EAST GWILLIMBURY—Good food is best grown close to home. Earlier this year on site at the Sharon Temple National Historic Site and Museum, a large, accessible garden was built.

Fruit bushes, vegetables, even laying hens are part of an exciting project to engage local seniors to help combat social isolation and to provide vulnerable populations with fresh produce through local food pantries. The fruits of their labour are now helping out those in need. The Temple is donating fresh produce that was grown in their gardens to the St. James the Apostle Anglican Church’s Food Pantry.

“We recognized a need in our community and we wanted to do something to make a difference,” explained executive director Lori Woodyatt.

After speaking with other community organizers, and connecting with the East Gwillimbury Seniors Task Force, the idea of a heritage park garden — an accessible and sustainable garden — was born.

The project was funded in part by the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program.

“The support of New Horizons for Seniors was instrumental in allowing us to see this venture through to reality,” Woodyatt said. “It has also allowed us to create new relationships with seniors in our community, something that has been wonderful for everyone involved.”

With the money provided by the grant, the Temple hired Mary Lasenko, who is an agriculture student at the University of Guelph.

The garden is located on what used to be a baseball diamond. But the Temple doesn’t have to worry about the quality of soil because all of the gardens are located in raised beds to provide easier access to seniors.

The garden has been designed in a way that a person in a wheelchair can have easy access to weed and maintain the crops. Lasenko is growing many different things in the garden with the help of her volunteers, including green beans, kale, Swiss chard, watermelon, zucchini, squash, peppers and pumpkins, just to name a few.

The Sharon Temple National Historic Site and Museum was awarded an Environmental Leadership Award from the East Gwillimbury Chamber of Commerce in part because of Heritage Park Garden, which is open to visitors as part of their general admission from Tuesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., until late October.