DS-14-81 Grow Eat Share City of Oshawa Development Services Committee Fax: 905-436-5697 E: clerks(a),oshawa.ca To Development1Services Committee Members A week ago I was approached by Sandra Thomas, a teacher from Village Union School. Sandra came to teach downtown and immediately moved into the neighbourhood because she felt that it was important to live in the same place that the children she teaches live in. Sandra heard about We Grow Food when we canvassed the downtown neighbourhood for garden recipients on the 24th ofmarch. Her home is adjacent to the proposed property and would love, with the neighbourhood, and school to work with We Grow Food to create and care for the garden. Results of canvassing the Albert St I Celina St from John to First St brought in 7 gardens and a half dozen neighbours, that already have a garden, that have signed up to be volunteers. Residents continue to inquire, and since we have reached our "garden recipient" maximum of 30 gardens for the season we are inviting them all in as volunteers. I feel the sense of community growing as I write the words on this page. Our Meet and Greet on the 31st of March had The Table Restaurant busting at the seams with over 60 attendees... volunteers and garden recipients alike (children, parents and grandparents). Not only were We Grow Food relationships cultivated but within the group smaller groups formed working with each other to help the group as a whole. We Grow Food is completely funded with private donations from local residents and businesses as our mandate is to build relationships and community through vegetable gardens. I am awed and inspired by the generosity ofthe residents ofthis wonderful city I now can truly call out proudly that this is my home. (I have lived here for my entire life) We have identified an excellent opportunity to grow this initiative and we are asking to use the vacant land owned by the City, located on Albert Street - south east comer of Albert Street and John Street. In addition to using the land for the community garden, this land also comes with a very large garage that could potentially be used for the storage of gardening equipment that our team of volunteers could use to maintain this community garden.:.-=.)
I truly believe that this is an excellent opportunity to advance the We Grow Food mission and I ask that you consider allowing us to use this land for a community garden. Attached is the history and mission statement ofwe Grow Food. Eat Share For most people using the Food Banks, fresh produce often remains inaccessible. "We Grow Food" would like to change that. Each and every one of us has the right to access fresh fruits and vegetables as well as knowing where they come from. In bringing back the "family vegetable patch" it cultivates not only naturally grown food but a strong sense of community through a" back to earth" lifestyle of growing, eating and sharing what we grow. We Grow Food fills a gap in the access to fresh food for those are food insecure. We Grow Food is for everyone, but in this segment we focus on the following: Twenty-two percent of single parent households with children under eighteen years in Durham Region are food insecure. Being food insecure means; worrying that the food will run out, having to compromise the quality and/or quantity of food they eat, and having to reduce their food intake.ill Overall, 182,500 people in the 905 Region (Peel, Durham, and York) visited food banks in April 2012 to March 2013.W We have the opportunity to change these statistics in our community and provide a healthier lifestyle for the regions residents. The We Grow Food initiative, empowers community members to feed their families healthy meals by assisting them in growing their own vegetable garden. We Grow Food is a volunteer based organization located in Oshawa, which launched in the fall of 2013. We Grow Food is an organization that extended from successful- "The Table Restaurant" social initiatives: 1. The Kids After School Program in conjunction with Music Seeds International, where a group of kids between the age of eight and thirteen created a music video on how to grow food, knowing where your food comes from and the importance of local sustainable food. This project won the Durham Art In Transition Award 2013. ' 4
2. Soup of The Streets, which began two years ago and continues. This continuous initiative promotes an inclusive community philosophy. All ofthe produce is donated, chopped up by volunteers, prepared by The Table Restaurant, and distributed by volunteers to various places in the community such as: women's and men's shelters, The Settlement House (for both the afterschool children and the hard working volunteers), and our neighbours at the methadone clinic. We Grow Food: Promotes the importance ofgrowing our own food in family plots and reconnecting members of the community to our natural food source. Helps inspire and creates sustainable neighbourhoods by promoting conversation and practical application on how to best serve the neighbourhood, while creating opportunities to build community through education, growing, consuming, sharing, and trading the harvest. Promotes a "no waste" philosophy by giving each garden grower various opportunities to share and trade excess produce. Is funded through community donations, and promotes the sharing, donating, or trading ofgardening equipment, compost, seeds and people power. For the 2014 Spring Season we have scheduled: The distribution of one hundred garden signs within the community to anyone growing food on a family vegetable plot The creation of twenty family vegetable plots for people who in the past worried about accessibility to fresh produce The planting of a garden box court yard in one ofthe city core parking lots for the second year in a row. This includes twenty four planter boxes that are city owned and donated for the planting of fresh vegetables. These gardens will be cared for, and enjoyed by the tenants ofthe upstairs apartments surrounding the parking lot. The creation of a community garden beside the Cornerstone Men's Hostel which will offer the residents an opportunity to engage in a self sustaining food project as well as providing an opportunity to make constructive use of free time. Planting three gardens on properties that were donated for the production of food. This will offer people volunteer opportunities and fresh produce. Bringing the initiative full circle The Harvest Table will begin mid July. This gives all family garden plot owners the opportunity to trade their excess food, promoting diversity in produce accessibility, as well as growing community in spending time and learning from each other. The Harvest Table will take place behind The Table Restaurant once a week.
Eat Share For additional information about the. We Grow Food initiative please contact me, Carol Cavallari (founder of We Grow Food) by phone: 905-439-2527, By email: thetablebvcarol@icloud.com We Grow Food www.wegrowfood.org carol@wegrowfood.org The Table Restaurant 20 Simcoe St S Oshawa, Ontario LlH 4G2 The Gardens of 367 Grandview Teaching Garden Oshawa, Ontario To be uplifted please view the children's video that was created: Go to You Tube Ross Green, -Planting Gardens Poumfi:no!M.em6ersfrom 'We <;row Pootf rz'ykr<davis!1<ft;li Pfetclier P.rin CBoJ:aslieftli] James 1lafey Saffy (jrantk http://www.durham.ca/departments/health/food nutrition/com nutrition/foodbasket.p 6
This is the template for the Garden Signs that will be distributed throughout the community as a fundraising campaign as well as an awareness about growing your own food. These signs are handed out with a request for a $10.00 donation