It doesn’t take much for individuals to increase their access to healthy, safe food.
In fact, with little more than a garden pot, seeds, soil and a light source, an entire salad can be had in about a month.
Sharing the simplicity of growing the greens was the aim of a recent workshop at the White Rock/South Surrey Food Bank.
“Hopefully, they’ll be eating their salad greens in (about) 30 days,” food bank manager Ruth Chitty said. “It’s very simple.”
Led by volunteer Bruce Strom, the June 2 workshop was organized to mark National Hunger Awareness Day.
Strom is a Cloverdale resident who grew up on a hobby farm and gardens year-round. He has been eating home-grown food for months already this year and said it’s an easy, affordable treat anyone who wants to can enjoy.
“It’s really not (complicated),” Strom said.
Strom shared some of his own seeds with participants; the food bank supplied everything else.
Chitty said about 20 food bank clients participated in the workshop, and more will be held if the interest is there.
She noted the theme of this year’s National Hunger Awareness Day was about making changes – changes in how people talk about hunger, and getting people to think about what they could do to make a change themselves.
“People want to make change themselves,” Chitty said. “Growing small amounts of food is a small step, but it is a significant one.”
She noted that teaching food bank clients how to grow their own food in no way takes the burden off the food bank, which sees about 520 people through its doors every week.
“We don’t fill the gap. It just adds to the access to nutritious and healthy food,” she said. “It’s about accessibility and that’s what food security is all about.”
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