1000 Events, 1000 Gardens

Among the many themes and issues highlighted on Terra Madre Day this year, special attention was given to the new Slow Food project A Thousand Gardens in Africa, with events all around the world raising awareness to support the development of 1,000 sustainable community and school food gardens.

In Africa, the Slow Food network celebrated their achievements thus far and the opportunity to bring much greater support to the work they are doing to build community food sovereignty. Slow Food in Uganda was proud to bring together children, parents, producers and local leaders involved in the network of rural school gardens that they have been developing since 2006. Among their actions for Terra Madre Day, Lake Victoria School showed how they are empowering the young in their event Children’s Gardens: Grow, Cook, Eat, with the children demonstrating to the community how to produce, harvest, prepare and cook local and seasonal vegetables.

In African regions where Slow Food is just starting to take root, some events launched new garden projects. In Sierra Leone, A School Garden On Air launched a new food project for students in a live radio broadcast from the town hall, inviting the community to join and share a meal from traditional foods. In Tunisia, the Jardin Solidaire event introduced university students and professors to Slow Food and launched a new campus food garden.

Highlighting the solidarity and exchange that underlies the global Slow Food network, Terra Madre Day activities around the world showed their support by fundraising or promoting the project. In Berlin, vice president of Slow Food Germany, Ursula Hudson, presented the project at the conference Es ist genug für alle da (There is enough for everyone) while in Stockholm the Swedish Presidia Support 1000 African Gardens fundraising dinner was held at the country’s largest cultural centre.

In Italy, where a national Slow Food school garden program has had great success since it was launched in 2004, the Orto, Acqua e il Commercio Equo (gardens, water and fairtrade) conference in Bracciano highlighted the importance of these three fundamental elements for the project and as fundamental human rights. In the USA, Slow Food Chicago invited the community to the preSERVE/African Gardens Tour in which participants toured the convivium’s community urban garden project in North Lawndale and learned about all about A Thousand Gardens in Africa.


Click here for more information on A Thousand Gardens in Africat.

Click here for more stories and photographs from the events that took place on Terra Madre Day