Growing Food, Building Community
Most people in North America eat food that is grown very far away by farmers they have never met. Then, the food is processed somewhere else (also far away), and shipped and transferred from point to point before it arrives on the supermarket shelf and is sold to the consumer.
Community gardens around the world play an important role in strengthening relationships between community members, providing opportunities to learn about food and how plants grow, and helping to conserve green spaces. Frequently community gardens are situated in what were previously empty lots or considered otherwise unusable land. Even so, these gardens can have a big impact in rural and urban areas. Bringing food production closer to home reduces "food miles," thereby lowering the amount of fossil fuels (whose emissions contribute to climate change) used in transportation of food. Community gardens provide food consumers with more control over the production of their own food. And you can't beat the fresh-from-the-garden taste!
