COVID 19 response
COVID-19 guidelines for community and allotment gardens are now available for 2021.
Community gardens are considered essential food services and are allowed to open with COVID-19 safety measures in place.
The City of Toronto will be opening community and allotment gardens early in 2021
COVID and Community Gardens webinars
TUG, FoodShare and HoffmanHayes offered free workshops for organizers in community and allotment gardens on public and private lands.
The workshops look at specific strategies for implementing the City's guidelines in the context of gardens, including questions and answers from garden coordinators.
NB: the webinar reflects information available in May, 2020. Garden organizers should refer to the Toronto Public Health guidelines linked above for the most current practices.
Click here for a recorded version of the webinar with Andrea Peachtree Boucaud, Randy Bhagwan and Jane Hayes. Thanks to Natalie Boustead and FoodShare for hosting.
PDF tutorial on using Google calendar for garden scheduling. Thanks to Aysha Ashfaq for putting this together.
Online learning
Some of the fabulous educators from Toronto and beyond are moving online. See http://torontourbangrowers.org/training-and-education
Getting and giving support
On Facebook? You can join https://www.facebook.com/groups/GrowFoodToronto/
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/home/covid-19/.
> 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 more than 10 people when possible
- Maintain a distance of 2 metres with people outside of your household wherever 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