Building a shed for a backyard, weeding, pruning and growing food is hard work and sometimes more than one person can handle alone. Author and social entrepreneur Kate Sutherland has worked on many food security projects and is co-founder of the Two Block Diet, an initiative where neighbours help each other to grow more food.
Sutherland is co-hosting what will be the second Two Block Diet workshop for the qathet community on May 16. The workshop will explore how to invite people to a neighbourhood gardening meeting, what a first meeting might look like, the power of work parties and helpful guiding principles for connecting with near neighbours.
Sutherland said no gardening knowledge is necessary, just "a willingness to invite others into an experiment: How can we help each other grow more food?"
More than 10 years ago, Sutherland and her neighbours in Vancouver organized a community garden project and invited 80 households by slipping an invite through mail slots; 13 people attended the initial meeting. A group of mostly women began to share knowledge and work together on gardening projects.
"There were people who had a fair bit of experience [at the first meeting], and we had people who were happy just sharing the space that they had for gardening," said Sutherland. "We did joint seed orders and joint compost orders, and we did a lot of work parties."
Sutherland admits that at the time she did not know much about gardening, but one of the first things she learned was how to start plants from seeds. The group transformed into something even more important than exchanging gardening knowledge with neighbours and became more of a support network.
"One woman, for example, wanted to build a greenhouse space in a single afternoon, so four or five of us helped her set up the frame; it was very empowering," said Sutherland. "Doing things with people is a really powerful way to build connections."
Sutherland said the intention is to create systems of mutual support, a cohort of people who can share learnings and be buddies for each other.
The group also started food-sharing initiatives, kind of like a book library but for produce, and a place where community members could leave and take what they had grown.
There are many reasons to grow your own food, according to Sutherland.
"Some people do it because homegrown vegetables and fruits taste unbelievably delicious, or because growing food allows your money to go to other things," she said. "Another reason is that increasing local food security and community connectedness are crucial to building resilience in the face of climate change."
Sutherland is the author of We Can Do This!: 10 Tools to Unleash Our Collective Genius.
To register for this free workshop or to find out more information, go to simpli.events/e/2BlockDiet.
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