By Karen Cay

Jessy’s Garden is growing hope

Jul 23, 2011 | 7:27 AM

When a family member has died tragically — the people left behind need to decide how to move forward.

For Bonny Sanderson, her decision was to keep her daughter’s memory alive by providing for others with a Community Garden.

“After we came back from the funeral, we were thinking about the kind of girl she was and decided to have a community garden to help out families that needed fresh vegetables,” she said.

Sanderson’s daughter, Jessy Plaskitt-Atkins took her own life, three years ago, while living in Toronto.
While she lived, though, she was a giver, said Sanderson.

She participated in helping and organizing jacket and blanket drives and she volunteered to support the homeless.

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“When she was 14, she organized a student food drive,” Sanderson said.

In the first year of the garden, Sanderson, along with her husband Mel, helped provide their extended family with produce.

The next summer, about 40 families were served.

Last year, there were 80 families who received fresh, organic vegetables from the garden and more families were served throughout the winter with produce Sanderson had preserved.

“It just gives us such a great feeling,” she said.

“We send families out with a car load of fresh veggies. So many children would come out and have incredible joy just from pulling a carrot out of the ground.”

Knowing local families, particularly children, are eating healthy food helps the healing process, Sanderson said.

“If I couldn’t do this, I just don’t know. It is keeping her alive for us and the reward of seeing the gratification from others is just a wonderful bonus.”

This year, the family is making up large bags to fill with produce. The bags are $10 and families can fill these bags with as many vegetables as they can for that price.

The family runs three organic gardens which covers approximately 3.5 acres of land. Almost every kind of vegetable imaginable is grown by the Sanderson including the basics: corn, potatoes, tomatoes, beets, peas, swiss chard, spinach, beans, cucumbers, dill, onions and more.

Families can start coming to the garden to pick vegetables at the end of July. The Sanderson garden is 21 kilometres east of Prince Albert on Highway 302. They ask people to call first at 922-3103.

“We know there are families in need in the city who can’t make it here,” she said.

“So we make arrangements to get the vegetables to them. No one needs to go without.”

To find out more information on the garden, volunteer or make arrangements to get vegetables, go to Jessy’s Garden in Community Group News.

kcay@panow.com