A number of community volunteers have banded together to grow produce for local food banks. From left to right are Amy Williams, Rev. Fred Marshall, Alan Goodridge, Heather Melindy, Lena Ruby, and Dave Ryan.
By Mark Squibb
A group of residents and members of local community groups are taking advantage of the Goulds’ rich farming history and abundance of farmland to grow food for the local food bank.
The project is the brainchild of Rev. Fred Marshall of St. Paul's Anglican Church in the Goulds, whose involvement with community food banks dates back many years. He was involved in the creation of the Community Food Sharing Association.
About two years back, he attended a Food First NL conference in St. Johns.
“As I sat there and listened as a representative of the church, I thought to myself, ‘What can we do?’” recalled Marshall. “And as I left, I thought to myself that the church doesn’t have a lot of money, but it does have a lot of land.”
From there, Marshall made application to the Anglican Dioceses for use of church owned farmland opposite St. Paul’s and to the City for permission to grow crops.
“I thought if we could develop a garden there, whatever harvest we got we could give to the foodbanks,” said Marshall.
Both the Dioceses and the City signed off on the project last year. And so, the land was turned with the intent to plant crops this spring.
Unbeknownst to Marshall at the time, a collection of people in the Goulds had been trying to get such a project off the ground for the last two years or more, only they never had access to suitable farmland.
Amy Williams is an Ocean Wise alumni, and through that program drafted a community garden project that would both educate people about farming and sustainability, while also providing healthy food for some people in need. Williams partnered with a number of community groups to get the project off the ground
“We had everything lined up — except the location,” said Williams. “Then we connected with Rev. Fred and he said that they had a similar project, with a similar goal of giving to the food bank and to the community. And they just happened to have a tonne of land. And so, we’ve partnered with them and joined our projects.”
Both halves of the puzzle were introduced to one another by Suzanne McCormack, who works with both the Goulds Recreation Association and St. Paul’s Anglican Church.
“She heard both sides of the story and brought us all together earlier this spring,” said Marshall. “I’m going to say we were a match made in heaven, because they had everything I was about to go out and look for, the community-mindedness, and I had what they were looking for, which was a nice piece of farmland.”
And, with that, Marshall launched Sowing Seeds – Growing Community in partnership with the Gould’s Recreation Association, Gould’s Lions Club, Kilbride to Ferryland Family Resource Centre, Gould’s Community Food Bank, St. Kevin’s Parish and St. Paul’s Anglican Church. Beginning in late June, volunteers began planting crops, and as of the time of this writing have planted 32 rows of potatoes and two rows of carrots and turnips.
“People who are hungry and want to put food on the table need potatoes and carrots and turnip,” said Marshall. “They want to make a nice, nourishing meal for their family. And this will hopefully help with that.”
The plight of food banks has been often noted in the media in recent years. By Food First NL’s count, visits to foodbanks, as of March 2023, had increased 44 percent from March 2019. One-third of foodbank users were children.
“So many people today depend on food banks to help them put food on the table,” said Marhsall. “And food banks rely on donations, and there’s not enough donations coming in to meet the demand.”
All hands involved hope for a hearty harvest this fall to help stock foodbank shelves.
“It feels like it was meant to be,” said Williams. “This has turned into something more than I think either of us thought it would be.”
Patricia Hynes, meanwhile, is a longstanding volunteer of over 20 years with the St. Kevin’s Parish foodbank and says the need for donations has grow in recent years.
In addition to rising grocery costs driving people to the foodbanks, the Goulds foodbank recently took in between 40 and 50 families from Kilbride following the closure of the Kilbride foodbank about a year ago.
That foodbank closed following the sale of the Corpus Christi Church, which operated the foodbank.
In addition, the St. Kevin’s Parish foodbank serves families even further down along the Southern Shore.
“In total, we have upwards of 160 families on our books,” said Hynes, who said that families are entitled to avail of the foodbank once a month. “Some may come once a month; some may come one every two months. I would say in a month we serve between 90 and 120 families.”
Hynes added foodbank usage has increased nearly 50 percent from pre-COVID times.
As for donations, Hynes said food banks are getting desperate.
“People don’t have as much to give anymore,” said Hynes. “People are desperate themselves. With the cost of food and everything else going up, people don’t have as much to give.”
To that end, the St. Kevin’s Parish foodbank will be closing its doors from July 12th until August 19th.
“Our shelves are at an all time low, and we want to build up a stock of food over the next month,” said Hynes. “We just ordered $6,000 worth of food, and that might get us through six weeks. And so, we’re hoping to build up a stock load of food. We’re hoping to have another drive-by food drive, and we’ll get two loads of food from Food Sharing, and so we’ll have a fair amount of food when we start off again. Right now, people are going off with two little bags with hardly anything in it. It’s a hard thing for us to shut down but it’s for the good in the long run.”
Hynes said people in the community and different community organizations are still giving as much as they can. She is excited about the Sowing Seeds - Growing Community to harvest their first run of crops in the fall.
“This program is marvellous,” said Hynes. “We’ll get some healthy food, some food that’s decent to give out, something that people can make a meal out of.”
Hynes noted that local farmers in times past have donated fresh produce to the foodbank, and people are so happy to receive it in their hampers.
If you are interested in donating, Hynes said, “anything and everything” is welcome, and added that foods geared towards children, such as cereals and tinned lunches, are especially appreciated.
