Making Food Sovereignty More Accessible
Links for Greener Learning Niagara
The act of growing plants for food is an age-old practice.
Thanks to the help from an NCF Mini Grant, Links for Greener Learning Niagara is ensuring it remains an activity for all ages by building raised beds at its Welland community garden.
These aren’t just any raised beds, however. The garden already had plots built tall enough to reduce bending and make this summertime ritual easier for older adults and those with mobility issues. But after eight years of use—often by the same gardeners year after year—the existing raised beds were due for replacing and with something that matched the evolving needs of the people using them.
With $1,500 from NCF, Links for Greener Living constructed raised beds that stand a little higher than the originals. They have a seating feature built into them, making food sovereignty a social and comfortable event. Gardeners can pause for a coffee klatch, taking a load off and sharing advice about reaping the most fruitful harvests. And when thier tomatoes need tending, they can use the benches to keep tools within easy reach.
“The population using that garden, it’s more difficult for them to bend,” said Yaneth Londono, Links for Greener Living executive director. “They will be able to garden in a nicer way now. They don’t have to bend and they can move around the bed more easily.”
They will be able to garden in a nicer way now. They don’t have to bend and they can move around the bed more easily.
Yaneth Londono,
Executive Director
Links for Greener Learning runs eight community gardens throughout Niagara, providing residents access to fertile land for growing their own food. Over the years, the environmental charity has built 20 gardens, turning them over to schools and other user groups to operate.
Part of Links for Greener Learning’s mandate is to offer programming that addresses environmental conservation, social welfare and food insecurity. Many of those initiatives have been supported previously by NCF, including its Eco-Kids Summer Camp and Earth Day celebrations.
Without that support, it would be difficult to meet the demand for the organization’s services, including access to those more accessible raised garden beds in Welland.
“We’re a small organization and don’t have sponsors or get many donations, so the grants allow us to do bigger projects,” she said. “We wouldn’t be able to do this without these grants.”