Community Garden Builders
Community Garden Builders® is a Vancouver-based social enterprise with a mission to transform vacant property into temporary community gardens and growing spaces. Our projects represent a unique partnership between landowners and community members, providing much needed garden space for the community as well as interim property management for landowners. Using mobile garden beds set atop shipping pallets, we create accessible urban spaces for local community members to grow their own food and flowers.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to transform vacant spaces into temporary community gardens and growing spaces.
our story
Since 2011, the team behind Community Garden Builders® has been building temporary community gardens throughout the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Community Garden Builders® emerged from the commercial operations of Shifting Growth.
Shifting GRowth
The Shifting Growth Garden Society was established in 2011 with a mission to transform vacant property into temporary community gardens and growing spaces. The registered charitable organization was co-founded by Chris Reid and Troy Barrie. The two connected at a City of Vancouver ‘Un-conference’ where they began to brainstorm on what creative actions could be taken locally to create new accessible growing spaces in their community.
Troy Barrie (right) & Chris Reid (left), Hastings North Community Garden opening in July 2012.
Shifting Growth has proudly completed projects with: UBC Farm, posAbilities/Can You Dig It, Tradeworks, YMCA, Take A Hike Foundation, Vancouver Foundation, Rotary Club and many other local non-profit organizations and schools using Shifting Growth’s temporary gardens for food-growing programs.
All garden building and property management is now carried out by Community Garden Builders® , which was established to continue and better achieve Shifting Growth’s mission of creating new growing spaces.
Our team
Chris Reid, Executive Gardener
Chris (he/him) has been building temporary gardens since 2011. He has guided operations throughout the years and always enjoys speaking about utilizing urban spaces for temporary growing.
chris@communitygardenbuilders.com (778) 381-8337
Adrick Brock, community Builder
Adrick (he/him) has been with Community Garden Builders® since 2014, previously our Garden Manager. He now focuses on building the Community Garden App - software for community garden managers to manage their spaces and gardeners.
garden@communitygardenapp.com (778) 381-8337
Annie Axtell, ARTIST-IN-GARdEN
Annie (she/her) brings colour and life to our growing spaces with numbers and signage! Annie is an artist and printmaker living and working in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
garden@communitygardenbuilders.com
joel Barkin, Toronto builder
Joel (he/him) oversees our Toronto, ON, Canada garden bed construction. His dog, Rusty, is his loyal companion throughout the garden bed assembly.
garden@communitygardenbuilders.com
WHAT WE'VE ACHIEVED
Finalist 2013 - Real Estate Foundation Land Award Finalist in the Non-Profit Sector.
Finalist 2014, Shell’s Fuelling Change national contest.
In May 2014, Chris Reid (co-founder) was a nominee in the inaugural City of Vancouver Awards of Excellence for the Greenest City Leadership category.
Recipient - 2014 Coast Capital Savings Innovation Hub (CCS Hub) Accelerator Award from Sauder School of Business, UBC.
In September 2014, Chris Reid (co-founder) presented at the 2014 FRED Forum hosted by the FRED Leadership Incubator.
Finalist 2022 - Real Estate Foundation Land Award Finalist in the Build Environment
Our garden projects have been featured in local and national coverage, with write-ups in:
