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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Positive Aspects of Community Gardening

Community gardens promote healthy communities and help provide food security for some low income persons. Community gardens also strengthen community bonds and create recreational and therapeutic opportunities for the people of the community. They can also promote environmental awareness and provide community education. One of the goals to create healthier communities is to improve the nutrition and access to food for the community as a whole.

One thought behind a community garden is to provide fresh local produce to community organizations that help serve those in need. The community garden in Amherst is a product of many community organizations that help provide for those in need; such as, the Cumberland Food Network, Maggie’s Place, and the local food bank, just to name a few.

During the past week there were a few incidents at our local community garden that may have been a little demoralizing at first for the gardeners; however, everyone is moving forward with the food that is continuing to grow. Some of the gardeners give directly to places like the food bank while others share what they can, from the food they grow, with other people.

There may be a little bit of confusion regarding the term “Community Garden”. Some may feel that once the food is growing anyone in the “community” can go and pick it. During a meeting last week this was discussed and the gardeners are willing to share some of their food but would like to be asked first. After all, they are doing the hard part – growing, weeding, watering and caring for the plants until they are ready to be harvested.

There was a little outcry in the comments section of the Amherst Daily News regarding youth in our community. We have several pre-teens growing gardens and working in gardens with some of our more experienced gardeners. They are learning to grow vegetables and learning how to share and work with others. There was also a Leadership Group from Maggie’s Place that came up to the garden a few weeks ago to help pick weeds and do some cleanup. This was a wonderful group of youngsters and I was very privileged to meet them and work with them. Let us not forget the Canada World Youth Group that helped clean out the garden at the end of last year. They brought some of the food home to the people they were staying with and the rest went to the food bank “from them”.

So, let’s not paint all youth with a bad streak. We were all young once and perhaps did a few things that we may not be proud of including swiping a few carrots or cucumbers from a garden. But give the youth a chance to shine and they will shock you with what they are willing to do to make grownups proud of them. So three cheers to the youth in our community!!

Anyone can grow food for their table or even flowers if they choose at the Community Garden. It does not cost anything for a garden plot. We just hope that you too are willing to share just a little bit of it.

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