Ottawa-based nonprofit JustFood, which focuses on improving the city’s food system, has seen a rise in inquiries for information about gardening. “There has been a general increase of people wanting to grow their own food since COVID, but it’s picked up again with tariffs,” says Kate Veinot, director of operations and neighbourhood planning. “These events highlight how fragile food systems are when you rely on imports.”

JustFood advocates for policy changes to allow people more access to spaces to grow their own food — such as designating community garden space in parks, unused farmland or land owned by the National Capital Commission, says Veinot. Currently, they’re calling on the city to lift prohibitions on growing food in residential boulevards — those narrow strips of city-owned land between the street and sidewalk. Veinot highlights an equity problem for urban residents, “for some that could be the only space you could grow food,” she says.

“One in four households report food insecurity [in Ottawa],” says Veinot. “There are ways to find creative policies to support a shift away from using emergency food access.”

“Healthy food is expensive in Canada,” says Brandon. “Like a lot of working class families, growing up we often only had the alternative — namely cheaper highly processed imports.”

Understanding the importance of quality food for overall wellbeing, Brandon and Mapila take a permaculture approach to their garden. “The permaculture values are earth care, people care and fair share,” says Boyd. “To me, that means take care of the earth, your community and if you have extra, give it away.”

Building strong community ties, adds Mapila, is how they’ll weather uncertainty with tariffs.

 “We’re not going to know all the answers, or solve all the world’s problems,” says Boyd. “Our kid will have to face a lot of scary stuff. But let’s take this anger and build the world we want — not wait for somebody else to do it.”