Curbside Farms Cooperative Start-up Fund

Curbside Farms is a project designed to help people grow and share food locally. This project will provide members with fresh organic produce at an  affordable price (virtually free!). It will also help reduce carbon emissions associated with shipping food from off Vancouver Island, all the while helping to foster new communities of urban growers. It will also boost the island’s food supply/security, which is currently at slightly higher risk of disruption due to COVID-19.

The project focuses on three main areas: 

1) Building garden beds, facilitating delivery of soil and compost and providing knowledge and resources to help community members grow healthy gardens. Costs for this area include:
- Tools (saws, electric screwdrivers). Our current tools seriously slow us down!
- Building materials (metal mesh fencing, plastic mesh fencing) to keep raccoons and deer out of garden beds
- Hardware (nails, screws, staples)
- Safety equipment (glasses, earmuffs).
- Transportation for wood and completed garden beds
- Soil and compost

2) Developing an online platform to help gardeners share what they’ve grown with other members of the community and helping co-op members come together and make decisions. Costs here include:
- Domain name registration
- Web hosting

3) Incorporating the organization as a community service co-operative. Associated costs include:
- Corporate name purchase
- Corporate processing/administrative fees and other minor required fees
- A co-operative consultant (they will help ensure that the organization's constitution is legally sound)

In order to maintain transparency, anyone will be able to view our incoming funds and outgoing expenses by viewing this document .

If you are interested in volunteering, donating supplies, putting in garden space, or having us install a raised bed for you, please fill out this form.
 
If you have a garden in which you are already growing food, keep growing and remember: we must feed ourselves but we must also feed our community. Only by putting community first will we be able to all stay strong individually.

If you’d like to help out or learn more, send us an email at [email redacted] or visit our Facebook Page  to stay updated.