­Join us on Thursday, August 13th at 3:30 to 6:00pm at the Fernwood Community Centre

›› Brontë Elphick-Miner

Want to get your hands in the dirt and give some deserving plants a little love? ­Fernwood NRG is hosting a COVID-19 conscious work party on Thursday, August 13th from 3:30pm to 6:00pm.

Projects for the work party include: sheet mulching the orchard, refreshing garden paths, putting up plant information signage, installing a new garden bed, and doing some planting. On top of having a great opportunity to help build the food security networks in your community, the fantastic Fernwood NRG chef, Patrick, will be serving up a beautiful dinner as a thank you to our wonderful volunteers. We will be observing COVID-19 protocols at the work party, so we ask that anyone hoping to get involved bring their own gloves, mask, and water bottle (refills will be available). We will have some tools available as well as a sanitizing station; however, we would love for people to bring their own tools, if possible, so that we can limit the number of high contact surfaces that people will be exposed to.

I will be leading volunteer groups in the Fernwood Community Orchard, Kitchen Garden, Pollinator Garden, and Native Plant beds along with my fellow Food Security Intern Mina! My name is Brontë and I am an undergraduate student ­studying Geography and Indigenous studies at UVic. I am passionate about community gardening and food accessibility and I am very excited to have the opportunity to help provide fresh organic food to the ­Fernwood community. Mina is in her final year of her undergraduate degree in ­Environmental Studies and English at UVic. Her interests and focus at school center on permaculture and urban agriculture, so she is very happy to be getting her hands dirty at the Fernwood Community Center! Mina has enjoyed working in the community “especially during these times, where our connection to one another has proven to be the most valuable relationship.”

If you are interested in forming new connections to your community and your food system, please contact me at bronte@fernwoodnrg.ca to volunteer for our August Garden Work Party!

A huge thanks to the City of Victoria for their support through the Community Garden Volunteer Coordinator Grant and Micro Grant.