For years, we have planted a Community Garden at our 44 Greendale centre building. The garden has been a frequent focus on this blog: we believe that planting a vegetable garden gives our children incredible learning opportunities – plus, fresh vegetables for snacks and lunches!

This year, we partnered with Green Venture and took part in their “Grow a Row” program. The program had us plant an extra row of produce in our garden that was grown to be donated to local food banks to help fight food insecurity in Hamilton. Our Canada Summer Jobs students, in collaboration with our neighbours, tended to the garden each day to have it bountifully producing vegetables and herbs. The program was a huge success, as Green Venture reported that over 340lbs of fresh produce was donated through the program!

Our involvement stretched beyond our garden, too. We set up a community drop off location where other growers in the area could deliver their produce once a week. While we wait for our next batch of vegetables to arrive in spring, that produce stand will be transforming into a Community Pantry. It wil be stocked with items immediately needed at our local food bank including dried food and personal items.

Today’s Family is dedicated to providing incredible standards of child care, and that dedication does not end when children leave our programs. These initiatives represent a new way for us to positively affect the children in our community.