Dustin Boggs was one of several volunteers who suffered the wet weather Saturday afternoon to help complete the latest in a rapidly growing number of community gardens in Greater Victoria.

Fifty-five volunteers put in 300 hours over the past few weekends, constructing 24 above-ground garden plots at Cecelia Ravine Park, near the Gorge Waterway.

Like many, Boggs wants to show his children that food doesn't come from plastic bags. This push for food security, demonstrated in 100-mile diets and heightened awareness about where food comes from, has increased the popularity of urban agriculture in communities all over North America.

Barefoot Organics hosted a great community gathering this Sunday!  It was one of the nicest days of the year to date, and it felt great to get our hands dirty helping local farmers (Derek Powell and Goldenrose Paquette) extend and improve their garden patch. Derek was a previous apprentice of Carolyn Herriot, renowned local food activist, founder of The Garden Path and author of “The Zero- Mile Diet”. This great apprentice experience shone through Derek, as he taught us all about soil selection, garden design, and permaculture throughout the day.

All together we built 8-35x4 ft raised beds, moved and prepared the beds in 2-20x12 ft hoop houses and potted up 150 strawberry plants. We had 21 people helping over the course of the day (including the young ones). An amazing and simple lunch proved to stretch far enough to feed us all. Lots of fun, friends and sunshine while playing in the dirt!

People are living in such dire poverty in Greater Victoria that they are often going hungry and suffering from malnutrition. They frequently have to choose between food and heat or food and medication because income assistance rates are just so low.

Together Against Poverty Society works with people living in poverty, and we hear regularly from the people who have to make these impossible decisions. The experiences of TAPS clients were recently reinforced by the Dietitians of B.C.'s annual report, The Cost of Eating in B.C. The report makes it clear that many low-income wage earners and those receiving provincial income assistance or disability benefits do not have sufficient income for a nutritious diet, and are heading to food banks in higher numbers than ever before.