Bordeaux-Cartierville Building a data
collection plan for urban agriculture activities Neighbourhood
Urban agriculture
Highlights ●● Several commercial and community-run urban agriculture initiatives have recently been created in Bordeaux-Cartierville. ●● The network sought to create a set of indicators and data collection mechanisms to better understand their activities across the neighborhood. ●● Existing tools were adapted and simplified for their context, resulting in a more functional tool for diverse users. ●● The tool will help communication between community workers and facilitate urban agriculture efforts in the neighbourhood. ●● The tool could be adapted by other community food networks to better understand the scope and reach of urban agriculture activities on their territory.
Management
Introduction
ville, a community food hub and social reinsertion enterprise. The SALSA committee has The neighbourhood of Bordeaux-Cartierville adopted a vision of a sustainable and commuis located in the western part of the Ahuntsic- nity-based food system. Cartierville borough, just north of the SaintLaurent district. The sector of Laurentien/ One of the committee’s priorities is to expand Grenet was identified as being a development urban agriculture with the aim of improving and renewal priority by the municipality. access to food for low-income households. The project Fourche et Fouchette involved The Conseil local des intervenants communau- the creation of a 650 square meter garden for taires (CLIC) was created in 1991. Since then, commercial-scale urban agriculture activities. a food security table, the Système alimentaire To support this initiative, SALSA was looking local, saine alimentation et sécurité alimentaire to create a set of indicators and data collec(Local food system, healthy food, and food se- tion mechanisms. The Dawson Food Justice curity; SALSA),1 was formed to address food Hub provided financial aid and met with the insecurity in the neighbourhood and to federate community researchers four times to support community-based initiatives, such as the sea- the development of a neighbourhood-wide sonal and mobile Marché Ahuntsic-Cartierville urban agriculture dashboard. (MAC), the Ecoquartier Ville en Vert, la Maison des parents, and Corbeille Bordeaux-Cartier1 http://www.clic-bc.ca/clic/tables-concertation/securite-alimentaire/
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