Growing Season May Be Over But the GARDENS Project Continues Growing

Looking back at the 2021 growing season, there is a lot to be grateful for. The Principal’s Office at Humber Lakeshore, in partnership with the GARDENS Advisory Council and LAMP Community Health Centre (CHC), successfully continued the Pod Project to provide people in need with harvest, support local Etobicoke food banks like the Daily Bread Food Bank and LAMP’s Good Food Market, and continue educational programming virtually around food security, food justice, cooking and gardening.

This year the project produced 285 pounds of harvest, and involved nine community partners that provided space for the plants to be cared for and harvested. In addition to Pod sites from previous years - Birds and Beans Café, Lakeshore Environmental Gardening Society (LEGS) - Daily Bread Community Garden, LAMP CHC, LAMP Early Childhood Centre, Father John Redmond Catholic High School, Humber Lakeshore: Fashion Institute, James S. Bell Middle School, Toronto Public Library: Long Branch - we welcomed a new partnership with CF Sherway.

There were also 200 participants at 10 educational workshops held over summer. Workshop topics included Strawberry Jam Making, Scrap Cuisine, Plants, Connection and Gratitude, to name a few.

The GARDENS project also boasted experiential learning student opportunities and education around food security in South Etobicoke. This year, the project hosted 6 positions:

• 2 paid Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) Project Coordinators
  (supported by Humber and Canada Summer Jobs)
• 2 paid Work-Integrated Learning Operations Coordinators
  (supported by Humber’s Principal’s Office)
• 1 Work-Integrated Learning placement with stipend for a Virtual Learning Library Content Creator
  (Partnership with Humber Faculty of Media and Creative Arts)
• 1 paid Education Coordinator
  (supported by LAMP CHC and Canada Summer Jobs)
• 2 continued faculty partnerships with the Humber Longo Faculty of Business – International Development and Community Development Programs, and Humber Faculty of Media and Creative Arts – Film and Media Program

Project Coordinator - Asna Saeed (left) and Event Coordinator and Community Liaison, Kavelle Maharaj (right) planting.