A united vegetable garden in the moats of the castle of the dukes in Nantes - J. Urbach / 20 Minutes

  • The “Nourishing landscapes” project, launched by the Nantes town hall, germinated during the coronavirus epidemic.
  • Objective: to arrange vegetable gardens in the city and distribute the crops to the most precarious inhabitants.

Impossible to miss them. In recent days, dozens of zucchini plants have appeared in the castle's moats, in Nantes. About a kilometer away, another vegetable garden of the same style, well protected by mulching, which settled along the Pablo-Picasso mall. But what are all these future tomatoes, beets or little cabbage in the city doing which will appear in a few weeks?

Since the beginning of June, dozens of plots of this type, called "Nourishing landscapes", have been developed by officials from the city hall's green spaces department in the four corners of the city. Objective, to grow vegetables there which will then be offered to the most vulnerable residents. An idea that germinated during the Covid crisis. "In Nantes as elsewhere, many families had to call for emergency food aid to meet an essential need: to eat," said one at the town hall. Problem: producers having to meet a high demand, access to seasonal fruits and vegetables was even more difficult for food aid associations, which sounded the alarm.

A thousand families could benefit

With these vegetable gardens, the town hall hopes to grow some 25 tonnes of vegetables by fall. The harvests, which will be ensured by the 250 gardeners and associative volunteers, are scheduled between July (for summer vegetables) and October. According to the city, which devotes an envelope of 30,000 euros to this project (or less than 2 euros / kg), a thousand households could be concerned.

Selected and contacted by the CCAS, they will be able to collect their merchandise free of charge via associations such as Secours populaire or Restos du Coeur. For seeds, crates or compost, the city says it has used local suppliers.

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  • Precarite
  • Food crisis
  • Fruits and vegetables
  • Planet
  • Nantes