Albany Victory Gardens Help Feed Neighbourhood
With each belly full of healthy, homegrown food, he’s nourishing the heart of West Hill, too.
By Sara Rivest
Spectrum News
Sept 19, 2021
Excerpt:
“It was hard for us to get food, so we had to do it,” says Keyes. “My father and mother, they even had chickens down here on Swan Street.”
In the city’s West Hill Neighborhood, consider Keyes’ tiny backyard garden the seed to what would become the abundant, thriving, communal Albany Victory Gardens. Keyes serves as the president.
“We started out with one plot,” says Keyes. “Now we’ve got 36 acres somewhere else and over here we’ve got 30 something plots.”
Each is cared for by someone who lives nearby. The plots are bordered by brick buildings, busy streets, vacant homes marked as safety hazards, and sidewalk memorials dedicated to friends taken by violence.
“The people who were out here for this (the memorial) now they come over here and have a good time at the garden,” says Keyes.
Fresh flowers feed their hives of honey bees and the farmers say all that buzzing around has doubled their crops.
“We got so much food we could feed this whole neighborhood about seven or eight times,” says Keyes.
The fresh produce not only provides for the local growers, it’s now being sold at their weekly farmers market. For Keyes, the garden is so much more than a physical transformation of his neighborhood.
