205 results
SGSingapore, Singapore
Singapore's first commercial rooftop farm, established in 2011 atop an Orchard Road mall, growing vegetables and herbs while doubling as a community farm on weekends.
sfa.gov.sg+1
BRSão Paulo, Brazil
A Brazilian NGO founded in 2004 by Hans Dieter Temp, creating organic gardens on unused land in São Paulo's periphery to generate jobs, improve nutrition, and advance social inclusion.
cidadessemfome.org+1
USDetroit, United States
A Detroit non-profit supporting over 2,000 gardens, working toward a food-sovereign city where residents grow much of the produce they consume by activating vacant lots.
visitdetroit.com+1
New cases are added every week
The case you are looking for may land next week. A free digest of new cases worldwide, every Wednesday.
ZACape Town, South Africa
Founded in 1982, this Cape Town non-profit supports small-scale citizen farming in the townships. True to its name 'farmers of the home', it provides training and supplies so residents of poor areas can grow organic vegetables, underpinning food security and livelihoods.
abalimibezekhaya.org.za+4
USSeattle, United States
Seattle's municipal community-garden program, P-Patch, dates to the 1970s. Residents grow food organically at sites across the city, and each garden's 'Giving Garden' donates its harvest to food banks.
seattle.gov+3
JPHamamatsu, Japan
Kyomaru-en in Hamamatsu is a pioneer of agriculture-welfare collaboration, employing people with disabilities since 1996. Under its 'universal agriculture' approach it designs tasks around each worker's abilities, building a farm business where anyone can work regardless of disability.
agrijournal.jp+1
JPAshikaga, Japan
Begun in 1958 when a teacher and pupils with special needs cleared a steep hillside in Ashikaga, it led to the founding of Kokoromi Gakuen in 1969. Grapes grown by residents with intellectual disabilities yield Japanese wines served even at international summits.
ja.wikipedia.org+1
JPTachikawa, Japan
A network of social farms run by Es-Pool Plus, sited in urban areas such as Tachikawa, Itabashi and Yokohama. Companies directly employ people with disabilities to do farm work, and the scheme has grown to more than 60 sites nationwide.
plus.spool.co.jp+4
USSan Diego, United States
The IRC turned a 2.3-acre vacant lot in San Diego's City Heights into an urban farm for refugees and immigrants. Opened in 2009, around 70 families grow foods from their homelands while putting down roots in a new country.
sandiego.gov+1
GBLondon, United Kingdom
A community resource in the London Borough of Lewisham for better mental health. In its green spaces people grow and cook food and make art together, a leading social-prescribing site supporting recovery and empowerment.
centreformentalhealth.org.uk+1
USChicago, United States
Growing Home runs USDA-certified organic urban farms on vacant Chicago lots and offers a 14-week paid job-training program to people with barriers to employment, using agriculture as a vehicle for personal and community renewal.
growinghomeinc.org+1
USWashington, DC, United States
Founded in 2008 by two native Washingtonians, this non-profit transforms under-used land into 'kid-driven gardens' in majority Black, Latino and immigrant neighborhoods that lack safe green space. Children aged 2-19 learn food education and community-building through growing, cooking and a youth cooperative that sells produce. It has developed over 100 projects in DC and nationwide.
cityblossoms.org+1
JPNationwide, Japan
A nationwide effort based on MAFF's case collection of food education advanced by children's cafeterias working with communities and gardens. Local cafeterias link to plots, harvest experiences and nearby farmers so children grow, harvest, cook and eat together. It connects the food cycle, local production-consumption and food-loss reduction with creating safe places for children.
maff.go.jp+3
USBrooklyn, New York, United States
A fossil-fuel-free, bike-powered community-compost enterprise founded in Bushwick, Brooklyn, that collects and composts food scraps while creating good jobs for youth and green space, countering environmental racism and gentrification.
bkrot.org+2
USLos Angeles, United States
In South Central Los Angeles, a 'food desert,' fashion designer Ron Finley began planting vegetables on curbside strips and vacant lots; it grew into a movement where residents build DIY edible gardens to provide fresh food and to teach nutrition and self-reliance.
ted.com+1
USChicago, United States
A West-Side Chicago urban-beekeeping cooperative founded by three urban beekeepers in 2004. Originally aimed at job training in an area with scarce employment, it now runs more than 50 hives across the city with a focus on education, health, and awareness of urban nature.
chicagohoneycoop.com+1
JPKobe, Japan
An allotment garden opened in August 2022 on temporarily used development land on Port Island (Phase 2). On a man-made island known for advanced medical facilities, it offers beginner plots, level-up plots and welfare plots where people can grow vegetables empty-handed, barbecue and join harvest events.
city.kobe.lg.jp+3
JPHino, Japan
A community garden in Hino City, Tokyo, started by citizens who believe 'kitchen waste is a treasure.' It collects and composts the kitchen waste of around 200 households and grows vegetables and flowers pesticide-free as a food-cycle garden. Naomi Shimpo studied its management and governance in detail in her 2021 and 2024 papers.
acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com+3
JPSetagaya, Tokyo, Japan
Setagaya's agriculture-welfare programme launched in 2021. Through farm work on local farmland it promotes employment and higher earnings for people with disabilities while conserving farmland and fostering disability understanding. Centred on the 'Setasora' hub farm, it is a public-private urban welfare farm.
city.setagaya.lg.jp+3
JPSuginami, Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo's first municipally run agriculture-welfare farm, opened April 2021 in Igusa, Suginami, on a barrier-free 3,200 m2 site giving people with disabilities and seniors a place to engage in farming.
city.suginami.tokyo.jp+1
JPKyotanabe, Kyoto, Japan
A Kyotanabe employment-support workshop operating since 2011 that grows regional specialties (Uji tea, Tanabe eggplant, Kyoto taro) and became one of the first Noufuku JAS certified businesses in 2019.
maff.go.jp+3
JPMatsukawa, Nagano, Japan
A farming company in Matsukawa, Nagano producing apples and apple juice; one of the first four businesses certified under Noufuku JAS in November 2019, pioneering agriculture-welfare in an orchard region.
maff.go.jp+2
JPZama, Kanagawa, Japan
A 1960s Odakyu company-housing complex by Zama station, regenerated in 2015 into a mix of rentals, municipal housing and a childcare-support center. Its central plaza holds the guidance-supported 'Hatamusubi' rental garden and a dog run, aiming to be housing open to the community that links people, nature and town.
odakyu-fudosan.co.jp+2
JPKashiwa, Chiba, Japan
The 'Kashiwa Project', launched in 2009 by Kashiwa City, the University of Tokyo's Institute of Gerontology and UR at Toyoshikidai Danchi (over 40% elderly) in Chiba. Using rooftop farms, plant-cultivation units and nearby farmland in the rebuilt complex, it embeds agriculture as 'ikigai' employment for seniors, advancing alongside community-based integrated care.
ur-net.go.jp+2
DEアンダーナッハ / Andernach, Germany
A unique German city-led project that replaced ornamental flowerbeds with edible crops in public space, free for citizens to harvest. Spanning ~8,000 sqm in the city center plus 13 ha in the suburbs, it is internationally known as multifunctional productive green infrastructure delivering food supply, biodiversity, social cohesion and education at once.
use.metropolis.org+2
USStratham, United States
A headquarters-lawn garden run by employee volunteers in New Hampshire, donating produce proceeds to a food bank — a flagship employee-engagement CSR case.
