For Community Gardens Week 2025, GAP Ireland highlights new evidence linking diet, health and climate.
During National Community Gardens Week 2025, we are calling on communities nationwide to reimagine how we grow, share and eat food, in response to the intertwined crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and public health.
Research published this month warns that the way we currently produce and consume food is pushing the planet beyond safe ecological limits.
The report finds that shifting global diets toward more plant-based patterns could prevent up to 15 million premature deaths every year and cut agricultural greenhouse gas emissions by around 15%. The findings of this month’s EAT-Lancet report show that reforming our food systems is one of the most powerful tools we have to protect both people and the planet.
The report is a powerful reminder that our choices at the dinner table matter. But transforming those choices requires community, not just individual effort. For National Community Gardens Week 2025, we highlight the important role that community gardens can play in bringing about that change. Community gardens turn abstract global goals into reality, helping people to reconnect with food, nature and each other.
Food systems currently account for about 30% of all greenhouse gas emissions, and transforming them will require social, economic and cultural change.
GAP Ireland believes that change can begin in local neighbourhoods, with community gardens showing how global goals for health, sustainability and social cohesion can take root.
Community gardens make climate action tangible.
Community gardens turn abstract global goals into something practical and hopeful. They provide spaces where people reconnect with food, nature and each other. Research continues to back this up. A 2025 review of 37 community garden projects found that such initiatives enhance food security, strengthen community cohesion and build resilience. Another recent study showed that community gardens offer not just fresh produce but also psychological and social wellbeing in dense city settings – a conclusion also reached in research published by GAP in 2023.
Food connects everything: our health, our environment and our sense of belonging. When people grow food together, they grow confidence and community too. That’s where real change begins.
The third national Community Gardens and Allotments Week is taking place from 11 to 18th October 2025, to celebrate the power of local action for a fairer, healthier food future.
Across Ireland, community gardens will host open days, workshops and volunteer events showcasing how simple shared actions like growing vegetables, eating less meat, and reducing food waste contribute to national health and climate goals.
We invite everyone to visit a local community garden, volunteer in one, or start a shared growing space in their own neighbourhood.
In doing so, people become part of a wider movement to transform not just diets, but the systems that sustain life on Earth.