Regular users of the Lacombe Food Bank now have a chance to grow their own ingredients, thanks to the city and area wood workers.
The Central Alberta Wood Workers Guild, City of Lacombe and the food bank teamed up to build 10 planter boxes recently. The planter boxes are designed to allow people to grow their own food.
Ten members of the guild and two kids spent about two hours and 45 minutes building the planter boxes. The 16-inch high, four by eight foot boxes were then given to the Lacombe Food Bank.
They will be used by families that frequent the food bank to grow their own food.
Duane McCartney was one of the wood workers who spent part of their day assembling the planter boxes. Those involved in building them came from across Central Alberta including Red Deer, Lacombe, Ponoka and Bashaw.
“We were able to get the people together and have a good time building stuff,” said McCartney.
McCartney said the project was initiated by the Lacombe recreation department and said Sonya Beauclair, the department’s administrative assistant and part of Lacombe’s ChooseWell program, played a major role getting the project together. The group accessed a provincial grant to help fund the endeavour.
ChooseWell is a provincial initiative under the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association. It supports the development of programs, policies and partnerships that foster community wellness through active living and healthy eating.
“The whole idea was to be able to provide spaces for people who use the food bank to have a garden plot,” said McCartney.
The group used pressure treated lumber to assemble the boxes and lined them with plastic and put in some dirt.
“Now we just hope people will use them now that we’ve built them,” he said.