There is no minimum participation required to join the cooperative, however we rely on volunteership to manage our sites, so we appreciate when volunteers make an effort to return on a regular basis.

This ensures fairness during harvest season for our regular volunteers who put in many hours during the growing season.

We welcome all beings of all experience levels, walks, and stages of life to join us. (i.e., feel free to bring your human and fur babies). 

Dogs must be tied up or supervised, and children should also be supervised as each of our locations are nearby to roads. We love having kids on site learning about what we do, so please do not hesitate to bring the whole family along.

They are weekly recurring meetings times for each of our clubs.

Each volunteer shift lasts about 1.5-2 hours. Meetings are weather dependent and stewards will post to our Discord if a meeting is cancelled due to weather.

First, check out the club listings to find the address, regular volunteer hours, and the name of the steward of the site you want to volunteer at.

Once you’ve decided which club you want to attend, we encourage you to join our Discord server.

Garden stewards post about on-going tasks, as well as special tasks that require a certain number of volunteers. They’ll also post if there are no tasks that week and when the next meet-up will be. Feel welcome to introduce yourself to the group!

Once you arrive at one of the meet-ups, you should see some people at the site. You can ask for the garden steward and they will be able to give you an overview of the space and what is getting done that day. 

The meeting could involve a variety of tasks including planting, weeding, watering, or harvesting, depending on when it is during the growing season. You’ll also have the chance to meet and chat with other volunteers as you all work.

Wearing weather-appropriate attire (hat, closed-toed shoes, layers, etc.), and bringing sunscreen and water are recommended while working at our sites.

Stewards usually bring enough tools to complete specific tasks. If anything, a pair of garden gloves are recommended to keep your hands protected/clean (depending on the task) but if you don’t have any, stewards may have extra pairs to lend.

We work on a sweat-equity basis.

When there is a harvest on a night you are volunteering, you are welcome to take part in the share.

As part of our mandate, a third of our harvest also goes to front-line food security organizations that process or distribute the produce.

People Garden: There is parking along the side streets (e.g., Balfour and Ashland), and on Churchill Drive.

Sunset Garden: The garden is located down a backlane. If you need to drive, you can park on Kylemore and walk through the Lord Roberts Community Centre field. This site is easier to access via bike.

Cottonwood Garden and Food Forest: You can park on a neighbouring side street (typically Baltimore). There are also a couple of gravel parking spaces at Churchill Drive and Baltimore Road, right next to the pump house.

At this time, we do not have the ability to install washrooms on-site. The closest washrooms are located at Riverview Community Centre and Lord Roberts Community Centre.