grown this year.
This program provides a selection of the top 16 vegetable and herb starts for easy growing for the novice gardener, and suitable for a variety of locations, such as garden beds in yards, or container gardening on decks or balconies.
How can your organization get involved?
The City of Victoria will be distributing seedlings in partnership with community organizations across the Greater Victoria area. Currently, the program already has 20 partner organizations onboard and we are looking for more partner organizations to help get food starts to the wider community, with a focus on supporting marginalized communities. Thousands of seedlings will be ready to distributed in June 2020.
If your organization would like to be distribution hub for this program – please fill out this Distribution Partner Assessment Survey or contact aharned@victoria.ca