New program plants garden boxes in yards
Doctors are increasingly using social prescriptions like gardening and exercise to help people through these times of isolation due to COVID-19.
“Anything to help bring people together virtually, get them outside, for a good cause is healthy,” says Donna Benson, founder of Medical Arts Health Research Group.
The organization is offering its own social prescription to Alzheimer’s and dementia patients with its CoVic Garden Box Project, which has the added benefit of increasing food security.
“We want to be able to help every single person that wants help in setting up a raised bed garden to grow food for themselves and the food bank,” says Benson.
The Penticton-based organization received a grant from the South Okanagan Community Foundation and is trying to determine how many caregivers in B.C., specifically Vancouver, the North Shore, Penticton, Kelowna and Kamloops, would benefit from having a CoVic Garden Box.
“We’ve had such a positive response from our work last summer in Penticton that I would like us to be able to help everybody that wants to have and be part of a community growing food for themselves and sharing with others,” says Benson.
Community response has been positive, says Benson.
One of the gardeners, Penticton resident Kyle Stewart, says the box catches the eye of everyone who walks by.
“It’s really brought our family together as well,” says Stewart. “We’ve got a 13-yearold daughter, teaching her how to garden, teaching her how to harvest her own vegetables.
“You get to harvest the vegetables, take it to your dinner table, enjoy it, a nice fresh dinner. You know what’s in it. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
Anyone interested in getting a CoVic Garden Box should visit the Medical Arts Health Research Group website at www.healthresearch.ca.
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