Public Gardens and Food Insecurity

The problem of food insecurity is one of the most virulent in the world today, even in wealthy countries. For those countries that have municipalities that include public gardens, addressing food insecurity can in part take the form of food being grown in public gardens and then shared with those who are food insecure. My argument relies on five premises: (1) Public gardens have the capacity to grow nourishing consumables. (2) Public gardens have the obligation to meet purposes focused on the provision of public goods. (3) No purpose focused on the provision of public goods prevents the growing of nourishing consumables. (4) The suffering of food insecurity can be alleviated by the provision of nourishing consumables that can be shared with those who are food insecure. (5) Meeting this goal is moral. The paper explores each of these premises in turn.