The Rural Voice, 2003-07, Page 36Those of us living in
rural Ontario like to
boast about the
efficiency of our modern
farms, but when it comes
to production per acre —
make that per square foot
— there's a small site in
the middle Toronto's
concrete jungle, that could
teach us all a thing or two.
You can't get much
less farm -like than the site
of FoodShare, a not-for-
profit food organization
where they put nature to
work not only to grow
plants but also to create
the soil in which the plants
grow. Squeezed between
the concrete monolith of
Toronto's Gardiner
Expressway and the
wasteland of the eastern
docklands, is a dynamic
community based on food
and entrepreneurship that
provided lessons for some
Huron County residents
who recently visited.
Here, on the roof of the
building is a greenhouse
which makes use of the
heat of the adjoining
warehouse and the
southern exposure to the
sun to grow 10,000
seedlings a year,
everything from
vegetables for
transplanting to all the
herbs needed for the entire
operation. Some of the
seedlings are sold to the
public at an annual spring
plant sale. Some are
wholesaled to a company
that sells heritage variety
organic plants to city
gardeners. Some are
planted in a 7,000 square
food plot at the Centre for
Addiction and Mental
Health on Queen Street,
where not only is food
produced in the heart of
the city, but patients
benefit from the therapy
of working in the garden.
Coming soon will be a
farmer's market stand to
sell products of the garden
32 THE RURAL VOICE
Small, but
efficient
In the heart of Toronto's concrete
jungle a ting plot of land gives an
idea of just how efficient food
production can be on a small scale
Story and photo by Keith
Roulston
Vera Top, in charge of FoodShare's greenhouse,
explains the operation to visitors from Huron County.
to the neighbourhood.
Currently the food
produced is sold to the
Good Food Box program,
which is headquartered
back at the FoodShare
building.
The Good Food Box
program is the centre of
all this activity, in more
ways than one. Mary Lou
Morgan, who co-ordinates
the Field to Table Centre
portion of the FoodShare
organization, comes from
a business background,
having helped found The
Big Carrot, now a $15 -
million a year employee -
owned organic
supermarket. She says that
each of the businesses
under the umbrella of her
organization is a profit
centre. Together, all these
programs generate $1
million a year in business.
The Good Food Box
program is the biggest of
the nearly one dozen
programs.
The Good Food Box
program is designed to put
fresh, nutritious fruits and
vegetables into the hands
of people in Toronto, no
matter what their income.
The boxes are available
from $12 for a small box
suitable for singles and
seniors to $17 for a
regular box or $32 for an
organic box. Contents of
the $17 box would cost
$25-$27 at local
supermarkets. Each box
also contains a newsletter
from FoodShare with
recipes on how to cook
some of the featured
vegetables.
When in season, the
Good Food Box buys food
from Ontario farms to
support Ontario farmers
but during the off-season,
they buy in bulk from the
Ontario Food Terminal.
Morgan has toted up the
contribution to Ontario
farms and puts it at
$340,000 last year, with