Immigrant Services Guelph-Wellington organizes a Youth Leadership Project (YPL) annually to engage newcomer youth in community service and build their leadership capacity. The focus of the 2021 YLP was organized around themes of urban agriculture, food security and food justice, and culminated in the creation of ISGW’s first community garden. We were inspired by a granting opportunity offered by Our Food Future Guelph-Wellington and 10C. Our staff submitted a successful application for the Guelph Wellington Urban Agriculture Challenge’s ‘Shovel and Fork Fund’.
Over the course of the program participants attended several virtual workshops, led by community partners, to learn the skills required to cultivate a garden, learn about the importance of urban agriculture in reducing food insecurity and increasing community resilience. Workshop topics included: growing a garden with purpose, winter sowing, starting seedlings, food security and food justice, community gardens and harvesting and designing a survey.
Fourteen youth participated in growing seedlings, planting and tending the garden plots which ultimately yielded 325 lbs. of produce. A variety of vegetables were grown, including cherry tomatoes, potatoes, onions, zucchini, peppers, eggplant, herbs, winter squash, kale and beets. Sixteen ISGW families benefitted from our fresh produce market.
Thank you to our community partners who presented virtual workshops throughout the project: Ignatius Farm, The Seed, The Julien Project, Karen Houle and Omelnisaa Giddam from the University of Guelph. A special thank you to HOPE House, and to their volunteers, for their assistance tending the youth garden plots and for contributing produce to the market.
This project was funded by the Guelph-Wellington Urban Agriculture Challenge Project and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.