Summer gardens are full of fresh produce and families in New Ross are enjoying the bounty.
The New Ross Family Resource Centre provides fresh produce boxes to area families and local farms have stepped up to help fill them, including Ross Farm Museum.
Manager of Nutrition and Prenatal Health Promotion for the New Ross Family Resource Centre Leanne Webb says they wanted to adapt to the changing needs of families due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We expanded a food box program we already had in the community to build food security for the families of New Ross,” she said.
The resource centre stepped in to help a group of ten families who were already running a food box program reach more families in the community. The number of families has now grown to 50.
Webb says one of the benefits of their program is that they use fresh local produce which means it lasts a long time compared to food that has been sitting in the grocery store-and that is where Ross Farm Museum comes in. They are one of several other New Ross farms contributing to the program and have provided an abundance of garden goodies including rhubarb, lettuce and beet greens.
“Partners are really key to the success of this program particularly in the summer months when they grow produce,” she said.
Ross farm Museum’s Marketing and Communications Officer Matthew Gates said they decided to use the garden space they would normally be using for their own programming to contribute.
“We dedicated it to helping supply them, at no charge, and help out that food group and help community members,” he said.
Webb says the feedback from families has been extraordinary.
“I have gotten more feedback in the last couple of months than I have gotten in the five years I have been here. We are excited when we are putting the boxes together and families are excited when they pick them up.”
Each box is full to overflowing with foods in season-the last box contained beet greens, lettuces, tomatoes, strawberries, onions, carrots, apples, garlic scapes and fresh herbs.
