Community Gardening on City Land report has been published

Here is an overview of the main recommendations from City staff:

• Shift internal City oversight from Community and Social Services (CSSD) to Recreation, Cultural and Facility Services (RCFS).
• Formalize City-wide mandate for supporting gardening activities.
• Form an internal inter-departmental working group.
• Allocate 1 Full-Time City staff to manage the internal program, within existing resources.

Community is asking for:

• A clear timeline and process for 2025: 
  • For existing requests waiting for approval to move ahead
  • For new initiative requests
  • For community engagement on operations (which has not yet happened!)
• A clearer program name: “Community-led Planting Program” to capture the full scope of planting activities as they are all interconnected
• Commitment for additional staff time to support transition of this program from one department (that has the historical context and research) to a new department

Plus more!
You can read more about the details of all of the collective asks by clicking here.

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How You Can Take Action This Week:

1) Email your City Councillors – use our template:

• Click here to find your Councillor & and their contact info
• Use this easy template guide to send an email to your Councillor!
  • Template #1: Existing community gardeners waiting years for answers
  • Template #2: New community gardeners waiting for this report to apply for new initiatives

2) Sign up to delegate at the Community Services Committee on April 22nd:

• Submit a written letter or visual presentation before tomorrow, Thursday, April 17th, at 4:00PM, or
• Sign up to delegate at the Committee Meeting, either virtually or in person, by no later than 8:30AM on Tuesday, April 22nd
• You can submit your written letter/visual presentation, or register to delegate, by sending an email to:
  • Eric Pelot, Committee Coordinator –
    eric.pelot@ottawa.ca, (613) 580-2424, ext. 22953

3) Need support delegating? We can help!

Attend tonight’s delegation support session for CGN members!

Register here for our 30 minute delegation support session tonight, April 16th from 6:30-7:00PM, online via Zoom

Have questions or looking for support? 

Please contact communitygardening@justfood.ca