News Release

Goodness Grows in this Dartmouth Neighbourhood

(Thursday, May 28, 2009 ) - Community pride and friendship will bloom alongside the tulips and turnips in a new community garden in Dartmouth this summer.

This Saturday, members of Goodness Grows! Dartmouth Gardening Association and staff of Halifax Regional Municipality will be joined by neighbourhood volunteers and youth for a ground- breaking ceremony at the Findlay Community Centre from 1 - 3 p.m.

“Community gardens provide an opportunity to interact with your neighbours, add beauty, encourage environmental sustainability, and promote active living,” said Mary-Jo Monk, Founder of Goodness Grows!. “They also offer an opportunity to share and learn with others about the environment around you.”

Participation can be by individuals or by a family or community group, and can include tending to your own plot, taking part in gardening workshops offered at the garden or helping keep the garden space tidy. The Dartmouth High School Grassroots Gardening Club will have a plot in an effort to ensure youth are engaged in this project, and volunteers will host a vegetable garden and donate the produce to Feed Others of Dartmouth, a community group that feeds the homeless.

The community garden will serve as a pilot project for an HRM community gardening initiative. As part of it’s Good Neighbours Great Neighbourhoods campaign, HRM is working on a way to support requests from volunteer, non-profit organizations to access HRM-owned (public) property for the purpose of establishing, operating and maintaining community gardens.

“Goodness Grows! approached us with a proposal and I was inspired by their energy and community-mindedness,” said Kathy MacKinnon, Area Recreation Coordinator. “We are offering support and they are offering us feedback on how we can make an application process for starting a community garden on public property - and the ongoing partnership with the municipality - an enjoyable and mutually beneficial experience.”

When:   Saturday, May 30, 2009, 1- 3 p.m.
Where:  Findlay Community Centre, 26 Elliott Street, Dartmouth

Goodness Grows! is supported in part by the Dartmouth Community Health Board's Community Development Fund.

-30-

Kathy MacKinnon
HRM Community Recreation
490-4725

Mary-Jo Monk
Founder of Goodness Grows!
463-9326