Urban food learning centre unveiled.
The Urban Food and Agricultural Centre officially opened on the grounds of FoodShare, Friday afternoon, May 6 with help from (l-r) Volunteer Library Coordinator Geoff Piersol, Community Food Program Manager Angela ElzingaCheng and Joe Nasr, co-founder of the Alliance for Urban Agriculture.
Staff photo/LISA RAINFORD
Green thumbs rejoice - the Toronto Urban Food and Agriculture Learning Centre officially opened its doors with a wee bit of pomp and circumstance, Friday afternoon, May 6.
Whether you're a researcher, practitioner, advocate or simply one who's interested in urban food and agriculture, this resource is for you.
The learning centre, a joint venture between FoodShare Toronto and MetroAg, the Alliance for Urban Agriculture, can be found on the grounds of FoodShare, 90 Croatia St., in the Bloor West and Dufferin streets area.
"This is a celebration of a long process that brought together two collections that have a long history of their own," said Joe Nasr, co-founder of MetroAg. "The marriage of sorts began two years ago."
Nasr was referring to FoodShare's library, which is mainly comprised of local and general interest materials on the subjects of growing and managing personal and community gardens as well as other food-security issues, and as many as 4,000 items that deal with all aspects of urban agriculture worldwide from the Jac Smit Library of Urban Agriculture.
Smit's library was originally assembled by The Urban Agriculture Network. The network, a not-for-profit organization, was founded by Smit, an urban agriculture pioneer who became known as the father or urban agriculture. He passed away in November of 2009.
"For years, we were thinking about bringing to Toronto the collection that Jac and I had built up over the years," said Nasr of his colleague.
Smit, said Nasr, had a background in both agriculture and urban planning - a feat that was unheard of back then and perhaps even now, said Nasr. Smit had sought Nasr's help on a project that saw him visiting as many as 16 countries from 1991 to 1992 to find out how other areas of the world were addressing "this strange phenomenon called urban agriculture."
This database, explained Nasr, needed a long-term home.
"It needed to become accessible to a new generation," said Nasr. "We focused our attention on FoodShare because it makes sense. It had its own collection, public outreach and the space so overall, it was a good fit."
The learning centre's new home is in the former music room of the school building.
"We're proud and pleased we could make this happen," said Debbie Field, executive director of FoodShare. "Urban agriculture is one of the most important global movements. It's great to work on this together."
The learning centre is currently looking to recruit more volunteers so it can be open up to four days a week. At this point, it's open two-and-a-half days a week. Future plans include the development of a digital library, to be accessed via the Internet, building on the existing publications, books, articles, periodicals, unpublished papers, computer files, photos, and recordings.
For now, materials in the learning centre do not circulate. Visitors who wish to use materials off-site are asked to speak with the volunteer librarians to discuss options for photocopying and (limited) scanning.
For further details, visit toronto.ufalc@gmail.com