past & present

The original grange is a organization in the United States which encourages families to band together to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and agriculture. The Grange, founded after the Civil War in 1867, is the oldest American agricultural advocacy group with a national scope. Major accomplishments credited to Grange advocacy include the establishment of rural free mail delivery and women's suffrage. (Susan B. Anthony's last public appearance was at the National Grange Convention in 1903). In 2005, the Grange had a membership of 160,000, with organizations in 2,100 communities in 36 states. Many rural communities in the United States still have a Grange Hall and local Granges still serve as a center of rural life for many farming communities.In many ways granges were a precursor to today’s community centre. In fact many older grange halls have been repurposed as community centres.

It is our vision to bring the grange back to its roots. A community based and focussed resource that enables city dwellers to grow and access healthy local food. Our primary focus will be on enabling food access and equality to everyone. This means there will be a focus on ensuring low income people can access free or low cost resources that enable them equal access to healthy, local and homegrown food. To do this we intend to apply for grants and programs in partnership with the Urban Seed Project that will enable us to help build garden applications for urban spaces and facilitate people using them.