The Garden Spot

for healthy food and community engagement

By Sue Stefko

There is more going on within the walls of the unassuming stucco-clad building at 329 Bell Street South than many Glebe Annex residents realize. The site, once the home of Liyan’s Kitchen Chinese Food and Pizza and, briefly in 2014, Cedar’s Café and Grill, now hosts the Carleton Food Collective, also referred to as the Garden Spot – or, more cheekily, the G-spot. While some of their window signs, such as Stop Kinder Morgan and Free vegan food, do give some insight into their philosophy, much of what they do happens behind the scenes.

The Carleton Food Collective was founded 17 years ago by Carleton University students who wanted to combat campus food franchise price hikes, as well as offer a healthier alternative. They applied for funding from the university with the goal of providing free, healthy food to often cash-strapped students, while combatting the ever-present problem of food waste. When the group lost its on-campus location, they searched for a nearby venue to accommodate their work and have been at the Bell Street location for approximately five years.

The organization is entirely run by a small group of volunteers (currently 10), mostly Carleton university students, but also some from the neighbouring community. The volunteers are young, hard-working and passionate about the issues of social justice and the environment.

Much of the food they source is from local businesses who donate their excesses or day-olds instead of throwing the food into the garbage bin. However, the group goes further than that. For many of the other businesses who choose not to donate their excess, the enterprising volunteers “dumpster dive” to salvage clean, packaged food that is still useable, but that has been discarded. The volunteers also source food from a garden at the rear of the property and, when necessary, buy food. These practices not only help stretch their funding from the university but, indeed, help to minimize food waste.

Some of the food is pre-packaged or pre-prepared, and it is donated in its original packaging. Otherwise, the Garden Spot volunteers use the site’s kitchen to make healthy vegetarian and vegan soups, stews, etc. – food that can be cooked in large quantities and that offers a combination of starch and protein for a healthy, filling meal.

So long as it’s for something they believe in, and their efforts contribute to food sustainability, the Garden Spot is willing to support a wide range of causes. The volunteers provide food to students at designated locations at Carleton University itself, to the local community at what they refer to as the “free market” on Sunday afternoons at their Bell St. location, at drop-in centres around the city and to various campaigns that they support. For example, the Garden Spot provided free meals to protesters during the Reoccupation ceremony as part of the Idle No More campaign in 2017. They regularly support the social services organization Youth Ottawa and have provided food to a number of special events in the city – whether at a fundraiser for Syrian refugees, to Grassy Narrows First Nations members visiting Ottawa to raise awareness of the effects of mercury poisoning on their reserve, or for “Beats Beat the Police,” an annual hip-hop show to help commemorate the International Day Against Police Brutality.

The Garden Spot serves a generous helping of their political ideology along with their food – whether against corporate greed or in support of the philosophy that human necessities should be human rights. In fact, the volunteers I spoke with, Nell and Trevor, insist they don’t see what they do as a charitable endeavour – they see it as a collective liberation movement, providing an alternative to a capitalist system that is inherently greedy and wasteful.

In addition to using the site to provide a garden, food storage and a kitchen, the volunteers have opened the space to students and members of the community alike. This fall the site hosted the first Glebe Annex Art Show and various student gatherings have taken place in the space as well. Residents of the Glebe Annex are welcome to use the space to host a community event, or to come for the free food on Sundays between noon and 2 p.m. To contact the Garden Spot, please email them at thegardenspot.carleton@gmail. com or see, “The Carleton Food Collective” on Facebook or Instagram.

Sue Stefko is president of the Glebe Annex Community Association and a regular contributor to the Glebe Report on matters historical and local.