World Food Garden

The World Food Garden celebrates the abundant deliciousness of community cultural food knowledge.

Participating gardeners represented diverse backgrounds from Oceania, Africa and Asia. Together they planned and revitalised seven garden beds at Westvale Community Centre with food plants from their Samoan, Somalian, Burmese and Vietnamese cultures.

Through intergenerational storytelling and cross-cultural knowledge exchange, the group found joy in learning about each other’s foods, recipes and plants.

The garden is now abundant with taro, banana, sen tok, lemongrass, sweet potato, blue corn and chillies. With the help of the project team, participants created a World Food Garden booklet and film to share their experiences and stories.

“Taking part in the project has really changed my lifestyle positively. I’ve become more active by walking everyday to the community centre but I’ve also learned things from others either culturally or [about] ecological sustainability. I’ve also formed new bonds with those from the World Food Gardens.”

- GARDENER/PROJECT ELDER

The pilot phase of the project has concluded and the gardeners continue to grow culturally appropriate foods at the Westvale Community Centre. Participants and Sustain staff co-produced a zine to capture the stories of plants important to their cultures, and to have a physical record of the oral traditions and knowledge transfer that was were essential to the World Food Garden project. Read the Zine here.

Project Partners:

• City of Brimbank

• Westvale Community Centre