Expanding Pollinator Spaces & Cultural Food through Community Connection & Engagement
FED Urban Farm is a mixed vegetable container farm in the heart of Victoria, BC. The farm comprises over 3500 geotextile growbags that allow us to grow on underutilized or contaminated spaces. We grow over 7000 pounds of leafy greens and other veggies for the surrounding community each year, and provide many different opportunities for people to learn about food security in Victoria.
Pollinator Spaces
This year, with the generous support from West Coast Seeds and the hands-on engagement of our surrounding community, FED Urban Farm established two new pollinator gardens along the farm's public facing perimeters. These spaces were created as a means to provide pollinator & wildlife habitat, support on-site composting efforts, as well as offer a space that can be enjoyed and stewarded by the public. These new gardens became a learning and demonstration site for staff, volunteers, and
community members, providing a complimentary and essential service to the adjacent productive farming operation. In 2025, FED hosted over 10 engagements that were centered around pollinator education, habitat creations and pollinator stewardship. It has proved to be a great topic that can engage all ages and skill levels.
We also hosted three seed bomb making workshops using pollinator friendly seeds donated to us through West Coast Seeds! Participants were excited to go home with something tangible that can support pollinators!
Cultural Food
Expanding on a successful pilot project in 2024, this year we continued to grow our knowledge and prevalence of culturally relevant food on the farm through trialling new varieties provided by West Coast Seeds. These varieties included amaranth, callaloo, lemongrass, holy basil, shiso, ethiopian kale, & collards. These crops were grown and shared with food access programs in our community with the intention of continuing to grow, learn the cultural history of, and share information and access to cultural crops that are not widely available in our foodshed.
New 2025 trials of growing Amaranth, Callaloo, Collard Greens & Lemongrass from seed.
