The Seattle area has an extensive collection of community gardens, in fact, if you combine the spaces in the near suburbs with the P-Patch system within Seattle city limits, there are about 100 community gardens publicly available.
I happen to grow my vegetables at one of these garden spaces. I live in a wooded area and do not have enough sunlight to support a kitchen garden, and if I didn't have access to a sunny area, I'd have to cry. At my house, vegetables become poor little plant victims. The darlings try so hard, but they just turn spindly and fall over.