Youth in Action: Hanna R. Shares Insights from our Patio Sprouts Series
‘You have a right to healthy food systems:’ Studio.89 opens its Urban garden to the City of Mississauga
Food sovereignty is just an arm’s length away as Studio.89 opens its new vegetable and herb garden to its surrounding community. The non-profit café launched this urban agricultural initiative on May 23rd under the program name Patio Sprouts.
The concept behind Patio Sprouts took root in January—the café’s first attempt to tackle rising grocery prices and boost community engagement. The Social Impact Committee (SIC) led the charge—a volunteer youth group dedicated to developing initiatives that amplify sustainability and foster community. SIC has spearheaded several Studio.89 events, such as art showcases, park cleanups, and a Family Feud Fundraiser, where contestants were tested on issues regarding animal welfare, human rights, and the environment.
“We are showing community members that, yes, we might be struggling with our economy. But if we team up together and grow these things together, then we are able to reduce that stress [of grocery prices] at least slightly,” explained Operations Manager Aryanna Alikhan, who drafted the budget proposal to the City of Mississauga.
Patio Sprouts refers to the garden of basil, spinach, rosemary, pepper, and parsley that the SIC and high school co-op volunteers built and planted on Studio.89’s patio. The café encourages its community to come in and nurture its array of goods, connect with their neighbours, and/or share agricultural knowledge—with the promise that the garden is open for foraging.
“You have to put in that effort to take care of nature in order for nature’s benefits to take care of your body and your health,” Alikhan said, referring to the single requirement needed to pick from the café’s patio.
Alikhan also helped evolve Patio Sprouts into a series of monthly workshops, set to resume on June 14 with a beginner-friendly painting and planting session. Besides promoting community engagement and offering grocery alternatives to the surrounding area, the SIC hopes to teach café-goers about food sovereignty and encourage them to cultivate their own gardens.
“You have a right to healthy food systems, and the need to produce, distribute, and consume your food should be accessible and inclusive,” she said. “Everyone should also have access to a free community space and these programs that help develop them, personally and professionally. So, it goes hand-in-hand with food sovereignty, but also just being part of a community.”
Tea has always been my little ritual, my thing… a warm hug, a moment of comfort, a reason to pause. But now, when I take a sip, I think about the people behind the leaves, the hands that picked them, the lands they grew from. I think about sustainability, culture, and the stories steeped into every cup.
I recently attended the Toronto Tea Festival and to my surprise my placement at Studio.89 gave me a whole new perspective. As I happily wandered from booth to booth, sipping and savoring (and trust me, I did plenty of that). I found myself drawn into conversations about fair trade, ethical sourcing, and the impact of conscious consumerism.
Instead of just appreciating a good brew I wanted to know: Where, how, and who grew these leaves? Were they paid fairly? How does this tea honor tradition and sustainability?
Turns out, Studio.89 had quietly trained me to ask these questions to look beyond the product and see the bigger picture, to look beyond the branding (the visual) to uncover the brand (the story). Working here has shown me that every choice we make even something as simple as choosing tea can be an act of awareness, a step toward something better.
This isn’t just a place that serves ethically sourced drinks; it’s a space that encourages dialogue, creativity, and action in ways that matter.
Being part of this mission has inspired me to engage with the world more thoughtfully, to recognize the interconnectedness of what’s in my cup with the hands that picked the leaves, the land that nourished them, and the systems that bring them to us.
Experiences like these have taught me that leadership isn’t about standing at a podium. It’s in the conversations we have, the choices we make, and the communities we build. It’s about being aware, being engaged, sharing our awareness and letting that guide how we move through the world.
At the festival, I wasn’t just enjoying tea; I was experiencing the cultures, histories, and labor behind every steeped leaf. I left with a deeper respect for the industry and a sense of responsibility that I hope to share with other. So here’s my takeaway… Enjoy your tea. Savor it.
But next time, let it stir up some questions too. Because true enjoyment requires true equity, and deeper structural (dare I say systemic) change.
According to the 2015 Paris Agreement, several countries were called to cut carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 and fully by 2050 to keep global warming below 1.5. However, new studies tell us that if we continue as we are now, we may miss that goal as early as 2030. For this reason, I made this poster as a call to action, to prevent even more damage than we’re already increasingly causing to our planet. With cluttered newspapers, I tried to represent how throughout our daily lives, we are so overwhelmed and inundated with stuff to do and news or drama around the world, so we procrastinate over taking climate action. But ironically, all the things we busy ourselves with instead of acting will be affected and changed if we don’t face the inevitable and fight the climate crisis. The space in the middle symbolizes this, in a way showing you what’s beyond all the noise. Moreover pictures inside the zeros allude to net zero (the goal of a small amount of emissions), where the imagery is positive to represent a better, more sustainable future. In contrast, the imagery in the two and the three shows the harm being done to our planet if we don’t.
