Interested in starting a community garden this spring?

The Plot Thickens community gardening workshop will give you a good start! It will be given by A Rocha Canada’s experienced gardening friends, partners and trained community organizers.

Our workshop covers: gathering your garden team, generating excitement about a community project, managing plots, gardening how-tos, facing challenges and more. Participants will receive a community gardening manual, monthly gardening emails, an online space to connect and a webpage for profiling your new community garden. Our goal is to partner with you and your Christian community as you develop a garden to support local food production and facilitate community outreach.

Details

Location: Crossroads MB Church, 231 Kitson Street, Winnipeg MB (Corner of Kitson and Traverse)
Date/Time: Fri. Mar. 23rd 6:00pm – 9:00pm & Sat., Mar. 24th 9:00am – 3:30pm
Food: Meals & refreshments provided. Please let us know about specific food needs.
Cost: $30 for single, or 2 for $50.  Includes garden manual and food (subsidies available)

Presenters: Jen Kornelsen (A Rocha’s Community Organizer) and Kristine (Farmer at Fort Whyte Farms)

Register here online!

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Winnipeg’s hot summer is in full swing, bringing beautiful and bountiful vegetables from the Just Growing gardens to the tables of people in need.

St. Margaret’s Anglican Church has partnered with A Rocha in urban agriculture. Over 325 sq. m. of garden plots (5 locations) grow a variety of produce and flowers; all of the produce reaped from these little pieces of God’s earth goes directly to neighbourhood residents in need, many of whom live with mental disabilities, are on welfare or disability, and some of whom are marginalized. Produce goes both to individuals who participate in tending and harvesting the gardens, as well as to local organizations such as transitional housing, food banks, and soup kitchens.

Thus far, Just Growing has harvested 16 kilograms of produce, including lettuce, spinach, peas, cauliflower, onions, beets, carrots, zucchini, vegetable marrow, sweet peppers, and a variety of herbs. 76 people have directly participated in activities and, in total, 450 people have benefitted, either through direct involvement or through produce deliveries to local organizations.

The four interns involved in the program continue to learn about the mechanics of gardening, as well as exploring the biblical and theological background for creation care.

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Who is Involved?
This Garden Group is entirely volunteer-based. Participants include members from the existing Crossroads Community Garden, members from Église communautaire de la rivière-Rouge (ECRR:156, rue Marion), Holy Cross Church, and other interested community organizations/individuals. We are also working with a member from A Rocha Canada (www.arocha.org)

Who is it for?
The Community Garden is for anyone in St. Boniface!
The goals for this community garden are:
• To provide a place where people from the community can interact with each other and build community connections
• To provide fresh vegetables for the Holy Cross food bank, and provide an opportunity for clients of the food bank to be involved in growing food
• To provide public pick plots for people in the Traverse Park neighbourhood (ie: strawberries, herbs, rhubarb, tulips, other)
• To provide individual and group plots for neighbourhood people and organizations

Support and Supplies:
This is a very low-budget project. Soil, garden tools, water barrels, compost beds, and seeds and bedding plants for the public pick and foodbank plots, would all be solicited from St. Boniface businesses and individuals. We are hoping that several neighbours along the north side of the park would be willing to provide the garden with access to water for filling water barrels during the growing season.

Timeline:
With proper support from the community, we hope to have the garden up and running by the spring of this year, if that is not possible then perhaps to turn over the sod in the fall of 2010, and plant in spring 2011.

FAQ:

How much will it cost?
This is a non-profit project. We are hoping to make the initiative as cheap as possible. We may charge a small fee for supplies and maintenance. If there is a charge involved, low income families can apply to have the fee waived.

What about all the people who use the park field?
We don’t want to get in the way of anyone using the park. We are aware that the field is used for sports, play, and exercising pets. We are hoping that the proposed garden site won’t intrude too much into common recreation areas. The site is as far to the back as the field as possible. Please let us know if you feel this will interfere with your uses of the park!

Do I have to live in the community to have a garden plot?
People in the neighbourhood have first dibs on the plots. If you do not live in the community, feel free to apply for a plot anyway, and we can put you on the waiting list.

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JUST GROWING is a project linking people in the parish with food, community and creation.  This project will build on the strengths of previous years of St. Margaret’s community outreach and will develop direction for future ministry in the neighborhood.  A Rocha is a Christian conservation organization working to show God’s love for all creation.  Jen Kornelsen is on staff with A Rocha Canada as a Community Organizer for parish-based projects in Winnipeg.  The goal of Just Growing is to equip people with gardening experience, great food, stronger connections in the community, and an appreciation for environmental conservation.  The outcome is St. Margaret’s Church practicing faith in action: engaged in loving the neighborhood with veggies!

Young adults will be employed for four months to carry out this outreach which they will do collaboratively with low-income residents near the parish.  During the summer the staff will also lead two weeks of summer day camps for kids.  Other activities of Just Growing include a Lenten study group Food and Faith, involvement in the church’s centennial celebrations in June 2010 and a fall harvest festival for the neighborhood.  Jen Kornelsen will provide leadership for the project together with church staff.  The project will result in an extensive written guide for Just Growing so that it can be a repeated at St. Margaret’s and replicated by A Rocha in other parishes.

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The Crossroads Community Garden has been up and running since the spring of 2007. Run by a small group of energetic members of Crossroads MB Church, the garden provides individuals with fertile soil to grow delicious, healthy vegetables and beautiful flowers, as well as a chance to meet other people in the community.

The Location:
Crossroads MB Church, 231 Kitson Street

The Garden:
• There are twelve 10’ by 10’ plots, and six 10’ by 5’ plots.
• There is no limit to the number of people who can run a plot; do it by yourself, with a friend or family member, or with a dozen green-thumbed buddies! Plant vegetables, flowers, or whatever else your heart desires! Possibilities are endless!
• Don’t have time to maintain an entire plot? Why not do a little volunteer work in our Food Bank plot instead? Everything raised in this plot will go to those in need.

The Gardeners:
Anyone interested in gardening can apply! All are welcome! You need not be affiliated with Crossroads, or any other church, to be involved.

**Note: Members of the Saint Boniface community get priority status when applying for plots. However, people outside of the community can also apply.

Community Website

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