 ction Communiterre is a
not-for-profit organization
dedicated to social and
environmental development through
the establishment and operation of
collectively-managed vegetable
gardens. We run 10 organic gardens,
known as the Victory Garden Network,
in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce area
 in
Montreal. Our mission is to bring
local residents together in a common
effort to enhance food security in
our neighbourhood, improve the urban
environment, preserve bio-diversity,
and strengthen community ties.
The people who work in our gardens
are volunteers recruited through a
variety of community groups in NDG.
They gather once or twice a week to
share the labour and the harvest of
each garden. They are assisted by a
garden animator responsible for
coordinating the groups’ efforts and
educating participants in organic
growing.
It is free to join, and no gardening
experience is necessary. Our
gardeners take home a share of the
produce each week as it is ready to
be harvested. Surplus vegetables
(which can amount to up to 3 tons in
a season) are distributed through
the NDG Food Depot, and other food
security organizations in NDG. We
partner with many organizations,
sharing goals, ideas and resources.
Some of those include: NDG Food
Depot, Head & Hands, CLSC-NDG, the
Unitarian Church, the NDG Y, Forward
House, Coop la Maison Verte, Eco-Quartier,
Carrefour Jeunesse Emploi NDG, the
Good Food Box , the CSDM, the
People’s Potato of Concordia
University and many others.
We are a bilingual and multicultural
organization with a permanent office
staff of two, and additional
animators during
 the gardening
season. We run a greenhouse for
certain vegetables that need an
early start. All of Action Communiterre’s gardeners are offered
workshops in such things as organic
gardening, recycling & composting,
environmental protection,
empowerment in food security,
community involvement and the
politics of food.Action
Communiterre takes home its third award!
 ontreal, June 20th, 2005 – Action Communiterre has been awarded a
third prize recognizing its
innovative and distinctive
collective gardening program. Having
won the Centraide Agnes-C.-Higgins
Award, Action Communiterre’s
environmental commitment also earned
it 2nd place at the Canadian
Environmental Awards as well as a
Phoenix of the Environment in Quebec.
Action Communiterre coordinates a
network of collective gardens in
Montreal’s Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG)
neighborhood. We are a non-profit
organization dedicated to fostering
social solidarity, promoting local
food security and improving access
to healthy produce through
collective gardening and other urban
agriculture projects. In keeping
with a vision of sustainable
development, Action Communiterre
also engages in a variety of
activities designed to raise public
awareness of the value of
community-based food production and
distribution.
Centraide’s Agnes-C.-Higgins Award
in 2004 rewards Action
Communiterre’s innovative approach
in responding to the needs of the
 community. Presented every year to
organizations sponsored by Centraide
of Greater Montreal, this prize
highlights Action Communiterre’s
pioneering role since 1997 in
inspiring many other organizations
throughout Quebec to develop
collective gardening programs as a
means of promoting food security and
strengthening community.
Action Communiterre’s
ecologically-minded approach has won
it two prizes, one Canada-wide, and
the other Quebec-wide. Having
already won a Silver award (2nd
Place) in the “Living Ecologically”
category of the Canadian
Environmental Prizes, Action
Communiterre was distinguished on
June 9th with Quebec’s Phoenix of
the Environment. These two prizes underscore our success in
transforming unused urban land and
parking lots into lush, productive
organic gardens.
Our collective gardens’ chief aim is
to promote and raise public
awareness of food security. These
gardens break social isolation and
foster active citizenship by giving
everyone, including socially
disadvantaged people, the
opportunity to produce a portion of
their own food in a dynamic,
enriching group setting. The harvest
is shared among the gardeners and
also distributed throughout the
neighborhood. In 2004 alone, our
four gardens
 produced one ton of
food, one third of which was
redistributed through the NDG Food
Depot and other housing projects in
the district. We expect our harvest
for the 2004 season to be every bit
as impressive!
These three awards recognize the
hard work of our volunteers,
employees and especially our
gardeners, many of whom have been
involved since 1997. Action
Communiterre will proudly continue
to cultivate solidarity for many
years to come!
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