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COVID 19 response








The Province and the City heard your voices! 


Community gardens are considered essential for food security and are now open with COVID-19 safety measures in place. 




New: COVID-19 and Community Gardens workshops for garden organizers 


TUG, FoodShare and HoffmanHayes are offering free workshops for organizers in community and allotment gardens on public and private lands. You have a choice of an online webinar or a call-in workshop accessible by phone. 

We will:
  • Review the COVID-19 guidelines from Toronto Public Health
  • Talk about strategies to meet the guidelines
  • Hear your concerns and what supports you think your garden may need for COVID-19 safety
The first series of workshops are: 
Friday, May 15, 12:00 -1:30 pm webinar
Wednesday, May 20, 6:30-8:00 call-in workshop
Saturday, May 23, 10:00-11:30 webinar

More dates will be announced soon!


More learning online


If you miss gathering for workshops, some of the same great people have put their knowledge up online.


Videos 

Brother Nature, aka Isaac Crosby https://www.youtube.com/user/Aisik/featured

Cheyenne Sundance of Sundance Harvest https://www.facebook.com/pg/sundanceharvest/videos/?ref=page_internal

https://www.facebook.com/pg/MatchboxGarden/videos/?ref=page_internal

https://www.fruitionseeds.com/Fruition-s-Seed-Starting-Academy-p/wrksp2.htm

Soul Fire Farm in the US outlines Black, Indigenous and POC taught videos and learning resources related to food. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18Wa3UJ3xHvMrsvRLy38qXyPsX5BWfj4NgVcgMolfZfA/edit?usp=sharing

Project Diaries has many gardening tips, check out banana fertilizer! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQGv_dy-oLeu5SSgz2_8i8w/featured

Printable resources

Black Creek Community Farm has fact sheets and presentations https://www.blackcreekfarm.ca/programs-2/gardening-resources/

FoodShare https://foodshare.net/resources/printable/

Webinar notices are shared through:

TUG’s Google group https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/toronto-urban-growers/join

TUG’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TOurbangrowers/

The Grow Food Toronto Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/GrowFoodToronto/


And don’t forget to browse TUG’s resource links http://torontourbangrowers.org/resources


Getting and giving support

Our local seed producers were hit hard by losing some of the biggest sales of the year when Seedy Saturdays were cancelled. Please order your seeds online if you can and keep supporting our seed growers! A list of seed companies with online stores is at 

http://torontourbangrowers.org/seeds-and-seed-saving. 


If you coordinate a garden or urban ag program, consider organizing a group seed purchase for people who don't have online access.

There is also a list of companies that will deliver soil amendments at

 http://torontourbangrowers.org/soil.



Urban ag projects often act as community hubs, so we have a strong role to play in getting useful information out to our communities. 

> Fight myth-information - go to trusted sources like Toronto Public Health https://www.toronto.ca/community-people/health-wellness-care/diseases-medications-vaccines/coronavirus/  and challenge some of the racist and xenophobic myths you may hear. 

> Encourage people to take protective measures:
  • Proper hand washing
  • Cough or sneeze into your sleeve or arm
  • Self-isolate if you're showing symptoms
  • Limit non-essential travel
  • Avoid large gatherings of people when possible
  • Instead of hugs & handshakes, use low-contact greetings  (some people now call the elbow bump the "chicken wing"!)
  • Step up hygiene routines in public gathering areas by washing contact surfaces more frequently
  • Masks are now recommended for trips to enclosed spaces like grocery stores or pharmacies
> Set up support networks for people who need to self-isolate

If you're on Facebook, there's a Toronto group for people needing or offering assistance, plus resources for community organizing https://www.facebook.com/groups/TO.Community.Response.COVID19



Let us know if there are other concerns that come up. 

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