Monday December 29, 2025 | LANGFORD, BC [Updated December 30, 2025]
Analysis by Island Social Trends
Porcher Park Community Garden (PPCG) was launched in 2025 — the first community garden in the City of Langford.
Designed, constructed and operated this year by a local non-profit called Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society (UFRIS), as of year-end PPCG is now back in the City’s domain for operations going forward.
This was a decision made by UFRIS who saw that local garden-specific grant funding was not forthcoming in this economy but also that the City needs to take a more fulsome view of their role in the operation of the community asset.
UFRIS has recommended to the City that — instead of relying on a non-profit organization (for which funding can be up or down) and the volunteer goodwill of overworked Langford residents to support garden operations — that the City of Langford have a new position of volunteer coordinator to undertake the people-side of the community garden and other Langford projects that may have to rely on volunteer effort.
More fulsome funding:
The City will also need a budget line item (secure, reliable funding) for all aspects of the PPCG operations.
In Budget 2025 an amount of $10,000 was shown over the five-year plan (i.e. for each of 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029) after the $40,000 startup line in 2025.
The $10,000 per year going forward is evidently only for Parks Department operational expenses, not for daily management of the space or administration of the gardening community who pay a seasonal fee for use of the space.
More than 31 families rely on that space for access to healthy food-growing. As well, food is grown there for donation to food banks.
Adequate management of PPCG is about people as well as physical infrastructure. The City of Langford budget needs to reflect that.
Social contract:
Community gardens are part of both physical and social infrastructure in urban communities.
Langford has shown leadership in providing the City’s first community garden as a way to support primarily those who live in condos who (usually due to the cost of living) no longer have a yard in which to set up their own food-growing.
This is a recognition of social contract to allow for the human right to grow food, says UFRIS Executive Lead Mary P Brooke.
City support of UFRIS:
“Thanks for all your hard work to make the Porcher Park Community Garden a huge success! The fall harvest potluck was wonderful, I saw the pumpkin compost bin overflowing, and I’m looking forward to seeing the greenhouse,” says City of Langford Councillor Mary Wagner in a statement to UFRIS this week.
UFRIS contributed the bulk of input for the garden policy, created the design, devised the operational framework, made contractor arrangements and hosted social events this year.
UFRIS also established discount arrangements for PPCG gardeners with various retailers, helped the City set up more purchasing accounts with appropriate suppliers, and set up a working system to deliver food donations to the West Shore Living Edge food market.
As UFRIS Executive Lead, Brooke was the leader behind all this, as well as attending on-ground and in-garden all year to ensure a smooth first year for PPCG and its direction of growth in the years ahead.
UFRIS core mission:
The core mission of UFRIS has three planks:
- To facilitate food-growing capacity in urban spaces across the south Vancouver Island region and other urban areas across BC.
- To include nutritious food supply in disaster emergency response.
- To help support pregnant moms with fresh nutritious food throughout their pregnancy and while breast-feeding.
UFRIS also pays attention to the use and development of good quality soil for optimal growing of fruits and vegetables with an eye to soil handling and management in municipal and provincial legislation and regulations.
Ms Brooke has a Bachelor of Science in foods and nutrition including community education components and sociology.
Based on this, there is an overriding UFRIS guideline that fresh food (grown without pesticides or herbicides) is the healthiest option for people’s food intake and that the larger community must play a role in providing this.
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NEWS SECTIONS: FOOD SECURITY | URBAN FOOD RESILIENCE | AFFORDABILITY | LANGFORD