We Grow Food.
Mar 04, 2020
Carol Vandersanden
We Grow Food.
Carol Vandersanden, with nearly 30 years in the food industry, knows best how to engage the community in interesting and innovative projects.
When, in 2013, she saw how eager children were to sacrifice their afternoons and weekends to learn more about gardening, Carol decided that she had a new calling: to install a series of “public vegetable gardens” in a project that would become known as “We Grow Food.”
In 2014 the We Grow Food team of volunteers jumped on the construction and maintenance of more than 30 gardens in the Oshawa area, about half of these were open to the public. Volunteers would be assigned a place and time to meet. From a central meeting point, vans filled with garden tools and gardeners would head out to a location and start creating what would become a vegetable garden in a few short weeks.
We Grow Food has been completely funded with private donations from local residents and businesses. Oshawa resident, Sandra Thomas, was so awed and inspired by the generosity of the residents, that she says that she is proud to call Oshawa “...my home.” Along with the land on which the community garden rests, there is also a large garage for the storage of gardening equipment and a set of timber stumps in a circle used for gatherings. Volunteer gardeners of all ages, backgrounds and abilities show up consistently throughout the growing season and for planning meetings through the winter.
When, in 2013, she saw how eager children were to sacrifice their afternoons and weekends to learn more about gardening, Carol decided that she had a new calling: to install a series of “public vegetable gardens” in a project that would become known as “We Grow Food.”
In 2014 the We Grow Food team of volunteers jumped on the construction and maintenance of more than 30 gardens in the Oshawa area, about half of these were open to the public. Volunteers would be assigned a place and time to meet. From a central meeting point, vans filled with garden tools and gardeners would head out to a location and start creating what would become a vegetable garden in a few short weeks.
We Grow Food has been completely funded with private donations from local residents and businesses. Oshawa resident, Sandra Thomas, was so awed and inspired by the generosity of the residents, that she says that she is proud to call Oshawa “...my home.” Along with the land on which the community garden rests, there is also a large garage for the storage of gardening equipment and a set of timber stumps in a circle used for gatherings. Volunteer gardeners of all ages, backgrounds and abilities show up consistently throughout the growing season and for planning meetings through the winter.