3blmedia.com
JPTokyo, Japan
A temple parking lot in Sumida, Tokyo turned into a community farm by citizens through the priest's free loan (completed 2020) — a pattern of interim citizen greening of idle temple land.
note.com+1
JPRikuzentakata, Japan
Gardens opened near temporary housing in Rikuzentakata after the 2011 disaster, with a prefectural hospital borrowing idle land free (since 2012) — using interim disaster-area land for elderly health and interaction.
reconstruction.go.jp+1
JPIshinomaki, Japan
In tsunami-hit Ogatsu (Ishinomaki), citizens turned disaster- and relocation-vacated land into a flower garden (opened 2012, relocated/reopened 2018) — a model of interim land use and community recovery.
gardenstory.jp+1
USDetroit, United States
In Detroit, the land bank cheaply leased 35 acres of vacant city land for urban farming that also supports people in recovery (since 2015) — a pattern of interim leasing of vacant land with a buy option.
crainsdetroit.com
CNChongqing, China
Built in 2018 on a developer's residential complex in central Chongqing, this is one of the city's first rooftop community gardens designed for seniors. With accessible garden beds, it is a welfare and community space where elderly residents can take part in gardening.
landezine-award.com+1
PSDheisheh / Bethlehem, Palestine
With little access to farmland and about 40% of West Bank refugees food-insecure, this program uses shelter rooftops so families can grow vegetables. It began with roughly 11 families in Dheisheh camp and is envisioned to expand to other West Bank camps to reduce aid dependence and build self-reliance.
unrwa.org+1
LBTripoli / Nahr el-Bared, Lebanon
An ANERA project spreading low-cost rooftop gardening with recycled containers among residents of a Palestinian refugee camp destroyed and rebuilt after the 2007 fighting. Residents such as 62-year-old Om Maher grow vegetables, herbs and fruit trees on their roofs, supporting food security and the rebuilding of their lives.
anera.org+2
EGCairo, Egypt
A community rooftop-farming initiative led by the social enterprise Schaduf that turns unused rooftops in Cairo's informal neighbourhoods into productive gardens. Working with GIZ and civil society, it pursues food production, microclimate improvement and social inclusion and income for women and youth. Though it uses low-tech water beds, participation and self-reliance of low-income households are at its core.
akzente.giz.de+2
ARRosario, Argentina
Rosario's municipal urban agriculture program, launched in 2002 in response to the economic crisis. A 2004 ordinance institutionalized the 'Parque Huerta' (garden park), turning vacant land into public spaces for agroecological food production.
agriurbanarosario.com.ar+3
ECQuito, Ecuador
A participatory urban agriculture program run since 2002 by the city of Quito through its economic development agency CONQUITO, promoting agroecology-based self-production of food and advancing social, climate and gender justice.
conquito.org.ec+3
COMedellín, Colombia
Medellín's urban agriculture program. The 2005 'Ecohuertas Urbanas' is its flagship project, and together with the successor 'Huertas con Vos' it advances food security and social cohesion.
medellin.gov.co+1
PELima, Peru
An urban agriculture project running since 2004 in Villa María del Triunfo, southern Lima, using vacant land under high-voltage power lines for women-led ecological gardens that build food security and community resilience.
corresponsables.com+1
CLSantiago, Chile
Inaugurated in 2007 as the first urban community garden in the Santiago metropolitan area by the municipality of La Pintana; with a 700 m² parcelled garden and pioneering composting, it sustains agricultural traditions in a low-income commune.
eldesconcierto.cl+1
BRBelo Horizonte, Brazil
Urban agriculture rooted in Belo Horizonte's food security policy, with over three decades of experience; centred on a community-garden program created in 2017, it supports residents' production with seedlings and training.
prefeitura.pbh.gov.br+1
BRRio de Janeiro, Brazil
Rio de Janeiro's urban agriculture program, launched in 2006, establishing agroecological gardens in schools and vacant lots and supporting food security in favelas and vulnerable areas through composting, seedling production and food education.
carioca.rio+1
UYMontevideo, Uruguay
Community gardens run as part of Montevideo's urban agriculture program (PAU-IMM), supporting family, community and educational gardens and embodying a distinctly Uruguayan style of participatory urban agriculture.
montevideo.gub.uy+1
BOEl Alto, Bolivia
Urban and peri-urban agriculture begun in 1984 in El Alto (about 4,000 m altitude), using FAO-supported solar greenhouses and women-led household gardens to improve food security at high altitude.
fao.org+1
CAVancouver, Canada
A social enterprise that transforms vacant urban lots into portable container farms, providing 'good food and good jobs' to socially marginalised residents. It was founded in 2008 by Michael Ableman and Seann Dory.
solefoodfarms.com+2
CAToronto, Canada
An 8-acre urban farm in Toronto's vulnerable Jane-Finch neighbourhood dedicated to food justice, education and sustainability. It was founded in 2013 with Everdale Environmental Learning Centre and the TRCA as founding partners.
blackcreekfarm.ca+1
CAMontreal, Canada
A Montreal non-profit founded in 1995 to connect youth and seniors, linking a rooftop garden, composting and bicycle-based meal delivery. It is described as the only Meals-on-Wheels service in Canada that grows its own food.
santropolroulant.org+1
CAToronto, Canada
A community food centre in Toronto's west end, founded in 1982, running a food bank plus four community gardens and two farmers' markets. Its Green Barn is an urban-agriculture hub with a greenhouse and compost demonstration centre.
thestop.org+1
CAHalifax, Canada
A community garden and productive green space that began in 2012 as interim use of downtown Halifax hospital land. With around 240 plots, it is a place where residents grow food and connect.
commonrootsurbanfarm.ca+1
CAWinnipeg, Canada
A non-profit neighbourhood association in Winnipeg's inner-city West End that has created nine community gardens and a community greenhouse since its founding. It works on food security in a multicultural, low-income area.
spenceneighbourhood.org+1
ZACape Town, South Africa
A community-supported agriculture vegetable-box scheme launched in 2008 by Abalimi Bezekhaya, an NGO based in Cape Town's townships. It relaunched in September 2022 after a three-year break.
abalimibezekhaya.org.za+1
ZASoweto, South Africa
A food garden started around 2021 by youth in Orlando West, Soweto. They transformed a dumping site into a plot growing cabbage and spinach to support the area's elderly residents.
foodformzansi.co.za+1
SNDakar, Senegal
An urban micro-gardening programme begun in 1999 by FAO and the City of Dakar. It fights food insecurity through soil-less cultivation in small spaces and from 2004 was extended to other cities in Senegal and Africa.
fao.org+1
UGKampala, Uganda
An urban farming programme run by Kampala Capital City Authority, anchored by the roughly 30-acre Kyanja Agricultural Resource Centre in Kawempe division, supporting food security and incomes for vulnerable residents.
kcca.go.ug+1
LSMaseru, Lesotho
A household compost-integrated raised-bed garden developed in drought- and erosion-prone Lesotho by the Consortium for Southern Africa Food Security Emergency (C-SAFE), based on a design CARE used in Zimbabwe, and spread widely across southern Africa.
tandfonline.com+1
ETAddis Ababa, Ethiopia
A 15-month urban agriculture pilot run in 2022 by Farm Africa with Ethiopia's Ministry of Planning and Development, aiming to improve the incomes, nutrition and food security of 100 low-income households in Addis Ababa.
farmafrica.org+2
IDMakassar, Indonesia
Launched in 2014 by Makassar mayor Danny Pomanto, the 'Lorong Garden (Longgar)' flagship programme had residents—especially women—use the city's narrow alleys (described as the cells of the city) to grow ornamental and food plants, transforming them into clean, green spaces. It later evolved into 'Lorong Wisata'.
makassar.terkini.id+1
JPKobe, Hyogo, Japan
A social-experiment site (opened 2022) on about 1,540 sqm of idle UR land in Minatogawa, Hyogo-ku, Kobe, regenerated as a rental farm plus open park space, with about one third as farm and the rest as park.
minnanouen.jp+4
JPTsurumi, Osaka, Japan
An SDGs natural farm started in Osaka in 2021 that bridges 'awai' (the in-between) of farming and welfare. It partners with children's cafeterias in Tsurumi Ward and Moriguchi, donating its harvest to them, and links children's food education with the social participation of people facing employment barriers.
