Group helps grow food for those in need

The KW Urban Harvester group launches the Grow-a-Row program

WATERLOO REGION — A grass-roots organization focused on creating access to garden spaces is issuing a challenge to residents of Kitchener and Waterloo: grow 10,000 pounds of food for those in need. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to rising food prices, growing unemployment, and a breakdown of global supply chains, says Alisa McClurg, co-ordinator of KW Urban Harvester, a working group that’s part of Laurier Students’ Public Interest Research Group (LSPIRG).

“It was hard to access fresh, healthy food before this outbreak. The need (now) is greater than ever.”

With the recent launch of the Grow-a-Row program and the Yardsharing pilot project, KW Urban Harvester is looking to remove barriers to growing and accessing healthy food.

The Grow-a-Row project encourages people to grow food in their yards or in community garden plots and donate it to those in need. The group is offering up seeds, seedlings, soil and education — whatever support is needed for those interested in growing food for the first time.

“We’re trying to make sure that nobody’s left behind,” she said.

Those who sign up are asked to keep track of what they harvest before donating to the local food bank, Food not Bombs or St. John’s Kitchen. If someone is growing for their own needs to help supplement their own food bill, that’s fine too, she said.

So far the group has several plots at a local school and a community garden dedicated to the Grow-a-Row campaign. Anyone looking to sign up can contact the Urban Harvester group online. The group is also looking for donations of soil, seeds, seedlings or donations to help support the program.

The idea behind Grow-a-Row came from a project in Kingston where victory gardens were being planted in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, McClurg said.

While Grow-a-Row will give people materials and support to grow what they can, the yardsharing pilot is designed to give people the space they need, even if it’s in someone else’s yard.

The pilot is running in the Victoria Park neighbourhood. People with available growing space are matched with those who want to grow food. Homeowners are to give up part of their yard to let someone else create a garden.

Any homeowner in the area interested in volunteering part of their yard to the program can sign up at the KW Urban Harvester website.

DAVID BEBEE WATERLOO REGION RECORD Volunteers with the KW Harvester group, Miriam Shaftoe, left, her brother Pierre Shaftoe and Stephen Svenson, in the backyard of a Waterloo home where they were preparing a garden on Tuesday. The groups aims to grow 10,000 pounds of food.