Deadline: 23-Oct-22
The City of Victoria is inviting applications for Community Garden Start-Up Grant.
Community Garden Start-Up Grants are available to eligible organizations to support in the design, planning, engagement and construction of new community gardens in the City of Victoria.
The City of Victoria recognizes community gardening as a valuable community recreation activity that contributes to health and well-being, positive social interaction, neighbourhood building, food production, environmental education, habitat development, and connection to nature.
For the purposes of this policy, a community garden is a piece of land gardened collectively by members of the community, in partnership with a non-profit society.
Types of Community Gardens
There are three main types of community gardens in Victoria:
- Commons Garden: A commons garden is a communal garden area maintained and managed by community volunteers, where any harvest produced is available to the public.
- Allotment garden: Allotment gardens consist of individual garden plots that are rented, maintained and harvested by individual member gardeners.
- Community Orchard: A community orchard is a grove fruit or nut trees where a community organization is responsible for the care, maintenance and harvesting of trees, with food going to the community.
Community garden projects often include a mixture of these three types (for example, a garden may be a mixture of allotments and common garden areas.)
Funding Information
The Community Garden Start-Up Grant is available in two phases:
- Up to $5,000 for the design phase
- Up to $10,000 for the build phase
Eligible Activities
Community gardening includes, but is not limited to, the following types of activities:
- Growing annual and perennial food plants, medicinal plants, and flowers
- Growing Indigenous, cultural and native plants
- Pollinator gardens and hobby beekeeping
- Permaculture projects
- Fruit and nut trees
- Demonstration farming
- Edible landscaping
A community garden project may also have the following features:
- Compost bins, tool storage sheds, shared tools and other elements necessary for the operation of a community garden
- Educational opportunities to encourage the involvement of schools, youth groups, and citizens (who do not have assigned plots) in gardening activities
- Mechanisms for deer protection (tree fencing or perimeter fencing)
- Universal accessibility in garden design, to provide gardening opportunities to people with a variety of abilities.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible organizations must meet all the following criteria to apply for any Growing in the City Grants:
- Must be a registered non-profit organization in good standing in the Province of BC or registered charitable organization in good standing with the Canada Revenue Agency
- Organization is based within the Capital Regional District and the services and activities benefit residents of the City of Victoria
- Evidence of clear mandate and competent administration
- Evidence of ongoing, active volunteer involvement
- Not in arrears with the City of Victoria
- Not in bankruptcy or seeking creditor protection
- Demonstrate financial stability and accountability
- Evidence of diversity of funding sources and/or increasing financial self-sufficiency
- Able to ensure projects or programs are substantially completed within the grant period
- Able to comply with the City’s monitoring and reporting requirements
Grant Limitations
- Not all applicants meeting the program requirements will necessarily receive a grant. Depending on the number of applications, eligible groups may not receive the full amount requested.
- Approval of a grant in any one year does not guarantee future funding. Applicants must apply for funding on an annual basis
For more information, visit City of Victoria.
For more information, visit https://www.victoria.ca/EN/main/residents/city-grants/growing-in-the-city-grants.html