Fresh veggies: Charlottetown's Upper Room growing its own produce this summer

The Upper Room Hospitality Ministry in Charlottetown is hoping some Islanders with green thumbs will help them out with its newest project.

The ministry operates a soup kitchen and food bank andrecently acquired a plot of landin the Legacy Garden behind the P.E.I. Farm Centre on University Avenue.

The Upper Room is planning on using theplot to grow some of its own vegetables, which will be used in the meals the soup kitchen prepares.

New and experienced gardeners welcome

According to Tammy MacKinnon, the soup kitchen's manager, the project is a partnership between the soup kitchen and the food bank. MacKinnon will oversee the garden.

Right now the Upper Room's plot is in need of some care, but MacKinnonsaid she hopes it won't be long before her and her volunteers are ready to plant fresh vegetables in its soil.

MacKinnon, a novice gardener herself, said people of all skill levels are welcome to lend a hand. She added she hopes some of the soup kitchen's clients will want to get involved too.

"This is an opportunity to have a little bit of extra [vegetables] and to have some of the clients be able to come and learn a little bit and come help grow stuff that they're using," she said.

Upper Room plot will be part of 'an amazing resource'

MacKinnonsaid the P.E.I. Farm Centre has been a supporter of the Upper Room. She added many people with plots in the Legacy Garden grow food and donate it to the Upper Room.

"I think the Legacy Garden and the whole farm centre is an amazing resource that we have here," she said. "To have this many plots where people who might live in apartments or duplexes or just not have the property or the means to do it can come here and it is amazing."

MacKinnonsaid she hopes to have her volunteers in place soon and that in addition to providing food for the Soup Kitchen, some of the fresh vegetables can go out in food hampers for those in need.

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