The 2020 growing season looked a little different compared to past seasons in Mohawk’s Community Garden and the community food banks benefitted!
Typically, each year community garden members (a mixture of Mohawk staff, faculty and students) register to tend to one of the now 51 plots available. Over the season, the gardeners choose what they want to grow and tend to their plots, harvesting their healthy and delicious produce when it’s ready.
The groups then share what they grow amongst themselves and if they are inclined, they may even donate some of their crops to local food banks and to the Mohawk Students’ Association’s Food Bank for students.
With Covid-19 restrictions and very limited access to campus, it was understood that staff and students would not be able to participate this year, but the Sustainability team saw an opportunity to help our community.
Neighbour to Neighbour is one of the local non-profit food banks that receive donations from the community garden. “This year we worked with Neighbour to Neighbour to decide which vegetables to grow in the garden based on the needs of the food bank,” says Ashley Packer, Coordinator, Sustainable Food Systems. The result was a variety of beets, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cabbage, swiss chard, kale and lettuce grown and donated, totalling 214lbs in produce.
The Sustainability Team would like to thank the community garden members for allowing us to take over their plots this year. We are hopeful for the day when we are all back in the community garden together again.
