By Sebastian Kanally, Times Chronicle
Oliver’s Community Garden may receive some extra funds to help fight food insecurity in Oliver.
Town council decided to apply for up to $2,500 from Scotts Canada’s 2024 Gro for Good Grant Initiative which seeks to support community gardens and green spaces across Canada.
The proposal originally brought to council sought the grant money to install two planters with vegetables and herbs next to the Harvest Hut at Kinsmen Park and create a community edible garden at the location.
Town staff would then work closely with the Harvest Hut to grow and distribute fresh food to support food security in Oliver.
Councillor David Mattes explained that the town already has a community garden and he supports applying for the grant but thinks the grant should go to the Community Garden Executive, and not use town staff for the project.
Councillors Aimee Grice and Petra Veintimilla expressed their excitement to see this grant in front of council since the Edible Pathways project, started in 2019, had “fizzled out” for various reasons.
This previous project saw planters on the north end of Main Street have vegetables and herbs free for anyone in the community to harvest as needed.
Grice commented “Ideally I would have liked to have seen us bring back the edible pathway. I thought it was really cool to see people walking up and down the street and harvesting things out of the planters for their dinner that night, but it takes time for programs like that to get traction.”
She further added that it doesn’t matter where the planters go as long as it is contributing to food insecurity in the town and whatever is planted will be available to everyone through means such as the Harvest Hut.
Veintimilla supported the motion while noting that the community garden does not replace the Edible Pathways since it is “more of an interactive experience for people that are out and about”.
