Grade 11 Ottawa student Harmony Wood felt a connection to the Golden Town Outreach community gardens even before taking on her duties as part-time summer student labourer.
She spent many summer hours working along side her ‘Nana and Papa’, Gloria and Brian Wood, in their garden plot behind Georgian Bay Community School (GBCS). She is proud to mention that ‘Nana’ and ‘Papa’ created the herb garden that is its focal point.
Wood and her co-worker Ashleigh Walker share a 35-hour-week position tending the gardens at GBCS and Victoria Village, harvesting the produce twice a week and manning the Freshly Picked Market in front of the Church of Nazarene on Trowbridge every Thursday, 3:30-5 p.m. The market accepts cash donations for the Golden Town Outreach Food Bank in exchange for organically grown fresh produce and items produced by the Second Harvest volunteers.
Walker, like Wood, learned basic gardening skills from her grandparents, Joyce and Leigh Straiton. Walker is a Grade 12 student at GBCS.
The two summers students have had to contend with exceptionally hot growing conditions for both the garden plots and the hoop house at GBCS. They have been harvesting the produce twice a week.
Photo: L-R: Simona Freibergova, Co-ordinator Community Gardens and Second Harvests programs, and summer student Ashleigh Walker tend to plants in the Golden Town Outreach community garden hoop house behind Georgian Bay Community School. Ashleigh and her counterpart Harmony Wood share a full-time position tending to the gardens and harvesting the organically grown produce for the weekly Freshly Picked Market at the Church of Nazarene on Thursdays, 3:30-5 p.m., and for the Food Bank.
