In one of the worst slums in North America, Sole Food Street Farms is showing how growing food and connecting people to land and community provides a pathway to recovery – nourishing others as a way to heal our world and ourselves.
Sole Food Street Farms has been growing in Vancouver for over seven years. The project, led by the Cultivate Canada Society, is another initiative of pioneering urban agriculturalist, Michael Ableman who recently released a book about it called Street Farm: Growing Food, Jobs, and Hope on the Urban Frontier. He has also written a great 15-point urban food manifesto.
These street farms are growing vast quantities of artisanal organic food right in the middle of the city. The produce is sold at local markets, restaurants and shops. On a series of sites, they’ve transformed vacant and contaminated land to become North America’s biggest urban farm project. A key is that they are not just creating jobs and new skills, but meaning and empowerment for many people managing addition and chronic mental health problems.