On the crisp sunny mornings of late September, over 180 volunteers responded to requests for help to harvest 4 fields of vegetables planted by retirees on two and a half acres of donated land bordering Calgary. By month end, these teams of ambitious harvesters had garnered over 83,000 lbs. of fresh produce from these fields and donated the entire crop to the Calgary Food Bank!
The 2023 harvest set a new record for the two teams of retirees who have grown nearly one million pounds of fresh produce for the Food Bank since the groups were formed in 1996 by retirees from Chevron, Amoco and Imperial Oil and joined in this gardening quest in 1999 by TransAlta retirees. Over the years, these retirees have planted their gardens on land shared with benevolent farmers, acreage owners, churches and on industrial sites.
Donating one acre of prime irrigated farm land to this cause in 2020, Eagle Lake Turf Farms formed a partnership with these retirees which tripled the annual yield of produce grown! Although the core group of 60 retirees are able to plant, weed and maintain all these garden plots, harvesting over 40 tons of vegetables in the fall needs the support of family members, friends and neighbours and caring volunteers from Chevron, FortisAlberta, Imperial Oil, the Calgary Food Bank and Eagle Lake Landscape Supply. We can’t thank them enough! A shout out also goes to West Coast Seeds and Upper Green Farms for their generous donation of seeds and seed potatoes for these gardens.
Asked why these retirees garden on this scale, Garden Coordinator Fred Ritter explains: “You know your gardening efforts go towards providing fresh produce to people in need and that energizes folks!” These gardens also create a venue for retirees to maintain contact with friends made in their workplace over their years of employment so both the Calgary Food Bank and volunteers benefit immensely from this gardening experience!
