Different community gardens in Waterloo region have different rules. Here's what you need to know

Community gardens are planting a seed of hope for many people who don't have space to grow their own food or those who are facing food insecurity.

Doug Jones, chair of the Waterloo Region Community Garden Network, says his organization oversees more than 80 community gardens in the region.

"Food insecurity looks like something much more simple than we imagine. It means I have to buy my food. That's when we start to feel insecure," Jones said, adding his community gardens help to combat food insecurity "by allowing people to grow the food they want, the way they want to."

He added, "People pay to be here. They pay for their inputs and their supplies."

Many of those using the community gardens are "underemployed," not working enough hours to be able to pay for their needs, Jones said. To help fight food insecurity, Jones said they can use the gardens in their extra time to produce their own food.

Petersburg Community Garden is a 10-acre plot under contract by the network and the largest of the community gardens available in the Waterloo region. There, families, chefs, and community organizations can rent plots of land to grow their own food.

"People are coming here because they want to feed themselves," Jones said.

The popularity of community gardens has been growing in recent years, spurred on partially during the pandemic when many people focused on growing their own food and taking up hobbies like gardening. But each community garden around Waterloo region has its own rules about who grows fruit, vegetables and herbs and who is allowed to take from those garden plots.

In the front lawn of a Cambridge church, though, there's a garden where anyone can take what they need — it's free for everyone. 

Heide Emrich started the small community garden in front of St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church after she got the idea after seeing a similar garden in the front yard of a house in Stratford, Ont.

"Anybody who feels the need to, and is hungry … please, take from the garden," she said.

She said the Stratford garden had "all sorts of little signs that said 'help yourself' and I thought, 'hey, that's something we can do at our church.'"

The crops Emrich has grown in the garden reflect the insecurity that unhoused people face in her area.

"We purposely chose vegetables that were edible without having to cook, so that people could just go and take and actually bite in and eat right away," she said.