Community Garden wins $1,000 prize

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Members of the garden group (left to right): Tom Clapp of St Paul’s, Leslie Scharfe – Volunteer Co Coordinator, Jane Schoones – Team Leader at Community Food Share, and Leslie Levere, Volunteer Co Coordinator.

submitted by Jim Millard

With the gardening season well underway, community gardens in both Winchester and Iroquois are starting to provide fresh produce to food banks operated by Community Food Share.

St. Paul’s Community Garden in Winchester, a project of Community Food Share, has won a prize of one thousand dollars. Eric Stacey of Ottawa radio station Live 88.5 visited Winchester recently to present a $1,000 gift card for Ritchie Feed and Seed that can be used by the garden for seeds and supplies.

Located on the grounds of St. Paul Presbyterian Church in Winchester, the garden has been in operation for six years and provides hundreds of pounds of produce to Community Food Share’s food bank in Winchester.

Another community garden in Iroquois operated by the Iroquois Matilda Lions Club and located on the grounds of Riverview Presbyterian Church has 15 raised beds planted and will soon be starting to harvest vegetables for Community Food Share. The Lions Club works with students at Seaway District High School who have a greenhouse at the school, enabling them to start plants early. They’re already providing some early vegetables and seedlings.

Grow towers are also in operation at Timothy Christian School in Williamsburg and at Iroquois Public School throughout the school year. Food banks in Morrisburg and Winchester operated by Community Food Share receive fresh produce from both these elementary schools.

The organization is here to help the residents of Dundas and Stormont with a vision that no person or family in our community goes hungry.