By Angela Brown

Community gardens grow over 11,000 pounds of produce to feed the hungry

Oct 9, 2020 | 2:52 PM

NORTH BATTLEFORD, SASK. – Community gardens in the Battlefords area this year are putting more than 11,000 pounds of fresh produce on the tables of families in need.

The Battlefords District Food and Resource Centre is reporting strong numbers from donations of fresh produce coming in as part of its Plant a Row, Grow a Row project this year.

All the produce donations benefit the food hamper program.

“Our Plant a Row, Grow a Row initiative that we do every year actually did really well this year,” Executive Director Erin Katerynych said. “We ask people who have gardens to plant an extra row for the Food Bank.”

Some of the produce donated includes lettuce, carrots, beats, spaghetti squash, tomatoes and potatoes.

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“It’s been fantastic,” Katerynych said, adding that produce donations began coming in around June and more are still being donated now.

Various organizations and individuals contributed freshly grown vegetables. This year’s tally is more than twice last year’s total of about 4,131 pounds of produce.

“I would just like to say thank you to the community, and the support they always show to us here at the Battlefords District Food and Resource Centre,” Katerynych said. “Without support like this we wouldn’t be able to keep our doors open to feed those in need.”

The 11,000 pounds of produce contributed includes amongst the donations over 3,700 pounds of food from public donations of vegetable produce dropped off.

A total of 2,890 pounds of produce was received from Charles Baillargeon of Meota who planted seeds to grow produce at two locations, donated by the Iverson family and the United Church respectively.

As well, over 1,000 pounds of food is donated every year including 2020 from a Medstead family.

About 900 pounds of veggies was provided from City of North Battleford’s Victory Garden.

Over 400 pounds were received from Sharon Children’s Home and Schools on Airport Road in North Battleford.

More than 360 pounds of produce was received from the Western Development Museum in North Battleford.

A donation was also received from the Scott Hutterite Colony.

On behalf of the City of North Battleford’s Victory Garden project, City Manager Randy Patrick said this was the first year of their effort.

“We wanted to do it a bit as a team-building exercise but we also knew that it is a harder year for people, and that there was a bigger need potentially than normal for fresh vegetables,” he said. “It’s helping the community at the same time. We thought it was a great idea.”

The garden was taken care of and harvested by city employees who volunteered their efforts.

The Victory Garden donation included a large quantity of fresh carrots, beats, green beans, and some potatoes.

“Our potato crop was not quite what we hoped for,” Patrick said with a laugh on the outcome.

He said the city’s parks manager, Gordon Whitton, first suggested the idea for the project, and a number of people expressed an interest in getting involved. The city contributed the seed costs.

The initiative was called the Victory Garden project in the spirit of the Victory Gardens vegetable plots that were planted throughout Canada during Second World War to help increase food production.

Patrick said the local initiative quickly took off.

He said with the pandemic underway impacting many families, this was one opportunity to help more people put healthy food on the table.

“We provided the product for people who may not be able to do it themselves,” Patrick said. “We have COVID-19 going on, and we wanted to find a way of making a small victory.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @farmnewsNOW