We took a field trip to the CHMA Food Forest in Owen Sound last week. CHMA Grey Bruce was awarded the Aviva Community Fund for this exciting project. The Food Forest is an old tennis court that was converted into a community garden with fruit trees along the perimeter. Half of the garden plots are available to community members who sign up to grow food. It’s free to garden there, as long as gardeners grow food and not let the plots go empty. The other half of the gardens grow food for the CMHA brunch program. Some of the food gets sold at the market to return funding to the initiative.
It was a lovely day with perfect weather and nice to see so many community members supporting the project. We got to enjoy a delicious lunch from the food truck and salad with fresh greens from the garden! They also have a solar food dehydrator that was built by local highschool students. They plan to
expand the site to include an edible labyrinth. It was an inspiration to see this thriving community space! We hope to plant similar projects in Barrie in the near future as part of our Urban Pantry Project.
You can view more photos on our Facebook page.