Project Kindness: Free Plants for Food Security and Community Gardening

caragardensinfo
16 hours ago
2 min read

From May to the end of July, Cara Gardens ran Project Kindness, a free plant giveaway created to help individuals, families, seniors, and community members access plants without financial barriers.

The original goal was to give away 500 plants. Once that goal was reached within only a few days, it became clear that the project could go much further. What started as a simple act of sharing quickly grew into a much larger community effort, eventually reaching 1,792 potted plants given away for free.

The purpose of Project Kindness was to promote gardening, strengthen food security, and help people learn a practical skill that can support them long-term. Gardening is not only about growing food. It teaches observation, patience, responsibility, confidence, and resilience. For some people, these plants helped expand an existing garden. For others, they became the first opportunity to start from scratch, experiment, and learn either on their own or alongside family.

Plants were given to people from many different walks of life and living situations, including apartment and condo residents, townhouse households, split and single homes, experienced gardeners with pre-designed growing spaces, and beginners who were just starting to explore what they could grow.

Cara Gardens also donated plants to three community centre garden allotments: Tanglewood-Hillsdale Community Association (THCA), Nepean Allotment Garden Association (NAGA), and Kilborn Allotment Gardens (KAG). These donations helped extend the project beyond individual households and into shared growing spaces where more people could benefit from access to food plants, pollinator plants, herbs, and educational growing opportunities.

Being able to share decades of agriculture and botany knowledge in good faith made the project more meaningful on both ends. The plants themselves were only one part of the exchange. The larger purpose was helping people feel capable, supported, and encouraged to grow something for themselves.