Common Ground Garden Project (CGGP) is an urban farm in downtown Red Deer working to improve local food security while creating a safe and vibrant public space that offers accessibility, inclusion, sustainability, and fellowship. We're located on approximately 4 acres of brownfield land currently undergoing restoration and repair. With modest resources, we accomplished so much from 2019 through 2024 and we really want to keep growing on our success.

This year, the brownfield soil was removed and the fences came down! With your help during last year's campaign, Brownfields to Green Fields, we brought our seasonal staff back to:

• add two more season-extending hoophouses and cold frames with help from Green Iglu, another storage sea can thanks to the Capstone team (City of Red Deer), plus raised bed garden boxes thanks to a donation from Impact Life Church;
• hold more Indigenous knowledge sharing engagements while hosting and honouring our Elders via outdoor potluck suppers;
• increase our school visits to include Escuela Vista Grande (Grandview Elementary) and West Park Elementary, and set up West Park Middle school with the awesome Grow Room!
• help Daisy & Dill kick off their flower growing dreams and ambitions, and
• altogether grow another 1000 pounds of food and flowers for the Food Bank, Mustard Seed, and those in need! 

Despite our core operating funding ending in March, we were able to graft together a number of smaller grants and earned revenues to see us through another phenomenal growing season. AND, we were the catalyst for the creation of Red Deer's new Local Food Map with the help of the Red Deer Food Bank and the Local Food Group Movement. Sadly, all of our operating funds have been spent now with just a bit left for materials and supplies next year thanks to Farm Credit Canada. As we wait patiently for federal funding announcements, the 2025 season operations is in jeopardy.

SO, to keep growing in 2025 and beyond, we need your help!

Your contributions will give us matching funds to apply for larger grants and help cross-pollinate this urban farming model to other City community garden spaces. With your help we can make this a truly sustainable operation and continue to provide employment for youth and newcomers to Canada with experience in growing food while we honour our agricultural heritage for years to come. Please donate today!

Here's a quick presentation on the origins and most recent successes of the Common Ground Garden Project (via Healthy Communities Initiative and Happy Cities' recent, "The Power of Placemaking" webinar)

Project History:

In 2018, our local Poverty Reduction Alliance shared that over 5000 families are considered food insecure in Red Deer. That's about 20% of our total population! Since then, the problem only seems to have worsened with the long-term impacts of the global pandemic and inflation. We can and must do better to alleviate the many problems that this causes people.

Over a span of about 18 months (2019 - 21), numerous individuals and organizations came together to come up with a local food growing project on the City of Red Deer's former home of its Electric, Light, and Power department. And thus, the CGGP was born!

We grow a variety of veggies and medicinal plants in above-ground containers for the benefit of local food banks, soup kitchens, social agencies, families, and individuals to create a safe and accessible space to everyone in the community while encouraging social enterprise. CGGP creates regular volunteer opportunities as well as educational workshops, encouraging mental and physical well-being by spending time in a natural environment.

From 2021 to 2024, we have been funded through the generous support of the Government of Alberta's Civil Society Fund and Ethnocultural Fund, the Canada Healthy Communities Initiative, and the City of Red Deer through the REconnect grant, the Capstone Activation Fund, and Environmental Initiatives Fund including numerous in-kind contributions, not to mention the individual cash and in-kind donations from site visitors, volunteers, and supporting organizations and businesses.

However, our core operating funding ended in March of 2024 and we need help to keep our project growing! 

Our permaculture-inspired site design was initiated in the 2021 growing season with the planting of circular straw bale beds and several containers. We also started delivering education and engagement opportunities with local schools and non-profit organizations that led to some pretty awesome results including a Queen's Jubilee Award from National Geographic Canada for the kids of Oriole Park Elementary School!

In 2022, we hired our Project Manager and doubled our growing footprint by adding  a "squash mound", season extending "hoop house", large-scale community composting area, an outdoor kitchen, and painted multiple art murals on the adjacent building and two storage sea cans.

In 2023, we reached the limits of our available space and were blessed to welcome two dynamic apprentices from the Young Agrarians Apprenticeship Program plus a brand new intern and event planner via ReThink Red Deer, our supporting non-profit. Together with our summer students and volunteers the team grew more food this year than in the first two combined - over 4000 pounds in all! In addition to hosting a fun-filled summer camp with the African Caribbean Centre of Central Alberta, Red Deer Child Care, and the Central Alberta Immigrant Womens Association, we hosted multiple engagements with our local Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers with the help of Urban Indigenous Voices Society. These engagements allowed us to work together in active reconciliation by sharing Indigenous culture, installing a 30-foot Medicine Wheel Garden, and building strong relationships with all of our community members by hosting a "professional potluck"-style harvest supper that fed over 160 people!

In 2024, the brownfield soil was removed and the fences came down! We added two more hoophouses with help from Green Iglu, another storage sea can thanks to the Capstone team (City of Red Deer), raised bed garden boxes thanks to a donation from Impact Life Church, and held more Indigenous knowledge sharing engagements while hosting and honouring our Elders via outdoor potluck suppers. We increased our school visits to include Escuela Vista Grande (Grandview Elementary) and West Park Elementary, and set up West Park Middle school with the awesome Grow Room! Altogether we grew another 1000 pounds of food for the Food Bank, Mustard Seed, and those in need and helped Daisy & Dill kick off their flower growing dreams and ambitions.

The Common Ground site is generally open to the public Tuesday evenings and Friday mornings during the growing season (approx. May through October) from 5pm to 8pm and 9am to 12pm, respectively. Otherwise, by workshop or special event - see the ReThink Red Deer events calendar HERE. And check out our project Facebook page with all the pics and video HERE.