awai-farm.com+2
TWTaipei, Taiwan
In Nangang's Jiuzhuang, residents transformed a neglected, dumping-prone plaza into a community garden. It is the subject of an academic case study (Sustainability journal) on how community gardens support urban health and well-being.
mdpi.com
TWKaohsiung, Taiwan
Responding to an ageing society, the city's Social Affairs Bureau established this senior citizen farm in the Xincaoya settlement. Elders grow vegetables organically, reconnecting with nature to maintain body and mind and deepen social interaction-a welfare-oriented urban farm.
socbu.kcg.gov.tw+2
KRIncheon, South Korea
Incheon's 'Eeum' (meaning 'connection') community urban farm, started in 2021 through participatory budgeting. Citizens and organisations grow crops together and run education and exchange activities, creating a public space for safe food and neighbourly ties.
news.ifm.kr+1
KRDaegu, South Korea
Daegu's urban-agriculture support program centred on school gardens. The city subsidises school gardens at 45 schools plus box, rooftop and balcony gardens and senior healing gardens, advancing food education and cross-generational citizen participation.
cityfarm.daegu.go.kr+1
MYKuala Lumpur, Malaysia
An approximately 8-acre urban farm regenerating neglected land in central Kuala Lumpur. Addressing the climate crisis, lack of open space and food insecurity, its harvest is donated to soup kitchens and the underprivileged. In 2022 DBKL recognised it as a model community garden under LA21KL.
kebunkebunbangsar.org+2
PHQuezon City, Philippines
Launched in 2010 by then–Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte to mitigate hunger, it promotes methods suited to limited city space such as vertical and container gardening and chemical-free organic growing. By 2025 over 1,400 urban farms were reported across the city.
quezoncity.gov.ph+2
PHMetro Manila, Philippines
A network of urban gardeners envisioning Metro Manila as 'one big community garden.' It comprises 20+ gardens in subdivisions, barangays, schools, informal settlements and condominiums, helping residents grow food and gain knowledge.
mb.com.ph+1
THBangkok, Thailand
A citizen urban-agriculture network overseeing 450+ community gardens centred on Bangkok. During COVID-19 it converted wasteland into food sources, launching 210 new gardens starting with 30 high-risk communities across six provinces.
thaicityfarm.com+2
THChiang Mai, Thailand
During COVID-19, a 'Promoter' group led by local architecture firm Jaibaan Studio worked with residents and civic groups to turn state-owned idle land into an inclusive public space and food-producing site, aiming to improve food security, nutrition and self-sufficiency for vulnerable residents.
link.springer.com+2
VNHo Chi Minh City (Thu Duc), Vietnam
A case of school and community gardens with nutrition education in Vietnam's Tam Phu and Dai Hung areas, responding to preschool malnutrition rates of 11.1% and 19.8%. Nutrient-dense, climate-suited plants are grown and added to children's meals such as soups and rice porridge.
b4fn.org
JPHigashinaruse, Akita, Japan
Furin Co., a senior-care provider in Higashinaruse, Akita, has since 2013 run an agriculture-welfare program in which day-service users join planting and harvesting on nearby paddies. Users averaging 88 take meaningful roles in the work, and the harvested rice is sent to supporters.
higashinaruse.jp+3
JPYamaguchi, Yamaguchi, Japan
Yamaguchi Prefecture promotes agriculture-welfare collaboration, piloting contracted farm work in the model areas of Ube, Yamaguchi, Nagato and Shunan. By having disability-employment facilities take part in farming, it seeks both improved wages and purpose for participants and relief from local labor shortages and abandoned-farmland problems.
pref.yamaguchi.lg.jp+1
JPMatsuyama, Ehime, Japan
Matsuyama's children's cafeterias and their 'Matsukone' network create safe places and community interaction for children through free or low-cost meals. Within MAFF's framework they advance food education tied to the community and to farming and harvest experiences.
matsukone.chu.jp+2
JPIsahaya, Nagasaki, Japan
An agriculture-welfare initiative by the social-welfare corporation Minamitaka Airinkai, based in Isahaya, Nagasaki, linking with farming on the Shimabara Peninsula. People with disabilities help with planting, harvesting and shipping, gaining confidence and purpose while supporting agriculture facing labour shortages.
airinkai.or.jp+3
JPYokkaichi, Mie, Japan
A municipal citizens' garden run by the Yokkaichi Agricultural Center, renting 15 sqm plots to residents. It also offers parent-child farming, agri-welfare, and food education with the school-lunch center.
city.yokkaichi.mie.jp+1
JPHokuto, Yamanashi, Japan
An NPO founded in 2021 and based in Hokuto, Yamanashi, working on agriculture, welfare, and education. It advances agri-welfare linking employment for welfare-service users with shipping support for small farms.
npo-taishi.jp
NLAmsterdam, Netherlands
An urban-farming project in Amsterdam-Noord. Built around an organic self-harvest garden, it links farming, food, welfare and enterprise, with local residents involved in running it.
iamsterdam.com+1
ESBarcelona, Spain
Barcelona's network of urban allotments, begun in 1997 with the recovery of the Can Mestres plots. Centred on participation by older people and vulnerable groups, it turns public land into new green and social space.
ajuntament.barcelona.cat+1
NZAuckland, New Zealand
An organic city farm on council land just a few kilometres from downtown, linking welfare, education and organic cycling to give citizens hands-on contact with farming and food.
kelmarna.co.nz+1
SEMalmö, Sweden
A social urban farm in Malmö's Rosengård district that uses food and farming for ecological, economic and social sustainability, linking the inclusion of immigrants with the training of a new generation of urban farmers.
malmo.se+2
USMinneapolis, United States
A Native-led nonprofit founded in 1998 with an urban hub in Minneapolis, holding 200+ Indigenous seed varieties including Cherokee corn carried on the Trail of Tears. It reconnects urban Native youth with traditional crops, cooking and culture to restore food, health and sovereignty.
dreamofwildhealth.org+1
USAlbany, United States
An Afro-Indigenous community farm that gives free home gardens to city residents in the Albany area and saves and shares seeds of African, Indigenous and Palestinian heritage crops, reclaiming ancestral farming and food culture to end food apartheid.
soulfirefarm.org+1
USDetroit, United States
Opened in 2008 by the Black-led grassroots network DBCFSN (founded 2006), this ~7-acre Detroit urban farm grows 30+ crops rooted in African-American food culture—collard greens, okra, hot peppers—to strengthen food security and sovereignty for Detroit's Black community.
dbcfsn.org+1
SGSingapore, Singapore
SECUF in Singapore: gardening hubs bringing communities together through edibles gardening and curated horticulture programs. The SECUF Grant encourages social enterprises to establish and operate Community Urban Farms, conducting programs for seniors, persons with disabilities, and low-income groups. Singapore has 1,500+ community gardens and 2,500+ allotment plots across 29 parks. Next allotment garden application window in Q4 2026.
gardeningsg.nparks.gov.sg+1
MXMexico City, Mexico
Mexico City community project integrating vegetable gardens, chicken coops, trout farm, and compost program with emphasis on youth environmental education and engagement.
foodtank.com+1
PSAl Am'ari, Palestine
50 green rooftop gardens in Al Am'ari refugee camp led by 67 young women, addressing climate change adaptation and food security in vulnerable communities.
cascades.eu
DEBerlin, Germany
A flagship community garden in Berlin's Wedding district. Forced to leave its original site to make way for a football education centre, it relocated after a citizens' campaign to a permanent site on Gartenstraße in late 2021. Combining gardening, a café and education programmes, it is a hub for urban greenery and social inclusion.
