The Seaway Senior Citizens Club announces the Local Launch of the Knowing / Growing Garden Project

Cornwall, ON – The Seaway Senior Citizens Club is pleased to announce the receipt of a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) Resilient Communities Fund. This funding support will assist the Club in creating a senior friendly Community Garden Project at their downtown Centre, located at 506 Pitt Street in the heart of Cornwall.

The recently obtained OTF grant is helping the Club to further expand and provide economic support to their current food program for elders by providing what their Mohawk project partners call “good medicine”. The two-year “Knowing / Growing” project will see the creation of raised garden beds as well as the launch of a series of collaborative gardening and canning workshops with community partners including Akwesasne. Healthy food, fresh air, and exercise as well as community engagement and traditional knowledge will be promoted, and the development of a companion cookbook created by project participants is also being planned.

This grant further expands on the mandate of the Seaway Seniors to provide and promote creative and active healthy living for people over 50 years of age. Managing Director, Darnell Proulx says, “This is a very exciting project for the Club. The new garden will provide opportunities for our seniors to plant, care for and harvest garden vegetables and more as well as help in the design of the garden. This project will provide healthy options and cost savings for our weekly Curbside Pickup Lunch program, all while sharing knowledge between members on gardening, caring for, and preserving fresh produce.”

Coordinator of the Knowing / Growing Project, Karen Douglass Cooper, adds, “This project is a wonderful opportunity to provide elders with opportunities to grow healthy food and learn new as well as traditional methods of canning and preserving home grown produce with our community partners, in particular, our friends and neighbours from Akwesasne.” The Seaway Seniors are looking forward to officially kicking off their project with an educational and inspirational tour of Akwesasne’s Thompson Island Cultural Camp this coming September.

For more information on the Knowing / Growing Project, members of the public are invited to contact the Seaway Senior Citizens Club and Centre at 506 Pitt Street or call 613 932 4969 for more details.