GROWING HEALTH
Participants see the benefit of Good Food, Good Health project in Prince County
In reviewing how she spent her summer, Drew McInnis told a gathering of friends and community members about visiting area farms.
“I started to realize how much work goes into a meal,” she said. “Everything has to go through a huge process before it is able to be sold, and our group has all learned that something that seems so simple actually requires a lot of hard work.”
McInnis was part of a group of four West Prince teens selected to participate in a sevenweek summer project, Good Food, Good Health – Westisle Garden Project.
During their final week in the project, they hosted a community gathering to share their experiences, including planting and maintaining a garden, camping, listening to speakers and touring local farms and businesses.
While some might tentatively wade into a new experience, the Good Food, Good Health participants experienced their most intense day their first day in the project. That’s when they built garden boxes out behind Westisle Composite High School, filled them with soil and planted their garden plots. They faithfully watered and tended their plots throughout the summer.
After their presentation to the community gathering, the group moved outdoors to view the garden plots.
The boxes were teeming with lettuce, green tomatoes, snap peas, sunflowers, cucumbers, rutabaga and Swiss chard.
Parsnip had been planted, too, but “We accidentally thought those were weeds and, ‘oops,’” said project participant Jacob Gallant in explaining their premature disappearance.
The vegetables will be available to Westisle foods classes and the cafeteria once classes resume. Surplus vegetables will be donated.
The food is a legacy to their involvement in the pilot project, acknowledges Shannon Watters.
“You have to work hard to get things done,” McInnis said of her biggest take-away from the seven-week project.
“No one else is going to help you weed the garden,” Watters added.
Participant Brendon Bulger suggests skills gained, including learning how to work with and better communicate with others, will help him secure his next employment.
The project focus, Watters pointed out, is healthy lifestyle and included fitness classes, such as yoga and crossfit, and healthy eating. Participants were encouraged to prepare healthy meals and snacks to bring from home.
The project was sponsored by the Adventure Group and included participation in the Adventure Group’s team-building ropes course. The Good Food, Good Health project incorporated a camping trip and a tour of the UPEI campus into that experience.
“We were actually building up skills without even realizing it,” Gallant acknowledged.
The project was jointly sponsored by several government departments. Project co-ordinator, Jenna MacDonald, acknowledge the Adventure Group for its sponsorship and the local businesses that assisted them with tours and talks.
“I’ve seen great improvement to your work, but, even so, I see increasing confidence, and I find that admirable,” she told participants.