himmelbeet.de+4
ITTurin, Italy
A 150 m² community roof garden created on a former factory building in Turin, directly linked to the restaurant below. As the first 'ortoalto' (elevated garden), it demonstrates a model for regenerating unused urban rooftops as places of food production, employment and neighbourhood exchange, and is referenced in Italy and abroad as an approach to rooftop-led urban regeneration.
torinosocialimpact.it+2
IEDublin, Ireland
A collective garden in inner-city Dublin bearing the name of the old 'Mud Island' area mentioned in James Joyce's Ulysses. Residents transformed a derelict site that had cost the city thousands to clear each year into a green community hub, notable for fully collective cultivation with shared harvests. It has won multiple awards as a leading Dublin community garden.
mudisland.ie+1
TZDar es Salaam, Tanzania
In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's largest city, vegetable growing on open urban land is a visible part of the cityscape. Since the Sustainable Cities Programme of the 1990s, integrating agriculture into city planning has been debated, and the practice has drawn international research attention for both its insecure tenure and its importance to livelihoods.
researchgate.net+2
TNTunis, Tunisia
In a dense, low-income district of Tunis, residents have reclaimed neglected land as a communal garden, gaining fresh vegetables, income and a step toward food sovereignty. It is watched as a new model of resident-led agroecology in North African cities.
hivos.org
KENairobi, ケニア
A community-driven garden-in-a-sack program initiated in response to post-election violence and food insecurity in 2008. Expanded across slum areas of Nairobi (Mathare, Kiambiu, Mukuru, Kibera) directly benefiting 22,000 households and over 110,000 people.
afas.africa
VNHo Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Circular agriculture community garden launched by Vietnam Food Bank Network in collaboration with youth and international agencies. Focuses on practicing circular agriculture, food waste reduction, and supporting disadvantaged groups.
vietnam.vn
PHQuezon City, Philippines
Women-led grassroots project in the urban poor community of Sitio San Roque in Quezon City. Has grown from a food source to a strategy for ensuring food security and defending land rights.
iied.org
JOAmman, Jordan
Community-based urban garden project led by UN-Habitat and funded by UNEP in Amman. Includes greenhouse and mushroom room for consistent yields. Local residents form management groups.
jordan.un.org
MXMexico City, Mexico
Mexico City municipal government has issued grants to over 3,000 residents since 2007 to promote rooftop agriculture. Community projects like Miravalle provide environmental education and agriculture workshops.
foodtank.com
INChennai, India
Mobile vegetable gardens established in schools, childcare centers, and homeless shelters in Chennai. Addresses food insecurity and urban heat while providing gardening training and access to nutritious food.
earth5r.org
BDDhaka, Bangladesh
Citizens cultivate vegetables on rooftops across Dhaka, with women playing a leading role. Rooftop gardeners show 19% increased vegetable intake and 7% increased fruit intake. Rooftop agriculture reduces temperatures by 1.2–5.5%, provides carbon sequestration, and lessens ecological footprint.
acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com+1
GRAthens, Greece
Started by Maroussi Municipality in 2012 in response to Greece's economic crisis. Municipal land transformed into community vegetable gardens with 40 plots of 25 square meters each for vulnerable groups including unemployed, low-earners, low-pensioners, and single parents. Includes soil enrichment and water supply infrastructure. A pioneering model for community food security in post-crisis Greece.
astydama.com+1
USLos Angeles, United States
A pioneering project mounting pesticide-free edible green walls on downtown LA buildings, including a public high school.
greenroofs.com
NGLagos, Nigeria
An urban-farming education program by a Lagos food bank that builds residents' agricultural knowledge and supports food security
lagosfoodbank.org
UGKampala, Uganda
A four-year urban food project Oxfam launched in 2021 with local NGO CIDI, scaling up small-scale urban farming in Kampala's slums
oxfam.org.uk
PSGaza, Palestine
In land-scarce Gaza, Anera turns vulnerable families' rooftops into water-efficient productive space to foster food self-sufficiency and ease food insecurity
inhabitat.com+1
BOEl Alto, Bolivia
A project supporting women with solar-greenhouse cultivation in high-altitude El Alto, producing fresh vegetables and improving nutrition in a harsh climate
use.metropolis.org+1
GHAccra, Ghana
A home-gardening initiative Solidaridad launched in Accra in 2023, encouraging urban households to grow safe, nutritious vegetables
graphic.com.gh+3
USLos Angeles, United States
A 14-acre lot once slated for a waste incinerator, turned into one of the largest urban farms in the US.
en.wikipedia.org+2
USNew York, United States
An iconic East Village community garden that became a flashpoint of anti-development protest.
en.wikipedia.org+1
GBLondon, United Kingdom
Valued as an environmental asset mitigating pollution, but lost to housing redevelopment.
andyworthington.co.uk+1
GBLondon, United Kingdom
A historic allotment promised 'in perpetuity', swept away for the Olympics.
en.wikipedia.org+1
CASaskatoon, Canada
The first Saskatoon brownfield lot turned into a community garden, then ordered to vacate.
ctvnews.ca+1
GBEdinburgh, United Kingdom
One of Scotland's leading urban farms. Falling external funding and rising costs forced it into liquidation and closure in November 2019, with 18 job losses, as its grant-dependent finances collapsed.
bbc.co.uk+1
CAEdmonton, Canada
A city-run program Edmonton started in 2020 on ~5 acres of municipal land, donating its harvest (over 253,000 lbs cumulatively) to the food bank. It was cut in the city's 2024 Fall Supplemental Operating Budget.
globalnews.ca+1
USDetroit, Michigan, United States
A city-run urban gardening program launched by Detroit under Mayor Coleman Young in the 1975 recession, turning vacant lots into gardens to help residents grow food. When city funding dried up, the program was dissolved.
glass.hfcc.edu+1
KENairobi, Kenya
Sack gardening that spread in Nairobi's Kibera slum after the 2008 post-election violence, providing food security and livelihoods where there is no land
fao.org+4
ZACape Town, South Africa
Abalimi Bezekhaya (established 1982 during Apartheid) assists thousands to set up and maintain home and community gardens on tiny city land fragments. Harvest of Hope social business sells produce to Cape Town residents.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
SEMalmö, Sweden
Malmö city-wide urban farming initiative. Integrates social interaction, health, biodiversity, and climate action. Multiple formats deployed across parks and squares.
talkofthecities.iclei.org
NOOslo, Norway
Oslo community gardens have high demand with lengthy waiting lists. Research on citizen attitudes and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for different urban agriculture types.
researchgate.net
PTPorto, Portugal
After 2008 economic crisis, Porto residents cultivated empty land near social housing without ownership. Demonstrates grassroots food security and community resilience.
futurearchitectureplatform.org
AUSydney, Australia
700+ community gardens across Australia with ~20,000 weekly participants. Cultivating fresh produce, learning, relaxation, and community connection.
doi.org
INMumbai, India
Mumbai Port Trust transforms unused urban spaces into flourishing gardens. Employs women groups, improves access to fresh produce, and creates economic opportunities.
ibef.org+1
ZACape Town, South Africa
City of Cape Town and Provincial Agriculture support community gardens in low-income areas to enhance food security and nutrition.
tandfonline.com+1
KENairobi, Kenya
Nairobi County pilots rooftop gardens on public buildings. NGOs and youth groups experiment with greenhouse farming in peri-urban zones. Primary focus in Njiru, Kasarani, and Dagoretti sub-counties.
static.tu.berlin+2
BRSão Paulo, Brazil
São Paulo supports 2,600+ mapped agricultural sites, including 1,000+ school gardens. Provides bio-inputs, machinery, training, and investment support.
unep.org+1
BRCuritiba, Brazil
Curitiba's urban gardens program produces ~1,600 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables annually. Technology transfer through demonstration gardens and training hubs. Third urban farm demonstration plot opening by end of 2025.
unep.org
THBangkok, タイ
Community garden project launched in Bangkok. By 2022, 165 farms established across Bangkok. Expanded nationally through 'Thai City Farm' initiative to five additional cities. Integrates food production, livelihoods, and social connection.
