Program Promotes Composting and Sharing

Gardeners in Nova Scotia are putting their skills to work in support of food banks and soup kitchens.

The national Plant a Row, Grow a Row program was kicked off in Halifax today at the North End Community Garden, which will donate part of its crop to the Metro Food Bank Society. The garden party was led by the program’s founding partners, which include the Canadian Association of Food Banks, the Composting Council of Canada, and the Garden Writers Association of America.

The program encourages community and home gardeners, as well as municipalities and composting facility owners, to designate a row in every garden to grow vegetables for their local food bank or soup kitchen.

This year, the North End Community Garden was specially prepared with compost made from the Halifax Regional Municipality’s curbside organics collection program. The compost was supplied by Miller Waste Systems.

Nova Scotia was selected for the launch of the national program because of its commitment to ending hunger and to helping the environment through its support of composting. Nova Scotia is the first province in Canada to divert 50 per cent of its waste from disposal sites, primarily through recycling and composting programs.

The Plant a Row, Grow a Row program is supported locally by the Metro Food Bank, the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Labour, the Resource Recovery Fund Board, and the Halifax Seed Co.