Action Communiterre Merger
December 3, 2015
Dear collective gardeners,
The 2015 season saw a bountiful harvest and a joyful assembly of gardeners new and returning. Over 160 community members participated in our collective gardens. Together, you grew over 1500 kg of fruits, vegetables, and herbs, and this fall over 1000 cloves of organic garlic were planted! The summer of 2015 also posed many challenges and changes. Together we witnessed thefts and vandalism, moved gardens, and finally, moved our office.
In spite of these challenges, we have, together, done some amazing work and continue to make our community a healthier and more welcoming place for everyone. It is with this vision for a better community in mind, that I am very proud to announce the completion of a great project, and the start of a new one. For many months, Action Communiterre and the NDG Food Depot have been exploring the possibility for working more closely together. These efforts have borne their fruit. Action Communiterre and the NDG Food Depot are now merged and form one single organization. From this point forward, all programs, events, and activities of Action Communiterre will now be managed through the urban agriculture branch of the NDG Food Depot.
This merger represents a joining of forces to create a stronger food organization in the community around Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. Together, we will offer an innovative and holistic response to the challenges of food insecurity and poverty in our community, because we believe that everyone has the right to access good food. From this point forward, you can contact the Action Communiterre team at the NDG Food Depot by writing to ag.urbaine@depotndg.org or by calling us at 514-483-4680 ext 216.
With these changes, and always with the goal of improving our programs, this autumn, the employees and members of Action Communiterre came together to reflect on the strengths and challenges of the collective garden program. Attached below is a summary of this reflecting process, which includes suggestions for future seasons. Please note that we continue to modify our programs to better serve our members and better support our staff. We greatly appreciate all your input and contributions to this.
For more information about this project, I encourage you to visit the website for the NDG Food Depot: http://www.depotndg.org. There are lots of opportunities to stay involved and connected through the winter, including participants for free cooking activities and volunteers for our emergency food distribution. Please be in touch!
Thank you for your continued support and dedication to our organizations. I look forward to seeing you all in the new year!
Manager of Urban Agriculture, NDG Food Depot