27 Aug Speakers’ Corner: How’s it Growing-Tips for growing garlic in backyards & balconies (10 AM)

Presentation: Growing Garlic: Tips for Backyard and Urban Growers (10:00 AM) at Toronto Garlic Festival in the Speakers’ Corner, at east end of the Barn (indoor area).

Anan Lololi, Chair of the Black Food Sovereignty Working Group, co-founder and former executive director of Afri-Can FoodBasket, presents on growing garlic, including tips on growing garlic in the city.

Afri-Can FoodBasket’s mission is to provide leadership in urban agriculture, and foster collaboration to advance food justice, health and social enterprise in the African Canadian Community. Afri-Can FoodBasket’s integrated programs leverage one another as a means to create a holistic solution to address youth unemployment, youth leadership, and cross generational / cross cultural collaboration. These programs provide an avenue for marginalized communities to exercise self empowerment and gain access to healthy organic foods. As such, AFB uses food as a nexus for the development of youths’ life skills. The youths plant a seed and watch it grow. They are intrinsically involved in the reaping of the produce, preparing it for market and the total economics of the farm enterprise.

Since 1997, AFB has animated over 100 Community and Back-Yard Gardens as part of a community food animation collaborative process with community members including City of Toronto Community Garden program, Toronto Community Housing, FoodShare, York University Faculty of Environmental Studies, and Ryerson University Food Security Program.  Their success makes us optimistic of our journey to realize our vision of being a leader in building awareness and developing sustainable and equitable food policy.