una.city+1
ZAJohannesburg, 南アフリカ
City of Johannesburg Food Resilience Unit and Johannesburg Development Agency implemented hydroponic rooftop gardens on inner-city buildings. Ensures food security for vulnerable residents and promotes entrepreneurship. One garden produces 40 kg of spinach weekly for local restaurants, generating approximately €52 in weekly revenue.
peopledaily.digital
TWTaipei, Taiwan
University-community partnership addressing urban food security through campus and neighborhood agriculture with participatory research
mdpi.com
UGKampala, Uganda
Urban agriculture in Kampala operates as an evolved and dynamic urban livelihood, attracting farmers across income levels with sustainable food production practices
link.springer.com
ETAddis Ababa, Ethiopia
Urban agriculture in Addis Ababa's Kirkos sub-city provides household food security for low-income families using low-input, organic methods
frontiersin.org
HUBudapest, Hungary
Budapest's grassroots community garden movement transforming vacant urban lots. Supported by KÉK Contemporary Architecture Centre since 2010, with nearly 80 active gardens documented.
eu-opensci.org+1
PLWarsaw, Poland
Warsaw-based community farm cooperative offering food education, eco-workshops and skill training for underprivileged communities. Joined AMPLE Warsaw program in 2025.
botany.one+1
PELima, Peru
MUSA project, led by Cuso International, provides agriculture training and community garden expansion for women farmers in low-income Lima districts. Addresses food insecurity and malnutrition across 350+ farmers and 204 gardens.
cusointernational.org
COMedellín, Colombia
Medellín operates multiple urban farming programs addressing food security and social healing in low-income districts. AgroArte (San Javier) has 15+ years of operations. Terrazas Verdes (Comuna 13) uses rooftop hydroponics for production.
fao.org
GRAthens, Greece
Following the 2010 economic crisis, citizens in Athens began using public space for productive, social, and educational purposes. Municipal gardens launched in 2012. A municipal plot in Maroussi was divided into 40 sections (25 m² each) for citizen gardening. Antonis Tritsis Park announced plans to develop 50,000 m² of land into a community farm.
astydama.com+1
PTLisbon, Portugal
Launched in 2011 to convert vacant lots and degraded parks into urban allotment parks. By 2020, 20 parks with 750 allotments across the city. Priority access for unemployed, elderly, low-income residents. Parks freely open to visitors. Lisbon won European Green Capital Award in 2020.
interlace-hub.com+1
DEBerlin, Germany
Intercultural community garden with 50+ raised beds in Berlin. Open to residents of diverse cultural backgrounds. Functions as a space for cultural exchange and community activities
cityfarmer.info
BDDhaka, Bangladesh
FAO's Dhaka Food System project (2019–2023) trained and equipped 440 mostly-female residents of poor Dhaka neighborhoods to grow vegetables and fruit on rooftops and small surface plots. Local NGO Proshika supplied seeds, saplings, tools and fertilizer, and participants received gardening and nutrition training. It is a citizen/community gardening program, not agritech.
fao.org+1
CZPrague, Czechia
A Prague social enterprise turning unused urban land into community gardens and composting hubs, spreading composting and gardening among citizens, businesses and government while offering work and inclusion to people with mental illness.
inherit.eu+2
UGKampala, Uganda
A citizen urban farm in land-scarce Kampala, Uganda, where young people grow food in sack gardens across three city sites, harvesting around 500 kg a month and helping feed local schools.
triplepundit.com
GBLondon, United Kingdom
Started in 1977 as Jubilee City Farm by a group of architects squatting at St Oswald's Place, in a Vauxhall neighbourhood cleared by demolitions between 1972 and 1976. Now in the London Borough of Lambeth, it keeps alpacas, sheep, goats, pigs, donkeys and ponies and works across education, youth work, animal care and horticulture.
en.wikipedia.org
USChicago, United States
A 20,000-square-foot urban agriculture facility opened in 2016 in a historically disinvested food desert in Chicago, Illinois, by the Chicago Botanic Garden together with Lawndale Christian Health Center. It anchors VeggieRx, a produce prescription programme in which clinicians refer patients to the farm for free produce boxes, nutrition counselling and cooking classes.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
ECQuito, Ecuador
An urban garden initiative that began operating in Quito, Ecuador, in 2015, providing people with severe mental health problems with work and income through agroecological organic food production, and with a place of social participation. The idea emerged in 2014 from an assembly of users, families and professionals at a community mental health service in northern Quito, and by the end of 2015 the group had secured a plot in Nayón on the edge of Quito.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov+2
PELima, Peru
A multi-sectoral project in the rocky peripheral settlements of the Pachacámac district south of metropolitan Lima, Peru, targeting households with children aged 0–3. Community health promoters delivered home and community gardening, nutrition and parenting workshops in sequence, aiming to improve early child development and household food security. The design uses gardens as an entry point to nutrition and parenting rather than as a stand-alone activity.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
LBAkkar / Tripoli / Bekaa, Lebanon
An FAO project run from 15 September 2015 to 15 June 2016 under the constraint that the Lebanese government does not permit Syrian refugees to cultivate land. It deployed micro-gardens on the walls of dwellings for landless vulnerable households, with the stated objective of promoting diversified, quality food. The 170 direct beneficiaries across Akkar, Tripoli and the Bekaa comprised 76 vulnerable Lebanese and 94 displaced Syrians.
reliefweb.int+1
JPKobe (兵庫区・長田区), Japan
A come-empty-handed rental garden run at two sites in Kobe — Kanda-cho in Hyogo Ward and Komagabayashi-cho in Nagata Ward — by Akisuke Nagata, a group that turns vacant houses and lots into neighbourhood assets. Its distinguishing feature is that vegetable waste and prunings are recycled into compost with a local type-B employment support workshop rather than incinerated, with the goal of getting people to use fully matured "craft compost", made entirely from local plant material and inputs, as a matter of course.
compost.smartkobe-portal.com+4
JPKobe (兵庫区), Japan
A community complex created by renovating Minatoyama municipal primary school, closed in 2015, around the theme of "making nature and everyday life". An aquarium, an edible botanical garden, a herb shop, a brewery, a supported-employment facility, childcare and after-school care and welfare services sit side by side, cultivating a place where people, nature and neighbourhood connect. As a partner organisation of the Kobe Compost Project it sets out to work with users to find forms of cycling that are easy to sustain in daily life.
compost.smartkobe-portal.com+3
GBLeeds, United Kingdom
A 24-acre urban farm in Meanwood, Leeds, established in 1980. It demonstrates organic farming and sustainability, keeping Dexter cattle, Whitefaced Woodland and Ryeland sheep, alpacas, goats, several breeds of pig, chickens and ducks, and producing honey. It also runs a Recycled Bike Project teaching mechanical skills to young people.
en.wikipedia.org
USNew York, United States
A half-acre community farm opened in 1992 by Abu Talib and neighbourhood residents on a city-owned vacant lot in Highbridge, the Bronx. Alongside vegetables it keeps bee colonies and chickens, producing roughly 10,000 pounds of food a year.
en.wikipedia.org
JPNagasaki, Nagasaki, Japan
A civic project by Nagasaki Urban Landscape Institute / null turning vacant lots on Nagasaki’s sloping streets into allotment gardens. Since Base opened in 2020 it has grown to five sites by 2025, including Japan’s Kyushu first civic entrustment of idle national land (The View). It eases owners’ vacant-lot upkeep while drawing younger residents, schools and welfare partners into the hillside neighbourhood.
nagasaki-null.design+6
JPYokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
Opened August 2026 on the Kanagawa Prefectural Office east-building terrace. Aquaponics links food education, agri-welfare work and community-building in a civic rooftop space, making ‘living together with nature’ visible ahead of GREEN×EXPO 2027.
