Toronto could grow at least 10% of its needed vegetables.Urban farms and gardens empower Torontonians to grow, harvest and share staple vegetables and herbs, as well as unique produce that’s culturally relevant for different diasporas. Growing produce locally helps residents have reliable access to nutritious, affordable food, as well as have agency over and participation in the food production process.Flemo Farm and Malvern Urban Farm are part of a pilot project in Toronto to grow food in hydro corridors, especially in neighbourhoods that face high unemployment and low food access.There are other models of urban farming in the city, including on privately owned land behind residential buildings. Thorncliffe Park Urban Farmers provides a blueprint.
On a chilly May morning, Ayn Regalado weeds three plant beds under the high-voltage towers of Toronto’s hydro corridor in Flemingdon Park.
Regalado is preparing the soil to be planted with seedlings she’d been nurturing in her apartment. She’s particularly excited about saluyot, a leafy plant popular for stews in the Philippines (also called mulukhiyah in the Arab world). It’s one of those comforting dishes Regalado remembers her mother making her back home. In Toronto, she never finds saluyot in grocery aisles; it’s only ever in the frozen veggie section, and doesn’t taste as good.
“When I learned that there’s a farm here, I was like: Why don’t I grow things that I remember from home?” Regalado wondered.
She’d been gardening in containers on her balcony, but in 2025, she became one of 11 community members who grow produce in Flemo Farm, a half-acre plot located near 150 Grenoble Dr. that’s managed by FoodShare Toronto.
Regalado is growing her beloved saluyot, different varieties of spinach, some peas, onions and her preferred type of bitter melon, the least bitter one she could find. Her first season last year was trial and error; this year, Regalado hopes to grow enough to complement her family’s store-bought groceries, sell at the local farmer’s market and donate to neighbourhood charities.
The farm is one of two pilot projects that the City of Toronto approved five years ago to develop underused space in hydro corridors with three goals in mind: offer economic opportunities to residents, increase community engagement and address food insecurity in Flemingdon.
Today, Toronto has more than 69 community gardens and 300 urban farms— but only two of them in hydro corridors. Those vast stretches of land, which cover approximately 2,773 acres of the city and are typically lined with high-voltage towers that feed power into our homes, businesses and public facilities, are mostly grass lawns.
“If one can imagine the amount of green space in those hydro corridors and how that could impact our local food system in Toronto, it could really be huge,” says Tara Ramkhelawan, community farm coordinator at Flemo Farm.
In Flemingdon Park and the adjacent Thorncliffe Park — areas with high density and poor access to food and community spaces — the farm fills some crucial gaps. But it’s not the only one.
Across the Charles Hiscott Bridge, where the Don River and Overlea Boulevard meet, Thorncliffe Park residents have access to a different kind of farm, one that’s run behind the parking lot of a private residential building.
Every Saturday morning throughout the summer, a volunteer tinkers with a lock to let in children, teens, adults and seniors into the Thorncliffe Park Urban Farm (TPUF). Amidst a backdrop of a dense forest, sections of wild flowers and shrubs like serviceberry, makeshift raised vegetable beds, and handmade benches and fences, the small plot is a collective backyard for the area’s apartment dwellers.
“Here at the garden, we’re growing with our neighbors, with the community, and we grow almost anything that we can grow. We’re very experimental in our growing, but we really like to focus on what the people like to eat,” the farm’s founder Michelle Delaney says.
“We also like to grow things that maybe you don’t really find in the grocery store. So, pattypan squash, zucchinis, lemon cucumbers — just to help remind people that food is so much more than what we see in the grocery store.”
The harvests are shared with everyone who comes into the garden, and would like to pick some veggies. Some is also shared with neighbours and local food programs.
Around the corner, staff and volunteers at multi-service agency The Neighbourhood Organization tend to a small vegetable garden that helps stock up the local food bank.
The area is also home to three community garden plots where locals can grow food and flowers: Flemingdon Park Community Garden, which is steps away from Flemo Farm; Thorncliffe Family Garden (46 Thorncliffe Park Dr.); and Thorncliffe Park Garden Club Community Garden (around 50 Beth Nealson Dr.).
All in all, these farms and gardens empower residents to grow, harvest and share staple vegetables, such as peas and tomatoes, as well as unique produce that’s culturally relevant for local communities that are largely made up of Pakistani, Indian, Afghan and Filipinx diasporas.
“I think cities are incredibly capable of growing a lot of food,” says James Kuhns, co-coordinator of advocacy network Toronto Urban Growers.
Over a decade ago, Kuhns was involved in an academic study that tried to answer the question: Could Toronto grow 10% of its needed vegetables? (For comparison, cities of the Global South including Havana, Singapore and Accra grow over 20% of their vegetables.)
The short answer is yes — and probably more.
“You’re not going to grow enough to feed your family, but even if you can grow simple things, it’ll help your food budget,” Kuhns says. “ It could also diversify what you consume; you might be able to grow culturally appropriate food, such as various herbs that can make a meal special.”
