Volunteers welcome beginning in Spring 2021! To be added to our volunteer mailing list, please email garden@theworkingcentre.org
The Working Centre Market Garden is a community enterprise that demonstrates, promotes, and shares knowledge about ecological food production. It is an inclusive, hands-on teaching garden where we work together operating a productive market garden while building community and building skills. Alongside numerous other programs, businesses, and farms in Waterloo Region, our garden community is actively engaging in the work of building a more sustainable community-based food system.
Ron and Susan Doyle provided land for The Working Centre to establish a productive community-based market garden. Since our first season in 2012, the property has gone through an amazing transformation. What was once a vacant lot is now a thriving 1.5 acre garden that grows over 20,000 pounds of produce each season. In addition to over 50 varieties of vegetables, the garden also includes cutflower and pollinator beds, as well as over 80 fruit trees and shrubs.
The Working Centre Market Garden aims to...
- Grow healthy food in partnership with natural ecological processes
- Strive to understand and teach sustainable food production and gardening methods
- Develop financial sustainability through our Community Supported Agriculture share program
- Offer fresh local food for those participating in the garden community
Community-Based Market Gardening
The Working Centre Market Garden project is designed to give people the opportunity to participate in the production of food just three kilometers from the downtown core. Volunteer gardeners welcome!
Growing food is hard and rewarding work. Each year over 100 volunteer gardeners help the gardens thrive. Just as we work together to meet the daily demands associated with operating a fully functional urban farm, we also work hard to ensure that each and every gardener’s learning objectives and needs are being met. If you are seeking to develop specific job skills you may be interested in The Cultivation Project or seeking support through The Working Centre’s Job Search Resource Centre. At the garden we also host an internship program, which is geared towards anyone seeking an intensive learning experience that focuses on the skills of market gardening and community engagement.
All are welcome to join us in the gardens from May through November. Time commitments vary and requirements for getting involved are minimal. Typical daily tasks might include: soil building and seed bed preparation, planting, weeding, harvesting, watering, preparing produce for market, tending fruit trees, composting, and organic pest management.
Markets for Garden Produce
Financial support for our projects comes primarily from produce sales to members of the wider community through our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share program, as well as to number of local restaurants and stores.
You can support our work by purchasing a CSA share or by visiting our retail customers. These include: Legacy Greens, Full Circle Foods, Central Fresh Market, and Vincenzo’s.
