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“New week, new amazing stories, reaching out an “New week, new amazing stories, reaching out and bridging the gap. The team is always looking forward to every day that comes.” A beautiful testimonial from our project manager Patrick Paul today. Monday and Tuesday found the team at Mama Santa Aciro and Mama Bina Akello’s homes. Mama Santa who is 57 will use her kitchen garden to support her family with fresh veggies and also as an income generating source. Even though this is a small space, the diversity of intensively planted crops, allow for an abundance of food which is even enough for her to sell surplus at the market. Seed saving and succession planting means that she will not require to purchase anything more for her garden to continue producing in this way. The team has opted to line some of the garden beds with bricks to prevent the steep bed from crumbling. Depending on how wet and sandy the soil is, some precautions need to be taken to ensure the raised beds do not succumb to harsh weather. Mama Bina Akello who is 80 years old has 8 grandchildren she cares for. The team opted for a more traditional garden design here that suits the size of the landscape and the preexisting vegetation like the papaya trees you see growing in the bed. These kitchen gardens are a source of hope among many other things for the families. Being given a head start on a new endeavour allows for them to dream much bigger than this little garden. This is only the beginning!
Today the team assessed the land and designed a si Today the team assessed the land and designed a simple raised bed permaculture kitchen garden in a “U” shape for Mama Esther as part of our Grandmothers Kitchen Garden Project. Refarmer Tommy translates for her as she extends her heartfelt gratitude to the team: “My name is Esther Akongo. I am 67 years old. I have 10 children that I am taking care of. This garden is going to provide for me 1) food on the table…the vegetables which is very helpful at this point in time 2) it’s also going to generate income that will help me to support the family providing simple necessities. I would like to thank first of all the team that are doing this great job, this great call to humanity and also the people behind, the sponsors and the donors. Thank you so so much for your kind generosity to us as the elderly. Thank you so much.” If you think you are able to contribute to this life changing work we would be eternally grateful. Please follow the link in our bio. We are looking to fund 35 more gardens and the planting of 200 more fruit trees! One garden costs approximately $80 to implement. Thank you! Apwoyo Matek! (Thank you very much in Acholi the local language of Kitgum, Uganda)
The Vancouver Refarmers team has been going on exc The Vancouver Refarmers team has been going on excursions to various community gardens in the city lately. We are researching different models of community gardening in order to formulate ideas around how to implement our new food forest/communal gardening space in East Vancouver. We are still in the concept phase of the project and getting to know the amazing work being done so close to home has been awe-inspiring! One of our favourite spots on our food justice journey was the Downtown Eastside Urban Farm started just this May beside Astoria at Hawks and Hastings. “It is almost a full acre of garden beds that provides food for the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House @dtes_nh programs and a chance for community members to learn about gardening, while connecting with each other in a relaxing greenspace. They make this space as accessible as possible to the community.” For those of you who aren’t familiar with Vancouver, the Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighbourhood is an area of town with “a complex set of social issues including extremely high levels of drug use, homelessness, poverty, crime and mental illness. It is also known for its strong community resilience and history of social activism.” This urban farm is an example of how growing food can be the tool we use to change the world. With over 70 volunteers and its strategically placed location, it has the potential to catalyze great change in the DTES and Vancouver. They have partnered with groundbreaking organizations like @hives4humanity. We love all these folks so much! “Hives for Humanity is a non-profit organization founded in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Through mentorship based programming at 19 Therapeutic Apiaries, in partnership with local organisations, they create flexible opportunities that deepen self-worth, community pride and connectivity to nature. They support at-risk populations of people and pollinators.” We are really excited to further our connection with these life-changing organizations and honoured to be living in a city that is already tapping in to new ways of tackling the most pressing challenges through urban food growing. Grow Food, Grow Change!
The team was at Mama Grace Amiro’s property toda The team was at Mama Grace Amiro’s property today establishing this functional and captivating “s” shaped kitchen garden. She is 57 years old and has 8 dependants who are orphans. Thanks to the equatorial climate and the abundant rains these days, the family will be able to harvest their first veggie greens in only 3 weeks! In every kitchen garden, the team plants a diversity of local vegetables including boo, malakwang, dii, abuja, lwaka, onion, ethiopian eggplant, swiss chard, skumawiki, tomatoes, green peppers and nakati. The family is trained in seed saving, succession planting, composting and other valuable permaculture skills so that they can become self-sufficient and thrive. The pathways/swales are dug on contour and are deep enough to capture a lot of rainwater runoff into the garden for prolonged moisture. This paired with building soil health through adding amendments like compost, planting légumes and nitrogen fixing trees, planting a diversity of crops and heavy mulching ensure that the garden remains productive and happy throughout the long periods of drought. The team all live walking distance away from each Grandmothers Kitchen Garden they implement so they are always available to help with challenges and answer questions!
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We operate on the unceded, traditional and ancestral territory of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

REFARMERS is a Canadian Registered Non-Profit Incorporation Number S0072619