If the thousands of people who walk downtown along Hornby Street were to just look up, they would find a green garden oasis that stands out among all the glass, concrete, and stone.

The YWCA’s 18,000-square-foot rooftop garden is not only a an environmental and biodiversity success - it sets out to feed as many people in need as possible with its rich, organic food.

This year, the garden yielded a record 1,600 pounds of fruits, vegetable, and herbs. And food hampers, meal kits, and lunches go straight from the rooftop soil to the downtown east side.

The YWCA's garden grows a large varieties of fruits, vegetable and herbs - Photo Jordan Kawchuk

“We’ve served over 39,000 plates of food last year,” says Sandy Reimer, Director of the YWCA Health and Fitness Centre downtown. “It’s for people in need of good nutritious food, and it doesn’t get better than this.”

Kim Enns, the YWCA’s Rooftop Garden coordinator uses her green thumb to oversee a bounty of organic food, from tomatoes and potatoes to kale and kiwis.

“As a food grower, it’s deeply satisfying to be creating enough food for a meal program versus just creating food to sell," says Enns.

Surrounded by business towers looking down on the green garden, Enns and her volunteers work daily to supply food for the YWCA’s Crabtree Corner, a community resource centre for women and families, located in the downtown east side.

And with the rewards of giving back to society, the rooftop is also an urban gardener’s dream.

“It’s definitely a very cool job, I pinch myself on a daily basis,: says Enns. “One of my favourite things to do is to peek over the edge of the fifth floor, and you’re immediately transported into downtown - there’s cars whizzing by, people walking, bikes riding by.”

“And then you peek back up to the rooftop, turn around, and it’s just this green oasis again”.

The garden is surrounded by offices - Photo Jordan Kawchuk