J. F. Carmichael Greening Club helps feed community
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by Helen HallKitchener Citizen
September 17, 2015
J.F. Carmichael School’s Greening Club has fed over 40 families in its neighbourhood.
School Council co-chair and Greening Club organizer Melissa Yarascavitch said the student group just harvested about 50 lbs. of carrots and 100 lbs. of beets from the garden that was planted last spring. They grew other vegetables including Swiss Chard, spinach, squash, radishes and herbs.
“We’ve been really busy,” Yarascavitch says with a laugh. “We had a well-rounded crop all summer.”
The bounty from the garden has been divided between those who have helped it grow and those in the neighbourhood who need it. Deliveries were also made to the Mill-Courtland Community Centre and the Paulander Community Centre.
About 60 of the school’s 420 students belonged to the Greening Club last year. They planted their crops in the spring, and those who haven’t graduated, are back in the fall to help harvest.
The Greening Club was assisted by a $2,000 City of Kitchener Community Environmental Improvement Grant (CEIG).
The group built several “keyhole” gardens behind the school. Keyhole gardens originated in Africa, according to Yarascavitch, and have a compost pile in the middle. The compost feeds the garden with nutrients and the moisture from the decay helps with hydration.
Yarascavitch said this was especially helpful for the garden in the summer, when it gets less attention because there are not as many volunteers.
The club built an 800 square foot pollinator garden with naturalized plants that attract butterflies. They also built two gardens for their vegetables.
All Carmichael students interact with the gardens as they are also used in the curriculum for learning about biodiversity and life cycles.
Non-profit groups, neighbourhood associations and communites of interest (groups of individuals who voluntarily associate with each other because they have common environmental concerns) are welcome to apply for a CEIG.
The CEIG program has been in place since 2004 and offers a total of $5,000 each year, with any one project receiving a maximum of $3,000.
The deadline to apply is October 14, 2015. To learn more about the grant, visit www.kitchener.ca/CEIG
Members of the J.F. Carmichael Greening Club received a $2,000 Community Environmental Improvement Grant from the City of Kitchener last year to help get their gardens growing.