Kim Pemberton, Vancouver Sun
Growing vegetables in an urban environment just got easier after two former Simon Fraser University graduate students came up with the idea of growing them a la cart — shopping carts, that is.
Tammas Grogan and Kate Elliott call the concept Gro-Carts: Urban Food Security on Wheels. It got its start after Grogan passed by a homeless encampment and realized people wouldn’t be able to grow food there long-term since they didn’t own the land. So she thought of using shopping carts, which many homeless people already use to move their belongings around.
Grogan, a horticulturist, and Elliott, who is a high school teacher, worked together on the project and discovered that if the carts are lined with hay and straw they can act as a garden and grow a lot of vegetables.
“Not everyone is close to a community garden, and access can be limited to certain times of the day. Also, there’s pressure on finding community garden space, especially in Vancouver as land becomes more scare,” said Elliott.
She said that while the original idea was for someone who is homeless to use a cart to grow food, she acknowledges it would be difficult if they are already pushing a cart to store their belongings. But the idea could still be used if two homeless people wanted to share the mobile garden and take turns tending it, she said.
The cart gardens could serve others with limited garden space, such as low-income seniors who live in a high-rise with a balcony and want a vegetable garden. As well, eight of the carts are being used at a women’s shelter.
Last year, the two women won the top prize in the SFU Surrey-Central City student engagement competition and were awarded $3,000.
Since then, they have secured 20 grocery carts and held their first planting workshop recently in Surrey. They are hoping to get more cart donations for distribution to those in need.
