GROWING GAINS: Woolwich Community Health Centre wellness garden cultivates improved overall well-being
The Woolwich Community Health Centre (WCHC) is growing.
Literally.
The community-based health centre that provides primary healthcare, health promotion and illness prevention programs and services to the residents of Woolwich and Wellesley townships has added a Community Wellness Garden to its list of offerings.
The premise is simple: As residents struggled to connect during the COVID-19 pandemic, a community wellness garden could serve as a catalyst to engage community members through social connection, physical activity, and education.
The project became a reality through the Canada Healthy Communities Initiative, a $60-Million investment from the Government of Canada to fund projects across Canada that help create safe and vibrant public space, improve mobility options, and help communities navigate the pandemic and build back better in the COVID-19 recovery.
Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF) worked with Community Foundations of Canada, the Government of Canada, and other community foundations in South Western Ontario to provide approximately $2.5 Million in funding through the Canada Healthy Communities Initiative to support organizations showing creativity and resourcefulness in creating solutions that enable people to connect and access public spaces safely while still respecting public health measures.
“The funding was crucial,” said Gebre Berihun, WCHC’s Director of Community Services, noting associated start-up costs such as professional landscaping, equipment, and surrounding benches.
The wellness garden, located on the WCHC property in St. Jacobs, has been producing vegetables and, more importantly, fostering community connection over the past few years. Recently a native plant pollinator flower garden has been added.
Vegetables such as potatoes, kale, carrots, green beans, cabbage, broccoli, and tomatoes are planted, and about eight to 10 volunteers, as well as WCWC staff members, tend to the garden from spring through to the fall harvest and subsequent clean-up. The food is then donated to the local food bank.
“We’ve offered healthy eating classes with cooking demonstrations and are now able to take the learnings outside with gardening activities such as composting and seed-saving taught in a safe space where green thumbs of all ages and abilities can work together,” said Berihun. “We’ve also been able to start a beautiful flower garden.”
Berihun has been helping however he can with the garden project and has been amazed by the personal benefits.
“On a scale of 1-10, I was a zero in terms of my gardening knowledge... but after starting, I am now passionate about gardening,” he said. “It improves mental health. It improves physical health. I learned a lot just going out from the office, watering, and weeding... I have seen a lot of benefits for myself, and I’m sure others have too.”
Berihun added: “The pandemic has been hard... but now taking people out to the garden to teach them how to plant, how to prepare, how to start a garden from scratch. I think we are in a better position now that the pandemic (has subsided). We want to focus more on the benefits of gardening for our mental health and for healthy eating. We want to do more teaching.”
“When I heard my local community health centre was looking for volunteers to help start a vegetable garden a couple years ago, I was excited to raise my hand. It’s been very rewarding to combine my love of gardening with meeting new people, and sharing what we grow with the community. ”
While the wellness garden’s participants tend to skew towards the more elderly population, one of the goals is to see the skillset shared with a younger audience.
“We want to make it more intergenerational, to get younger people to learn,” Berihun said. We want to help kids engage in planting, weeding, and harvesting.”
Along with thanking the St. Jacobs Home Hardware for donations, Berihun expressed thanks to WRCF and the Government of Canada for supporting this project.
WCHC is starting a similar project at its new Wellesley location at the Wellesley Township Recreation Complex this spring. For more information on the WCHC, visit wchc.on.ca.
To learn more about the Canada Healthy Communities Initiative, and to see a list of Waterloo Region organizations funded through this program, go to wrcf.ca/news/chci.
