Photo: From left, Toby Rowe and Tim Walsh shovel compost at the community garden. Courtesy of: Chris Hammond
Memorial’s community garden: Sustainability from the ground up
Historically, Newfoundland and Labrador’s geographic isolation meant the residents of this province had no choice but to grow and gather their fresh food.
Not anymore. Today, the vast majority of our food is shipped a great distance, sometimes thousands of kilometres, from off the island. Transporting food comes with a high environmental and financial cost, not to mention a negative impact on its quality.
“Many people are turning their efforts to growing food closer to home,” said Toby Rowe, sustainability co-ordinator at Memorial. “In doing so, gardeners are reducing their carbon footprint and creating more sustainable access to their produce.”
Since its launch in 2010, Memorial’s community garden, located behind Queen’s College on the St. John’s campus, has been providing a way for students, faculty and staff to get back to their roots, live more sustainably and benefit from the fresh produce they grow.
The campus-wide initiative came together with the help of more than 80 student, staff and faculty volunteers, mostly during Make Midterm Matter events.
In the past eight years, the number of plots has increased from 35 to 65. The garden expansion has encouraged more participation, which has since doubled. Last year, 132 people from the Memorial community grew produce in the garden. READ MORE
SANDY WOOLFREY-FAHEY
March 5, 2018
www.gazette.mun.ca
