The first community garden was built by Mr. Temp and his brother on their own initiative on a plot of vacant urban land in front of Temp's house in São Paulo's East Zone.
Both have experience in organic agriculture: His brother runs their great-grandfather's farm in Agudo in the South of Brazil, and Temp, after having studied business management in Rio de Janeiro (1985-88), completed a two-years course in organic agriculture on a farm in Tübingen, Germany (1993-95).
The garden area had been abused as a dumping site. When neighbours saw the garden being built there instead, they became aware of and interested in this alternative kind of landuse. A group of people got together to help and to replicate the implementation of gardens. Temp guided them.
Today, having implemented 25 community gardens, he considers guidance crucial for the success of the gardens. Furthermore, this guidance needs to be continuous and intensive especially in the first year of a garden's implementation. Afterwards, community gardeners are able to manage their garden autonomously, but it is important for Cities Without Hunger to be present as contact persons and to lend bigger machines when needed.
- guidance for the implementation of gardens: practical knowledge and experience in organic agriculture
- visibility of garden in the neighbourhood
- word-of-mouth communication between neighbours spread the word of the possibility to build community gardens
- interested neighbours need continuous guidance on the ground for the implementation of gardens
- visibility of gardens is crucial for people to understand that alternative landuses are possible, and evoke the desire to replicate these
- gardens are successfully implemented on residents' own initiative rather than using top-down approaches