Canada: How Thorncliffe Park’s community garden is teaching kids about nature while tackling food insecurity
Kindergarteners and parents attend programming together
By Olivia Bowden, Shyloe Fagan
CBC News
Mar 13, 2024
Excerpt:
Tucked away behind the 50-year-old high-rise apartments on Thorncliffe Park Drive sits a community garden — and that slice of greenery has caught the attention of staff at Fraser Mustard Early Learning Academy.
The nearby kindergarten-only school launched a program last year to team up with Thorncliffe Park Urban Farmers, a local farming group that runs the garden, to bring little ones and their parents to guided sessions where they can learn about everything from growing carrots to understanding the local ecosystem, says Barbara Sandler, the principal at the school.
Now in its second year, Sandler says the program is evolving to build stronger relationships between parents, kids and community organizations in Thorncliffe Park.
“We hope that all of the students at Fraser Mustard … are seeing themselves as capable of contributing,” she said. “We’re really making important and long-lasting connections to the natural world.”
Parents and community organizers told CBC Toronto that the program is particularly important in a neighbourhood like Thorncliffe Park, which has multiple high-rise buildings and a lack of space for recreation. It has also created an alternative food source, with some in Toronto turning to urban farming as an option in the midst of the affordability crisis.