prtimes.jp+2
JPTsurumi, Osaka, Japan
Green Farm Tsurumi, a Type-B employment support farm shop in Yokozutsumi, Osaka. Agri-welfare work spans growing, processing and retail beside the metro station.
shohgaisha.com+1
GBSheffield, United Kingdom
A city farm in the Heeley district of Sheffield, founded in 1981 on land earmarked for the Sheffield South Relief road — the Heeley bypass — a scheme that blighted the lives of hundreds of local residents for 30 years and was never begun. Built around a wind- and sun-powered mini-farm, it also runs recycling, a garden centre, a café and a charity shop, combining environmental, health, food and farming education with training for disabled people, unemployed adults and young people. From 31 October 2008 it began reconstructing an Iron Age roundhouse with the University of Sheffield's Archaeology Department, targeted for completion in early 2011.
en.wikipedia.org
USSeattle, United States
A 1.5-acre community garden on a slope in Seattle's Chinatown-International District. Opened in 1975, it holds 101 garden allotments and 77 fruit trees. The gardeners are mostly low-income Asian seniors with an average age of 76. Alongside vegetables used in Asian cooking, the trees bear cherries, plums, Asian pears and apples. An on-site kitchen built in 2014 anchors the garden's community programmes.
en.wikipedia.org
USSeattle, United States
A roughly 4,000 m² allotment garden in Interbay, Seattle, opened in 1974 as one of the city's earliest P-Patch sites. More than 4,400 square feet (410 m²) along the fences is given over to food-bank gardening, which traditionally supplies about two tons of produce to community food banks each year.
en.wikipedia.org
NPKahare (near Kathmandu), Nepal
A foundation on the outskirts of Kathmandu that builds a community-wide cycle around an organic and biodynamic farm, combined with a school, medical care, a café and a workshop. Cows and chickens are kept, and food waste and manure are routed through composting and biogas to supply the farm's own fertiliser.
kathmandupost.com
LVRiga, Latvia
A citizens' initiative that in 2020 turned a privately owned vacant lot — left derelict after the demolition of a Soviet-era sports palace/ice arena — into a garden held under temporary use. It opened to the public in spring 2021 and combines 150 planting-box plots with wildflower meadow and picnic/rest zones. It doubles as a venue for cultural and educational events and draws over 4,000 visitors a summer.
commonities.org+2
UAKyiv (Podil), Ukraine
A community garden that opened in spring 2025 in Kyiv's historic Podil district — the first of its kind in the city centre — in the middle of wartime. Residents and volunteers cleared a plot that had sat walled off since a building was demolished there in 1985, and turned it into a garden with raised beds, rainwater collection, compost bins and a tool shed. It was formally opened in May 2025.
colville-andersen.com+1
HRZagreb, Croatia
Launched by a mayoral decision of 4 April 2013, the scheme develops city-owned arable land and lends plots to residents free of charge for growing vegetables, berries, medicinal herbs and flowers for their own use. It started from three locations in spring 2013, reached 12 by 2017, and now covers 14 gardens, more than 2,152 plots and 23.03 hectares. Growing to ecological principles is required across all sites, with plot inspections and soil analyses.
zagreb.hr+2
BGSofia, Bulgaria
A pioneering citizens' gardening project in Bulgaria, started in 2012 by a handful of enthusiasts, with its first communal garden in the Nadezhda district. The garden it opened in 2015, Градина заДружба, is now the longest-running community garden in Sofia. Today the initiative carries the city's largest network of community gardens — some 6,000 m² in total, with around 100 gardeners.
urbangardening-sofia.com+1
ZMLusaka, Zambia
An urban garden project launched in January 2026 in Zambia's capital. Working through existing community groups in the densely populated, flood- and drought-exposed sub-districts of Kanyama, Chawama and Matero, it sets up demonstration gardens and delivers training in climate-resilient growing. The project runs to January 2027, with scale-up envisaged if it works.
dappzambia.org
PKLahore, Pakistan
A pilot community garden started by the Institute for Art and Culture in Sher Shah Colony, a low-income neighbourhood off Raiwind Road in Lahore. Sited at a government girls' high school, the workshops covered health and nutrition, the economics of growing your own, and season-appropriate vegetables.
thenews.com.pk+1
FRBesançon, France
Starting from the first garden opened in 1991 by Jean-Guy Henckel at Chalezeule near Besançon, France, the model of jardins d'insertion — organic market gardens that employ unemployed and precariously placed people — spread across the country, and the national network was formally constituted on 13 July 1999. The vegetables produced are delivered as weekly baskets to subscriber members, and the workers receive socio-professional support alongside the farming. Its distinguishing feature is that one mechanism is asked to serve both city residents' food supply and people excluded from the labour market.
fr.wikipedia.org
DEGöttingen, Germany
A garden started in 1996 in the Geismar district of Göttingen, Germany, by immigrant non-German families, and constituted in 1998 as the association Internationale Gärten e.V. Göttingen. Its distinguishing move was to translate the ideas of intercultural learning, international understanding and integration into a place where people work the soil and grow vegetables together, and it became the starting point for the form known in German-speaking countries as interkulturelle Gärten.
de.wikipedia.org
EETallinn, Estonia
An allotment garden the city billed as Tallinn's largest community garden, built as an extension of an existing community space. Construction began on 1 August 2023 with a February 2024 completion deadline. It has raised beds and garden plots, a greenhouse, compost bins, water connections, street lighting, toilets and a roofed gathering area.
greentallinn.eu+1
USRancho Cordova, California, United States
A nonprofit farming about 55 acres of county-owned land inside the American River Parkway at Rancho Cordova, near Sacramento, as an organic farm and food-and-environment education centre. It marked 25 years in 2025. Alongside growing, it restores riparian habitat, and the site includes classrooms, a certified kitchen, a native plant nursery and an outdoor classroom.
soilborn.org+2
NPLalitpur, Nepal
A UN-Habitat programme run with Nepali municipalities. After implementation in Madhyapur Thimi in 2021–2022 it moved its focus to Lalitpur Metropolitan City from 2023, building demonstration farms, training trainers, drafting urban-farming guidelines and developing the "Urban Kasera" mobile app. It deliberately pairs rooftop food production with household waste management and rainwater harvesting.
nepal.un.org
USBrooklyn (Brownsville), New York, United States
The NYC Health Department's first community garden, announced in April 2026 and opened to the public in May. It sits behind the Brownsville Neighborhood Health Action Center in Brooklyn and is designed so that residents can harvest food for free in the same place they access the department's health programming.
nyc.gov
USNew Haven, Connecticut, United States
New Haven's 19 city-owned community gardens and micro-farms were run for years by the nonprofit Gather New Haven, which handed them back to the city in April 2026 as its finances deteriorated. No replacement operator has been settled; the city's Food Policy Council is forming a working group and weighing whether to ask the city to contract the work out as a two-year pilot.
newhavenindependent.org
USBoston, United States
A community garden for students and staff that began in summer 2026 on a triangular plot behind University Hall at UMass Boston. Eight raised beds grow tomatoes, lettuce, squash, rosemary, peppers and amethyst basil. The university calls 2026 its pilot year for the project.
umb.edu
USBaltimore, United States
A teaching farm inside Baltimore's Farring-Baybrook Park, between the Curtis Bay and Brooklyn Homes neighbourhoods. It grows vegetables and produces honey while running growing classes for residents, a business incubator for aspiring urban farmers, and mental-wellness programming built around plant care — a working farm that doubles as an educational centre.
wmar2news.com+1
MEPodgorica, Montenegro
A volunteer-run community garden in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. Its symbiotic plan combines a food forest with market-garden areas, and the official site describes it as the largest ground-level community garden in Europe. Growing follows permaculture methods — regenerative agriculture, no-dig beds and cover cropping.
