Our vision is of healthy communities with
learning gardens everywhere!
We are a for-impact food and nature literacy program in three adjoining dense urban neighbourhoods in downtown east Toronto.We partner with schools, City and community agencies to help foster urban agriculture, greenspace enjoyment, physical and mental health benefits. We promote environmental education by doing.
Land Acknowledgement
This land is traditionally a shared territory between the Haudenosaunee and Anishnaabe through the Dish With One Spoon Treaty. They agreed to care for the land together in peace. It has been territory utilized by the Wendat, the Petuns, and the Seneca. Now, it is stewarded by the Mississaugas of the Credit and it’s home to indigenous people from across Turtle Island. May our actions here on this land make us worthy. And during the ongoing crisis of colonialism, may we learn new ways of survival and sharing from First Nations Peoples. At Green Thumbs, we support the Call to Action #62(i) from the TRC, that calls on "our government and educators to make age-appropriate curriculum on residential schools, Treaties, and Aboriginal peoples’ historical and contemporary contributions to Canada a mandatory education requirement for K-12 students."
The Green Thumbs staff and board are proud supporters of the Cabbagetown, Regent Park and St. Jamestown communities.
We run school garden programs that provide all ages and all backgrounds with a variety of settings such as native/naturalized plantings, meadow ecosystems, native tree species in their own mini-nurseries, and small-scale agriculture including production of kid-friendly small fruits and vegetables, aerobic/thermal and worm composting. When the weather gets cold, we bring the garden inside through classroom workshops on topics related to food and the environment. In early spring our programs move to a City of Toronto greenhouse, where children and youth start the seeds for their gardens. We have a Partnership Agreement with the Toronto District School Board, and serve a cluster of schools.
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