Context
The rising cost of living has significantly affected low-income individuals and families, while food insecurity has been steadily increasing in Québec since 2019. In this challenging context, ensuring access to healthy, high-quality food has become a key priority for the Government of Québec.
Supported by the Ministère de l’Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale (MESS), seven solidarity gardens showcase the many dimensions of community-based agriculture. By sharing part of their harvest with food security organizations and fostering the socio-professional inclusion of individuals facing poverty or social exclusion, these gardens help improve quality of life in local communities.
Project Objective
This action-research project aims to guide solidarity gardens toward models inspired by the social economy, ensuring the long-term sustainability of their operations.
The project will:
- Document and analyze the concept of solidarity-based food production.
- Produce a detailed profile of the seven participating gardens.
- Facilitate the co-design of practices and organizational models with local stakeholders to strengthen self-financing capacity.
- Develop a knowledge transfer tool outlining key stages, strategies, and enablers for implementing a sustainable, solidarity-based food production model rooted in social economy principles.
By reinforcing the economic viability of solidarity gardens, this project contributes to building more inclusive, resilient, and food-secure communities across Québec, in alignment with government priorities.