urbanabasta.me
MGAntananarivo, Madagascar
In Antananarivo, unused ground at public primary schools is turned into vegetable gardens that feed the school canteen while teaching farming to children and parents. Run by the Axian Foundation and First IMMO together with the Urban Municipality of Antananarivo, the programme had completed 27 sites since 2021. At the five schools inaugurated together in June 2023, 660.5 m² of prepared ground had already yielded 312.5 kg of vegetables from three of them.
fondation-axian.org+1
MNUlaanbaatar, Mongolia
An urban gardening extension programme run in Ulaanbaatar from 1992 by the Poverty Alleviation Study Centre during Mongolia's economic transition. Working out of the Metropolitan Library, it taught growing and distributed inputs; participating families rose more than twentyfold, from 850 in 1990/91 to 21,000 by 1996.
cityfarmer.org
ISReykjavík (Seljahverfi, Jaðarsel), Iceland
A resident-run urban farm at Jaðarsel in the Seljahverfi district of Reykjavík. It was founded in 2014 by volunteers and residents of Seljahverfi and Breiðholt on the site of a school-garden project the city had discontinued. It describes itself as the only place in the city where you can rent both an outdoor plot (20 m² and larger) and a place inside a greenhouse. Organised around organic, sustainable growing and health, its purpose is community as much as cultivation: regular events, teaching days and an end-of-summer produce market.
seljagardur.is+2
BASarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
The City of Sarajevo turned a decaying, underused plot into a garden and park combining sensory plantings with native species. Centred on supporting children and young people with developmental disabilities, it is described as a pioneering initiative in Bosnia and Herzegovina and was delivered with the Sarajevo Regional Development Agency (SERDA), the Municipality of Novo Sarajevo and a local vocational school. It was labelled a URBACT Good Practice in October 2024.
urbact.eu
CMYaoundé (Biyem-Assi), Cameroon
An urban agriculture programme (2013–2014) in the working-class district of Biyem-Assi in Cameroon's capital Yaoundé, aimed at reducing poverty and food insecurity among residents. Because arable land is scarce and soil contamination common in the city, Alternatives brought in the soil-free (hors-sol) growing techniques it had developed on Montreal rooftops and spread them among neighbourhood women's groups, market vendors, and school pupils and their families. The work combined building vegetable gardens and a school garden with income-generating activity, a training programme and educational materials.
alternatives.ca+1
JMKingston, Jamaica
A project fitting inner-city schools and community sites in Kingston with gardens backed by rainwater harvesting and drip irrigation. It responds to the fact that the city's once-reliable rains have faltered with climate change, making it hard to grow without infrastructure that stores water and releases it slowly. More than JM$14 million (about US$90,000) went into four high schools, the Abilities Foundation and the Greenwich Town community, providing rainwater tanks, hydroponic greenhouses, container gardens and water-purification systems. Since starting in 2018, CityAdapt reports benefiting more than 130,000 people across Jamaica, El Salvador and Mexico.
cityadapt.com+1
CYNicosia, Cyprus
In central Nicosia, a citizens' group turned a derelict plot into a sustainable shared garden. It started from winning the Climathon Nicosia competition in October 2019, and hundreds of volunteers helped build it. Beyond growing, it sets out to build community, practise a circular economy that treats waste as material, and create a dynamic urban food-sharing ecosystem. It runs learning programmes for local youth on open-source technology and sustainability, and supports women refugees in agricultural entrepreneurship. The project was shortlisted for the EU's New European Bauhaus Awards in the 'Regaining a sense of belonging' category.
citycenters.eu+1
DOSanto Domingo (Distrito Nacional), Dominican Republic
In the Dominican capital, the National District city hall (ADN) and the ministries of Agriculture, Environment and Women signed an agreement in March 2021 to create 30 urban gardens — ten in each of the district's three electoral divisions. Neighbourhood associations and individuals, especially women, single mothers and young people, are the intended growers, using both vertical and horizontal methods to raise vegetables, medicinal and aromatic herbs and ornamental plants. Stated aims are to increase availability of and access to healthy food, create outlets in municipal markets and plant-exchange points, foster a culture of peace and healthy coexistence in neighbourhoods, and generate jobs and income. It forms part of the Urban Gardens Programme run by the Agriculture Ministry's Women's Agricultural Sector Office (OSAM).
mujer.gob.do+1
ALTirana, Albania
An urban-farming school in central Tirana, taught in a greenhouse built on the rooftop terrace of the Tulla Culture Centre. It began in 2022 with funding from GIZ Albania and holds growing classes every Thursday evening, raising roughly 300 plants a season — tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and spinach — chosen to suit the local climate. Tirana once had a culture of families keeping small allotments, but it faded as green space was taken over by construction. The school gives equal weight to recovering those lost skills and to building connections between people.
etf.europa.eu
FJSuva and other urban areas, Fiji
A national home-gardening programme launched by Fiji's Ministry of Agriculture in March 2020 as part of its COVID-19 response. With lockdowns in Suva and Lautoka making food harder to obtain, the ministry distributed seed packs of short-cycle crops to households in urban and peri-urban areas, starting on 30 March 2020. A scheme buying seed from local farmers and redistributing it to city residents was also set up, so that emergency support fed into something households could keep growing rather than ending as one-off food relief. A booklet with the National Food and Nutrition Centre, 'Grow your own Food', covers both cultivation and nutrition.
futureoffood.org+1
GBKeighley, United Kingdom
A yard behind the Salvation Army church hall and community centre in Keighley, West Yorkshire, turned into a productive garden over about a year by a volunteer, Matthew. Potatoes grow in an old baby bath and chillies in a wellington boot; carrots, peas, strawberries, herbs and pumpkins fill the rest. The produce supplies the Salvation Army food bank, meals for homeless people, the Victory Programme budgeting-and-cookery class and the centre's café. Matthew came to the charity after rehab, joined the cookery class, and was asked to take on the garden while volunteering at the food bank, with no prior gardening experience.
salvationarmy.org.uk+1
GBSwindon, United Kingdom
In Swindon, Wiltshire, South Swindon Parish Council has opened disused allotment plots as a community garden for Ukrainian refugee families; in August 2026 councillors themselves joined a work session. The council manages 584 plots across 14 sites (expanding to about 604) against a waiting list of more than 400 people, so converting idle plots to community use both cuts the queue and brings empty ground back into cultivation.
swindon24.co.uk+1
JOAmman, Jordan
A project turning part of a large Amman park into a residents' garden. It is framed around three goals — raising green cover in the city, softening climate-change impacts and improving food security — and creates a place where residents and Syrian refugees cultivate together. It sits within the municipality's 2022–2026 strategic plan to establish 12 parks across the capital.
jordan.un.org
JOAmman, Jordan
The first urban-farming training centre in Jordan, sited in a city park in Amman. Built to strengthen food security amid climate change and disrupted supply chains, it gives residents a place to learn how to grow vegetables and fruit trees in the city. The preceding project laid out a 6,000 m² community garden in the city and recovered 3,600 endangered trees using the Miyawaki planting method.
undp.org+1
PYPilar, Paraguay
A garden network started in 2003 across four barrios of Pilar, a provincial city in southern Paraguay. Aimed at food and nutrition security, it spread by having residents themselves build fences and beds, record how they grew things, and pass the methods to neighbouring families. Distinctively, it paired well-building with educational stipends and scholarships so the gardens also became a route into further study. The project closed in 2022.
zimbabweparaguay.net
UALviv, Ukraine
The first public community garden in Lviv, western Ukraine, opened in 2018. Since the war began it has become a place where displaced people grow vegetables together, with the harvest turned into free meals for IDPs via a city bistro. UNDP Ukraine features it as one of the local initiatives sustaining food security during the war.
