The Everything Roof – A New Community Food Project in Toronto

Where can you grow your own food, compost, do upcycling projects, support education and awareness about sustainability, and grow food on top of a building? In Toronto you soon will be able to do these things at a new center called The Everything Roof, which is being created by a group called The About Face Collective.

The About Face Collective was started by Natalie Boustead and Lauren Pirie, in collaboration with other community members.  The group consists of people who engage with art, sustainability, food security, health, and with the city.  In Toronto, there is not a historical tradition of valuing community and public space.

The Everything Roof was developed as a platform to showcase creative approaches to sustainability and community space and to show how involving artists and designers in community projects can be a benefit to a city.  The project is unique because it incorporates art and youth as well as sustainable urban food production.  . Together, the group developed a vision of a creative community space that would promote healthy, sustainable lifestyles as well as integrating artistic and sustainable approaches. To do this, they are collaborating with other non-profit programs and groups and did a campaign to get support for the space.

The black tar roof of the spaces of the project will be replaced with green space, which will create plant life and food in the urban environment. The food that’s produced will be used on-site in educational programs and workshops, and it also will be sold at the on-site weekly office market and ground-floor cafe at the Center for Social Innovation.

Currently The Everything Roof is still in development and aims to be operational by summer, 2012. If you are interested in learning more about the space, you can email them at aboutface@aboutfacecollective.com with “Volunteer” in the subject line. You can also visit their website and check out their fun video on Vimeo.

Image Source:
http://www.aboutfacecollective.com/ 
Links:

http://www.aboutfacecollective.com/ 

http://vimeo.com/35942278