Community gardens and associated forms of urban agriculture provide an essential service as well as a health and wellbeing lifeline to over 261,000 Australians every week. Community gardens and urban food production are a source of fresh, healthy, affordable, safe, and accessible food as well as providing a place to exercise and stay physically fit. These spaces provide a wonderful source of relaxation and stress relief, helping to alleviate and address the growing burden of anxiety and related forms of mental health conditions that are devastating the lives of hundreds of thousands of Australians.
Community Gardens Australia in conjunction with Sustain: The Australian Food Network have put together the campaign ‘Community Gardens are Essential’ to protect community gardens and urban agriculture in light of COVID-19’s far reaching impacts on health, wellbeing, food security and community resilience. They will be sending a letter to the Hon. David Littleproud MP, Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management and state and local representatives on Friday, as well as launching a social media campaign .
We can’t go backwards from the massive gains in health outcomes over the past 20 years from the rise in gardens around the country by limiting, or cutting off, access to these vital spaces. We care for our community and their safety – do you care too?
Click here to sign and show your support.