2025/02/26
As the snow comes in, gardeners and farmers prepare for the next growing season. That’s what Atar and I Jean-François have been busy doing this winter. Atar has been a great co-lead to have on this project. It seems that the more snow we get, the harder we have worked. If all goes well, we may have an exciting 2025 growing season around the corner.
Making Connections
We have been meeting with municipal and school officials to promote the food forest and recruit new members. We have also met with Reena and the York Region Food Network, who have been very supportive of our efforts. Reena is a non-profit organization that supports individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. YRFN is a community organization that promotes food security through education and advocacy. Making these connections has been important for embedding the food forest into the local community, which will help it to succeed.
Looking for Funding
We have applied to the City of Vaughan’s Green Guardians program (https://www.vaughan.ca/about-city-vaughan/departments/environmental-sustainability/green-guardians) and for a TD Park People grant. (https://parkpeople.ca/initiatives/td-park-people-grants/) The City of Vaughan’s program would support bird and bat boxes as well as planting native flora with the goal of helping to bring back species at risk. The TD Park People grant would fund two events, one to set-up the bird and bat boxes, and a treasure hunt to teach people about edible trees and plants in found in the park. The funding would support our goals of improving local food security, building food farming skills, and serving as a living laboratory for sustainability practices and technologies. We will find out soon whether we get the funding.
Getting Out There
YRFN has invited us to participate in the Bathurst Clark Resource Library Spring Seed Swap on March 2, 2025 from 2 pm to 4 pm. Atar and I will be there talking about the Marita Payne Food Forest and recruiting new members. The event will have hundreds of seeds available for attendees to plant for their gardens. Find out more about the event here. (https://vaughanpl.info/programs/view/3389)
See? There has been lots to keep us busy over the winter. We are excited about the possibilities for the 2025 growing season. We are doing lots to grow the impact of this project. If you’re interested in joining, please feel free to reach out!
Read more here: https://urbanhulk.ca/2025/02/