undp.org
ESPuerto de la Cruz (Tenerife), Spain
The first community urban garden in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, laid out across 19,000 m² at Los Cachazos in the El Durazno neighbourhood. It provides seven accessible plots, is run by the council's department for a sustainable city and citizen participation, and is managed day to day by the association La Vereda. Councillor David Hernández describes it as a project to advance sustainability, citizen participation and food sovereignty while strengthening environmental education and community resilience to climate change.
rtvc.es
MZMaputo, Mozambique
A network of peri-urban farming cooperatives in the outskirts of Maputo, which grew out of the Gabinete das Zonas Verdes set up in April 1980 to address food shortages and land-tenure problems after independence. The União Geral das Cooperativas was formed in 1982–83 and by 1987 covered 181 member organisations with over 10,000 members. It is an early, large-scale case of a citizens' organisation — overwhelmingly of women — coming to supply a capital city with fresh food.
mozambiquehistory.net
SVSan Salvador, El Salvador
An urban and peri-urban agriculture programme launched in 2020 by the City of San Salvador and FAO in response to deepening urban food insecurity during COVID-19. Demonstration centres placed across the city act as places to see and learn, and from there the programme spreads know-how on family gardens, growing vegetables in small spaces and composting.
fao.org
SVSan Marcos, El Salvador
In the San Juan Bosco II neighbourhood of San Marcos, in the San Salvador metropolitan area, residents cleared a vacant lot that had become a dumping ground and turned it into a shared urban garden. The Cosechando Sonrisas programme supplies three months of training and inputs free of charge, and more than 50 households now grow vegetables on their own plots.
elsalvador.com
ZWBulawayo, Zimbabwe
A shared garden in the Entumbane residential suburb of Bulawayo. Built on land set aside by the city council, a borehole and solar equipment added by the local MP, fifty residents divide the beds and grow vegetables. An example of a division of roles — the city supplies land and water, residents run the garden — holding up over time in a suburban setting.
cityfarmer.info
NAWindhoek, Namibia
Rising food prices have driven a spread of backyard vegetable gardens and poultry keeping across Windhoek's Katutura settlements — Okahandja Park, Ongulumbashe and One Nation among them. For low-income households it cuts the grocery bill and brings in some cash, backed by government and Agribank training.
neweralive.na
MMYangon, Myanmar
The food-growing strand of UNDP's Urban Resilience Project, which works in eight of Yangon's most vulnerable townships. In Thanmada Kan Chay Ward, 27 women's groups proposed turning former dumpsites into farms. Straw-mushroom cultivation and container gardening are the mainstays; by early 2025 almost 900 urban farmers had been trained and 250 had received small business grants, with more than 4,000 people benefiting overall. The work responds to urban poverty in Yangon rising from 10% in 2017 to 43% — some 2.7 million residents — in 2023.
myanmar.un.org
USLong Island City, Queens, New York, United States
A roughly one-acre farm on the roof of the Standard Motor Building in Long Island City, Queens, run by the non-profit Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens, with children doing the growing and harvesting. Some 1,200 children took part in the 2025 season, producing over 4,500 pounds of food; the 2026 season opened on 23 April with targets of 1,500 children and 5,000 pounds. A $798,000 New York Power Authority investment added greenhouses, pathways, a covered wash-and-pack area with a freezer and an indoor classroom. Three-quarters of the harvest goes to the participating children and a quarter to local food banks.
qns.com
GTVilla Canales, Guatemala
Community gardens run in Villa Canales, south of the Guatemalan capital, by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food (MAGA) together with the municipality: 26 gardens involving 650 households, growing tomatoes, lettuce, beans and medicinal herbs alongside pineapple, strawberry and papaya. MAGA extends the same framework to family and school gardens — as of 2017, more than 5,000 family gardens, 164 school gardens and 6,500 community gardens through rural learning centres. In the metropolitan area the work also reaches zones 7, 8 and 15 of Guatemala City and San José Villa Nueva.
prensalibre.com
JOAmman (Marka / Wehdat), Jordan
A project installing greenhouses on the rooftops of refugee and vulnerable households in Amman's Marka and Wehdat districts. Seventy-nine new greenhouses were completed in 2025, reaching 78 households and one preschool community garden. Families receive tools, seeds and training in garden management so the plots keep producing. Researchers at the University of Petra note the approach depends on lightweight planting materials, proper waterproofing and efficient irrigation.
anera.org+1
CACalgary, Canada
A 30-acre urban farm on public land in southeast Calgary, formerly a construction site. Run by the settlement agency CCIS, it teaches newcomers to Canada how to grow food in southern Alberta's climate. Guided by Blackfoot Elder Herman Many Guns, its programming acknowledges the site as Treaty 7 territory. Soil restoration, biodiversity, composting, honey production and pollinator stewardship are central.
youngagrarians.org+2
KENairobi (Viwandani, Sinai), Kenya
In the Sinai area of Nairobi's Viwandani informal settlement, the resident youth group VICCO farms a small plot on the bank of the Ngong River. What began as a tiny riverside vegetable patch became a regularly producing garden over about two years with support from the HealthyFoodAfrica project. It is one of 21 community-organised groups mentored by APHRC.
healthyfoodafrica.eu
HTPort-au-Prince (Cité Soleil), Haiti
In Cité Soleil, Port-au-Prince, residents turned over an acre of former rubbish dump into a community garden. Started in 2012 by three local men, it now holds more than 500 brightly painted tyre gardens, plus a flower garden and a moringa nursery, and is described as Haiti's largest urban community garden.
sakala-haiti.org+1
CIAbidjan (Yopougon, Adiopodoumé), Côte d'Ivoire
A youth training programme in organic urban farming launched in 2020 in Abidjan's Yopougon commune. On half a hectare, tomatoes and cucumbers are grown soil-free without chemical pesticides or fertilisers. Its distinguishing feature is that growing skills and entrepreneurship are taught as one continuous path, ending with graduates set up as independent producers.
actioncontrelafaim.org
SBHoniara, Solomon Islands
Twenty-four young women in Honiara opened 13 gardens in backyards across 12 wards. In a capital heavily dependent on markets for food, the work is framed as feminist climate action: composting, seed saving and organic pest control taken back into local hands.
shiftingthepowercoalition.org
VUPort Vila, Vanuatu
Thirteen gardens built across Port Vila for residents compulsorily evacuated from Ambae Island after the second eruption of the Manaro Voui volcano in mid-2018. Fabric planting containers speed growth so the produce can supplement food during their stay in temporary shelters — a case of restoring a place to grow, in the city, to people who left behind the customary land that fed them.
communityeconomies.org
JMKingston (Jones Town), Jamaica
A church-led urban farming project launched on 28 January 2010 in Jones Town, an inner-city area of Kingston. An abandoned, derelict housing-development lot was turned into cultivated ground, returning idle city land to green use, with the church taking on job creation in the neighbourhood as part of the work.
cityfarmer.info
BSNassau and other constituencies, Bahamas
Community gardens opened by the Bahamian non-profit ADO on land borrowed from churches and institutions. Aiming to cut dependence on imported food and put fresh local produce within reach, it targets one garden in each of the country's 39 constituencies by 2026; six are running now.
adobahamas.org
XKGjakova, Kosovo
A permaculture garden run jointly by the environmental NGO Fondacioni Jeshil and SOS Children's Villages Kosovo. Phase one built roughly 100 sq m of raised beds with drip irrigation and planted 90 trees; phase two adds a staple-crop plot for potatoes plus fruit trees and berry bushes, feeding the residential site while serving as a local model.
kosovaideas.com
GYGeorgetown, Guyana
A wall-mounted kitchen garden built from discarded plastic bottles, taken into schools by the Green Economy Committee of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry. On 28 November 2020 the team worked with pupils at the David Rose School for the Differently Abled, planting thyme, celery, lettuce and calaloo, and said it would extend the project to fourth-form classes at other schools the following year.
gcci.gy