The CKE Community Garden has been going since 2010, and several of the original founding members are still on the committee. Part of the Garden’s mandate has always been to bring the community together to learn about the benefits of growing your own food, sustainable food systems, and how edible plants can be grown in Calgary.
One event in particular has been popular since the first one in 2012 – our movie night. With the exception of breaks for the construction of the new hall and Covid, a movie has been shown at the CKE Hall every January. The documentaries have focussed on local and international topics all revolving around food production, food security, and inspiring related stories.
This year we are pleased to continue our tradition by showing Before the Plate, following a Canadian chef as he follows the ingredients from one plate of food back to the farms they came from. This movie will be shown at the CKE Hall on Friday, January 17.
Over the last several years, our movies nights included:
• The Botany of Desire, based on the book of the same name, explores the natural history of four plants and how they evolved to satisfy human desires for sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control of nature.
• The Garden a story of a community garden created as a form of healing after the Los Angeles riots of 1992 and the farmers that fought to save their garden from the bulldozers. Food Inc takes an in-depth look at the food industry, the corporations that control it, and its harmful effects on human health and the environment.
• A Year in Burgundy was lighter fare, following wine-making families in the Burgundy region over the course of a year, delving into the cultural and creative processes and the challenges of the seasons.
• Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story is the story of a BC couple who vowed to stop buying groceries and survive for six months eating only food that is destined to be discarded.
• Cultivating Calgary’s Local Food Resiliency brought us closer to home, exploring our local food movement, the barriers to a sustainable food system and a vision for a resilient local food culture.
• Ingredients: The Local Food Movement Takes Root looks at the shortcomings of the industrialized food system and unearths the roots of the local food movement aiming to shrink the gap between farm and table.
• Can You Dig This showcases the urban gardening movement in South Los Angeles where people are trying to transform their neighbourhoods with a call to put down guns and pick up shovels.
• Kiss the Ground explains how regenerating the world’s soils can stabilize our climate and create abundant food supplies.
• Last year we presented A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity which follows a community in Australia as they build tiny houses and plant veggie gardens, demonstrating a way to live in response to global crises.
All these films are available for viewing online and are well worth watching. Please consider joining us on Friday, January 17 at 7:00 pm at the CKE Community Hall. This is a wonderful way to connect with fellow community members, meet some of the gardeners, and learn more about our food systems.
Happy gardening!
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