CP90133.F30 Chenise SASKATOONEXPRESS - June 30-July 6, 2014 - Page 1
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Volume 11, Issue 25, Week of June 30, 2014
Saskatoonʼs REAL Community Newspaper
Garden Patch Five years old and still growing
T
Shannon Boklaschuk Saskatoon Express
he Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre’s innovative Garden Patch project is feeding the hungry and educating local citizens about the importance of urban agriculture. Now in its fifth year, the community-driven initiative transforms a vacant lot owned by the City of Saskatoon into a thriving garden full of vegetables and other plants. The Garden Patch is located in the downtown area, in the 900 block of Third Avenue North. “This is an entire city block, so it’s about an acre and a half of growing space,” said Brit MacDonald, community developer and urban agriculture manager at the Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre. MacDonald said the garden provided 19,000 pounds of food to the food bank last year. During the course of the last four years, it has produced more than 70,000 pounds of food. The fresh veggies — including peas, beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, beets, onions, garlic and squash — are incorporated into the food baskets the food bank distributes to those in need. “Everything harvested within our garden goes to the food bank for distribution, so it goes out in our community food baskets, and also is accessed sometimes by community schools and different organizations as well,” she said. “It definitely helps us fulfill our commitment to provide healthy, nutritious food to the community. Beyond that, we’ve seen the garden as a space to create learning opportunities and to bring people together in a community space that’s inclusive. . . . People can get their hands in the dirt and really engage in the food system in a different way.” New this summer are the two beehives located at the garden’s south end. Flowers are also planted in an attempt to attract pollinators. “We observed last year some poor pol-
Janna Perry (right) and Brit MacDonald at the Garden Patch in downtown Saskatoon (Photo by Shannon Boklaschuk) lination with our cucumbers and different things, and also because since 2005 there’s been this incredible loss of bees all throughout North America — and largely unexplained,” MacDonald said. “We see that as an opportunity for us to then create a suitable habitat for bees and we thought what better than to partner with someone from the Saskatoon Bee Club and bring bees in.” MacDonald said there are some misconceptions about bees, but the honeybees at the garden are not aggressive and they won’t attack unless their hive is attacked. They travel a distance of two miles, “so it’s not as though they’re going to infest the garden.” They honey the bees produce also tastes “very good,” MacDonald added. “We’re very fortunate in Saskatoon that it’s legal to have bees, so urban beekeeping is encouraged,” she said. Other initiatives at the Garden Patch include a seed-saving project, funded by USC Canada, and the new Youth Garden
Internship Program, which is in its first year. The internship is an essential skills program that focuses on workplace training for young people between the ages of 16 and 22. “They’ll have a camping trip in the first week of July, and then they’ll be starting in the garden Monday to Friday for July and August,” said MacDonald. The six youth involved in the paid internship will focus on resume-building and interview skills, effective communication and hands-on sustainable agriculture work. The youth will tend to the garden, work with volunteers and community groups, learn about cooking and preparing food and supervise the tomato seed-saving project. “We have different youth sponsored by different organizations throughout town and different schools. We have kids coming from Core Neighbourhood Youth Co-op, from the Open Door Society, Nutana Collegiate (and other organizations),” MacDonald said. “Our goal was to pick the candidates that
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would receive the most from our program.” The program will be evaluated this year, and the goal is to offer it again, she said. In addition to growing vegetables, keeping bees and offering a program for young people, the Garden Patch also conducts research projects. For example, there is a partnership with the Permaculture Research Institute of Saskatchewan and Let’s Talk Science at the University of Saskatchewan to test different soil amendments — such as worm compost — on particular plots, said Garden Patch coordinator Janna Perry. “As we go, we’re going to be tracking and recording plant height, how green are the leaves, what’s the differences that we can see,” she said. Perry said the garden is helping people — including the school groups that visit — connect with the food they eat. “I think that when people see the food and touch it and then eat it, there’s a connection that happens,” Perry said. (Continued on page 4)
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