This summer, Eden Community Food Bank’s (ECFB) task of finding produce donations has been made a little bit easier thanks to West Credit Secondary School in Meadowvale.

Eight years ago, teacher Jo Burnside started the Garden Club. Students, mainly from her chef training classes, planted some food crops to be used in their program.

In previous years, Burnside has maintained the garden with some drop-in help from students. However, this year would be different since she has had surgery and would need more help with the garden.

“I could not think of a better organization to partner with than Eden Community Food Bank, what a great resource in this community,” said Burnside. “We talked about it at length in class and the students are very happy that the hard work they did this year will help people in their community.”

ECFB has reached out to its volunteer community where people quickly agreed to help out. Burnside continues to be involved by leaving instructions on what the volunteers should do each day, and clients are already enjoying the results of locally-grown produce.

Bill Crawford, ECFB’s Executive Director said, “I think this is a great collaboration in the community between West Credit Secondary School and Eden Community Food Bank. They are doing a good thing with their garden and their partnership with us helps extend that to the wider community through the food bank.”

Many people aren’t aware that Eden Community Food Bank provides fresh fruits and vegetables to its clients whenever possible. The organization will often seek out donations, but will frequently buy basic fruits and vegetables to ensure clients are accessing healthy food.

ECFB is an organization that was originally founded in 1989 by volunteers and continues to help hungry families in western Mississauga access good food because of the large number of people who help out on a regular basis.

For more information please visit ECFB’s website.