When communities grow at least part of their own food, they come closer to achieving food security, which is reliable access to enough nutritious, affordable food, as well as food sovereignty, which is agency over and participation in the food production process.
“I think urban farming helps you think about where your food is coming from,” says TPUF founder Michelle Delaney. “When people start to draw a connection [with] the taste and the health, and it becomes a personal thing for them. They kind of have these ‘Aha!’ moments, you know, and then they start to educate themselves more about the food system.”
Farmers and advocates across Toronto agree that urban agriculture in the city is essential. It can provide locally grown, high-quality and affordable produce to communities facing food insecurity and the fallout of relying on imports for most of what they eat.
“Growing closer to home also means a shorter supply chain. This increases the resilience of the food system and leaves growers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers less vulnerable to national and international shortages and disruptions,” according to the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association (OFVGA).
Food security aside, experts in many disciplines have documented the positive impact of urban farming and local agriculture on almost every aspect of life: employment, environment, health and community networks.
Expanding urban agriculture means creating many employment opportunities for professional and part-time farmers, plus summer jobs for students and volunteer spots for neighbours.
From an environmental perspective, local agriculture also improves neighbourhood air quality, on-site soil health, stormwater management and biodiversity. Healthy farming practices — often called regenerative agriculture — also offset their own carbon footprints.
“For me personally, I care about growing food within cities because I think it just makes sense. When we have access to food close to home, we’re reducing emissions. We’re making healthier choices. Also, it just tastes a whole lot better. Like when you start eating from the garden, you realize how bland and flavorless food is when you’re at the grocery store,” Delaney says.
Many studies argue having access to urban farms is healthier, too.
In a nearly 10-year-old scoping analysis — that is, a comprehensive review of data and input from Toronto farm practitioners — Toronto Urban Growerslists the benefits of urban agriculture to make the case for policies and funding to support Toronto farms. The analysis cites multiple studies that show a positive relationship between urban agriculture and increased fruit and vegetable consumption, reduced levels of obesity and improved mental health, specifically mood improvement and stress reduction from spending time in green spaces.
Researchers also highlighted the positive social impacts: Urban agriculture projects build social networks, reduce isolation through multigenerational spaces and foster youth leadership.
Community members who work in, volunteer, or visit Flemo Farm and TPUF can attest to all of the above.
Regalado says growing her own food is about connection to both land and community. She cherishes the opportunity to teach her 16-year-old daughter to appreciate how food is grown.
“I farm because that allows me to better understand, you know, the farm to table experience.”
In her two years at Flemo Farm, Regalado has had the chance to grow produce she likes to eat and trust the source. Regalado also met other Filipinx community members who were craving the staples she grew, and she also learned from her more experienced plot neighbour.
“People are really growing crops with a lot of care, and sharing tips about the different plants that they’re growing with their neighbours — and that provides a beautiful opportunity to see how different foods are prepared similarly or slightly differently across cultures,” says Claire Perttula, urban agriculture and food programs manager at Malvern Family Resource Centre, which runs Malvern Urban Farm.
“There’s an opportunity to have those conversations, as well — not just about food security, but about food and culture.”
Malvern Urban Farm and Flemo Farm are both urban farms in Toronto’s extensive hydro corridors. The City of Toronto launched these two projects in 2021 as part of a program called Community Engagement and Entrepreneurial Development Gardens (CEED).
“The goals of the farm are to one, increase the availability of fresh, culturally relevant produce in the community; two, to provide supplemental income-generating opportunities for residents through becoming farmers with us; and three, to engage other community members who aren’t farmers with us through the farm in various ways,” Perttula explains.
Malvern and Flemingdon Park were identified as ideal locations for the pilot project because they each had high levels of food insecurity and unemployment rates, access to lots of space under hydro lines and community organizations willing to run the farms.
But the project didn’t happen overnight. Farm coordinators told The Green Line that local residents and advocates had spent almost a decade drawing up plans and negotiating support from the City.
“This is a community-led initiative where community residents who live in this area and grassroots agencies wanted to see this happen in the space,” says Orlando Martín López Gómez, community food growing senior manager at FoodShare, which oversees Flemo Farm.
Perttula wants the City to standardize the process of applying for permits to use space in hydro corridors, and give other Toronto communities the chance to operate similar farms.
It all began in 2023, when the Malvern Family Resource Centre and local city councillors received a petition from residents to expand the farm, which “showed us that community members were looking for this,” Perttula says.
As a result, last year, Malvern Urban Farm got another acre on top of its existing two acres, and welcomed 10 new farmers to participate in the programming. Perttula helped document the process in order to put together a guide for other communities to use. She also helped launch a new petitionasking the City to increase support for urban agriculture and expand hydro corridor farms in Toronto.
“We can use this as one method of combating food insecurity in our city,” Perttula explains. “Food is so important to culture and identity and also just a necessity of life, and urban agriculture gives people the opportunity to meet all of those needs and to build connections with each other.”
If at this point, you’re a bit jealous of these vibrant urban farming communities and you’re wondering how to get an initiative like this started in your own neighbourhood, keep an eye out for our guide on setting up an urban farm in Toronto.