PORT HARDY—The Grassroots Garden Society got a boost in its effort to connect the people of the North Island with the land when it was awarded a grant from the federal government’s New Horizons for Seniors Program this spring.
The society, which provides education on organic growing, local food security and related issues through its local garden on Park Drive, was awarded $18,380 for a project entitled Missing Voices — Connecting People and Place.
Grassroots Garden Society director Dawn Moorhead said the group will use the funds to create an ethnobotany path and purchase an iBook and interpretive materials for the garden.
Since its inception the society, whose membership includes several former or current teachers, has shared lessons with area students through tours and an annual harvest feast.
The grant was one of 18 distributed to organizations on Vancouver Island from the Comox Valley to Port Hardy. The grants, totalling $321,885, were announced in May by Vancouver Island North MP John Duncan. The Gazette previously published an announcement of grants to the Gwa’sala-‘Nakwaxda’xw Nations, the community of Zeballos and Royal Canadian Legion Branch 147 in Sayward, but the Grassroots Garden Society grant was omitted by mistake.
