Community garden produces for food banks and Meals on Wheels

With fall approaching, the volunteers from the Fritz Farm Youth Gardening Association (FFYGA) are busy harvesting another crop from its lush public garden in Baied’Urfé. Now in its fourth year, the community volunteer organization is dedicated to donating its organic, pesticide-free crops to local food banks or charities in the West Island.

Everything from freshly-picked tomatoes, egg plant, beans and zucchini will soon find their way to the Meals on Wheels branch in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, West Island Volunteer Bureau, On Rock Community Services, West Island Mission, St. Columba by the Lake Food Ministry and West Island Assistance Fund.

Brian Manning, a local town councillor who spearheaded the Garden at Fritz program, along with Daja Vodanoic and IsabelleAnne Bisson, said one of the aims of the outdoor gardening initiative is to involve local youth “in bettering their community.”

“We wanted to involve youth as much as possible to teach them about gardening, and teach them about work ethics and give them some social responsibilities and social values,” Manning said.

Getting youth actively involved in gardening on a regular basis is a challenge, he admitted, but the program is making strides.

“Every year it gets easier,” Manning said. “We get more volunteers, and the process becomes more (refined). We find different tricks to make it easier, less work and grow more produce.”

Last year, the Fritz garden yielded over 4,000 pounds of produce. All of it was harvested on a 10,000-square-foot plot located on Fritz Farm.

Richard Gregson, one of the program’s directors, said last year’s bumper crop of tomatoes “was enough to produce tomato sauce for 4,000 pizzas.”

This year, the pumpkin patch is gaining in size and popularity with youngsters who are vying for the “biggest pumpkin” competition bragging rights, Gregson said.

The pumpkin patch contest aside, Gregson said getting youth interested in gardening remains a challenge.

“Part of the original idea of the garden was not just to produce food for the food banks. There was a secondary interest in that we wanted to provide an opportunity for young people in the town to actually see that vegetables don’t all come from the supermarket. (We wanted them) to get their hands dirty and have a go at it themselves.”

Members meet Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings. But some people go more often to tend to the crops, Manning noted.