Autism Society pays it forward with much-needed potatoes to St. John's food bank

Harvest day at the Autism Society in St. John'shadparticipants in the group's Transitions Program busy digging up potatoes to donate to a local food bank this week just in time for Thanksgiving.

The Transitions Program helps young adults with autism gain life skills through a year-long program that involvesclassroom work, job shadowing and on-site work experience.

For the last several years, part of that has involved planting and harvesting vegetables at the society's four raised garden beds, and the potatoes arethen packed up and sent to the Bridges to Hope food bank in St. John's.

"We're doing gardening, farming, custodian work, carpentry and cleaning," said program coordinator Megan Marshall on Monday.

"You know, all the things that grownupsneed to learn how to do. And we break it down into steps that are manageable and we help people be successful."

Potato harvesting with the Autism Society

7 years ago

Duration 4:31

Potato harvesting with the Autism Society

Marshall said through donations by Gaze Seed Company, the Autism Society has planted and harvested more than 500 lbs of potatoes for Bridges to Hope over the last four years.

The harvest is just one of many activities the society uses to helpits participantsgain skills in socialization, time management, accountably and more.

"They have a thirst for wanting to be more independent and we're helping that happen for them," Marshall said. "It's good hard work, you're outdoors, that feels good and you literally see the fruits of your labour."

Over at Bridges to Hope, the donations couldn't come at a better time.

Manager Jody Williams said it's been a rough summer with demand up about 25 per cent compared to last year, and donations down on top of that.

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"We used to buy fresh vegetables but our demand has gone up so we didn't have it in our budget. So this is great, it's Thanksgiving week and our clients will be quite excited," he told CBC.

"We're getting a lot more seniors and a lot more working people who are making minimum wage and can't make ends meet."