Jersey Public School, Metro, Home Hardware team up for community garden

YorkRegion.com
July 7, 2014
Heidi Riedner

Young minds are fertile grounds for planting seeds of change.

And one local school in Georgina is sowing the seeds of healthy eating through a community garden.

Thanks to a local retailer, that concept has already taken root in Keswick.

With a $1,000 grant from Metro Food stores from the Green Apple Food Grant, Jersey Public School Performance Plus child and youth worker Maureen McDermott had the funds, but no plot, to make her dream of a community garden a reality.

“The grant gave us the funds needed, but nowhere to create the garden,” says McDermott.

For more than five years, a shared vegetable garden to promote healthy eating, getting kids and families outdoors and to develop healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime has been McDermott’s dream to develop within her Jersey community.

With Keswick Home Hardware stepping up to the plate by offering a piece of land off of its Queensway South location in Keswick, that dream became a reality.

Store owner Steve Clee even rolled up his sleeves and tilled the land he donated so the kids could get out digging in the dirt just days before the end of the school year in June.

Kristy Searle’s Grade 5/6 class was out doing just that a few weeks ago in their new Jersey Family Garden.

The engagement from the students has been amazing, says McDermott, adding the community garden will be shared with students and families of the Jersey area.

“They are so enthusiastic about it on every level. To create something from dusty soil with rocks and grass to rich soil ready to plant seeds has really got them involved.”

With a bit of a late start, mostly fall veggies such as squash, potatoes, carrots and pumpkins were planted.

But the goal is also to prep the soil with nitrates for next year’s spring planting.

The school’s project is also registered with Seeds For Change, a non-profit organization that promotes community gardens.

The grass roots organization, partnered with York Region Food Network, aims to grow healthier neighbourhoods through school and community gardens.

McDermott agrees and hopes the larger Keswick community will become involved in the school project, adding a special thank you to Keswick Home Hardware, Metro Foods and The Old Mill in Sutton for getting the garden off, or rather in, the ground.

Volunteers are a key component in the garden’s future success, especially during the summer holidays with the kids out of school.

She invites everyone to stop in and take a look what the school has created.

“And if they see some weeds, they can feel free to jump in,” she says.