Who will replace the produce the Community Garden gives the food bank?

Who will replace the produce the Community Garden produces for the food bank? That is the question Community Garden Society volunteer Fleur Whitley wants Barrhead Town councillors to answer when she dropped by the Leader, Sept. 24, to show more than 26 pounds of carrots that she harvested from one of the plots before she donated them to the food bank.

More specifically, she asked which councillor would make up for the shortfall.

“Have you ever seen carrots as long as this?” she asked, adding the bounty came from only one row, noting she still had three more rows to harvest. “And that is only from one plot. There are others that are devoted strictly to producing produce for the food bank that haven’t been harvested yet.”

Whitley is concerned that the relocation of the garden before next spring will mean its patrons will not be able to put their crops in next year and as a result the Barrhead Food Bank will not get hundreds of pounds of fresh produce they have grown accustom to receiving.

Councillors, during a July 10, in-camera session, decided that the society would have to find a more permanent home for the 76-plot garden.

For the last five years the garden has been located on a five-acre parcel of what is commonly referred to as the Schneider Lands on the west side of town, just north of the apartment buildings along 53rd Street and south of the Shepherd’s Care facility.

The town purchased the land a number of years ago as a possible location for the new aquatics centre.

However, when the Barrhead Regional Aquatics Centre ended up being built on the same site as the old facility, the town offered the society the use of the land for the garden on the provision that if the town ever developed the land it would have to be relocated.

In our July 24 issue, chief administrative officer Martin Taylor said although there was no immediate need for the land councillors felt they should find a more permanent spot for the garden “because, at some point, some development will definitely occur there.”

However, later in our Aug. 7 issue mayor Dave McKenzie said the move became necessary after a developer expressed interest in the property.

In the same issue, Community Garden Society board member secretary-treasurer Marilyn Flock said that they accepted the move in principle and they were in the process of negotiating the logistics of the move, noting they would need the town’s assistance as their resources are limited. In the same interview Flock stated the new location would be Millennium Park on the old Japanese garden site.

On Sept. 11, council accepted a petition against the move to Millennium Park for information stating the petition failed to meet the standard under the Municipal Government Act (MGA), but it was premature, saying it was only one location they were considering.