Just Growing is now harvesting!  At the end of August, much of the summer’s work is under our belt and the most rewarding days are yet to come.  Our team of five (one A Rocha staff person as project supervisor and 4 summer students)–along with some regular volunteers prepared and planted 3,000 square feet of garden area on donated property spaces close to downtown Winnipeg.  Over two-thirds of this land was old-growth lawn before our sod stripper revealed fertile soil.  We planted a tremendous variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers.  

Our shared gardens are for the benefit of people who have trouble affording healthy fresh food.  We welcome people to participate in garden activities with us during three drop-in times that are hosted each week.  Participants are invited to take home whatever vegetables they can harvest.  As much as possible we use a church kitchen to cook and bake with the produce we’ve harvested, so that participants can also take home a meal that they’ve prepared.

During the summer the Just Growing team hosted 2 weeks of day camps for kids.  We enjoyed gardening, cooking, studying plants and insects, and Bible stories with the 32 children that came to the camps.

In addition to our gardens and activity planning, we meet daily for prayer as a team and we do some complimentary lawn care for senior citizens and for our partner organization, St. Margaret’s Church.

As we move into September we hope that we’ll see huge yields from our work and that we’ll bless many others with the abundance.  We look forward to celebrating with the community at our Harvest Festival on September 26th. 

This shared project was made possible through generous funding from St. Margaret’s Church, along with grants from the Winnipeg Foundation, Manitoba Green Team, and Canada Summer Jobs.