Effort to Grow Food for Calgarians Awaits New City Council Support – Calgary | The Canadian News

Some hard-working volunteers hope that the new Calgary City Council will support the expansion of its efforts to help feed struggling people in the city.

Volunteer with the Highfield Farm A nonprofit organization went out on Monday to collect crops after its first food growing season on unused land owned by the City of Calgary in an industrial area in the southeast of the city.

“(Growing) cabbages, cauliflower, chard, carrots, dill, sage, parsley,” said Heather Ramshaw of Highfield Farm. “Basically we test everything you can grow in Calgary.”

After growing around 50 different vegetables and herbs, the organization is delivering the harvest to the Calgary Food Bank and the Mustard seed.

“Growing food with the community for the community,” Ramshaw said.

Highfield Farm says their efforts are especially needed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“With COVID, we saw that the supply chain can be disrupted,” said volunteer Corinne Zamonsky. “Growing your own food, in your own town, in your own backyard, will probably be more important now, more than ever.”

Highfield Farm is hosting a fundraising event called ‘Spooktakular Soupalicious’ on Saturday October 23rd, featuring more information available online.

The event features soups made by Calgary chefs with local ingredients.

“It’s a difficult time right now and I think we all need to come together and grow food here locally and help everyone.” Sidewalk citizen Chef Robin Watts said.

Watts will prepare a vegetarian French onion soup for the occasion.

Proceeds from the fundraiser will go towards adding a greenhouse at Highfield Farm.

“The growing season is really short in Calgary, and with the greenhouse, we could extend our season,” Ramshaw said. “We even hope to grow throughout the year.”

The organization hopes to build support among members of the new Calgary city council, and says it is a project worth growing.

“It would be great if this project were repeated throughout the city.

“There are a lot of potential places in the city that are underutilized and if the city council can support something like that then we would be very happy.”