With the coming of spring, gardeners are busy planting again. Thanks to a rising number of community garden and farm projects, the rewarding activity of planting and harvesting one’s own fruits, vegetables and flowers has become available to more and more people, even in cities.
Such urban gardens provide communities with a host of incredible opportunities. They literally offer the grounds to sustainably grow nourishing greenery, as well as contribute to community health as spaces to develop meaningful friendships, educational initiatives and inspiring “food for thought”.
These projects are not only about the harvest. They fulfill a surprising variety of other purposes; some are community meeting space, some focus on alternative education, others on promoting inclusion.
We’ve put together a selection of gardening and farming projects that stand at the heart of their communities:
Dunmanway Community Garden
A community garden represents much needed communal space, in a small town in Ireland, that aims to be inclusive for all people.
Gardens of Cracovians
Pockets of greenery transform forgotten patches of urban wasteland into community spaces for regeneration, social cohesion, nature, and culture.
Lighthouse Project School Farm
A community in Baden-Württemberg province provides a small, family-run, all-day primary school with a farmyard, acquainting schoolchildren with traditional farming methods and farm animals.
Municipal Farm for Mouans Sartoux’s School Canteens
The initiative supplies school children with organic food and educates them about organic farming, changing the lifestyle of many families in the region.
Plovdiv Organic Garden
Being surrounded by plants reconnects young people to the earth and their fellow humans; learning about farming gives them new knowledge whilst enhancing their personal development.
The Wonder Garden: A Social Enterprise for More Opportunities
A local foundation provides people with intellectual disabilities with meaningful work at a flower garden.
In our Showroom we present exemplary political projects which successfully address today’s challenges. Each month, we offer you a carefully curated selection of best practices which impact global settings through local change-making.
DO YOU KNOW ABOUT ANY OTHER GREAT PROJECTS THAT DO THEIR PART IN ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE?
Nominate them to the Innovation in Politics Awards here.
Have you implemented one such project yourself? Submit it here, to our fifth edition of Innovation in Politics Awards.
If you need more inspiration or some extra help with your application, check this guide for submitting your project!
