L’Orto del Popolo / The People’s Garden Project

L’Orto del Popolo / The People’s Garden Project
Celebrating Italian Canadians’ Backyard Garden Heritage in support of The Stop Community Food Centre

“Italian gardens were practical but they were also places of the imagination, where what had been fractured by immigration was in some measure made whole again.” – Nino Ricci

Please join The Stop in supporting a new and exciting initiative to recognize the proud legacy of the Italian Canadian Backyard Garden and to raise $500,000 for The Stop’s Green Barn Capital Campaign in support of future city food gardens.

The People’s Garden Project will honour a legacy we all cherish and values we share: the importance of knowing and growing good food, preparing and eating only the best, and whenever possible sharing the bounty with family and friends.

By commemorating the Italian Canadian contribution to urban gardens and supporting The Stop, an organization that promotes these same values, we’ll pass along this proud heritage to future generations.

Not only will the L’Orto del Popolo Project rekindle our relationship with the very best lessons from our youth so that we can pass them on to our children and friends, it will rightly honour the legacy of our parents and grandparents.

This grassroots initiative will allow Italian Canadian families from across the GTA to come together and pay homage to this great legacy. A gift of $1,000 will support The Stop in its effort to establish The Green Barn, a sustainable food production and education centre in the heart of Toronto, allow your family name to be recognized in association with the project and activate the following elements:

- A fig tree will be planted in The Stop’s sheltered garden at their Green Barn site at Christie, just south of St. Clair, as a symbol of how the gardens of Italian Canadians helped transform our city.

- On-site family name recognition will be featured in The Stop’s sheltered garden (in development) and celebrated at an annual L’Orto del Popolo Day.

- A website will be developed to document the project to honour backyard gardens and continue the outreach and fundraising efforts at a grassroots level,

- The Stop will initiate a pilot project to connect first generation Italian Canadians who continue to be passionate about gardening with a new generation of Toronto gardeners through a range of activities at The Stop’s Green Barn.

Here’s how you can give:
Online at www.thestop.org/donate. Please specify Italian Canadian Garden Project in the Message/Instructions box. Also please include the name/names of the  people your donation is honouring and your relationship to them (use a maximum of 35 characters including spaces).

Please make cheques payable to The Stop Community Food Centre, and specify Italian Canadian Garden Project in the memo line. Also please include the name/names of the people your donation is honouring and your relationship to them (use a maximum of 35 characters including spaces).