Photo from Ontario Community Harvest Website
I find the holidays are often one of the busiest times of year with
shopping, wrapping, shopping, cooking, shopping and of course making some
extra time to create a video and submit it for the Reel Greenbelt Youth
Video Competition!
However, this is also a season for giving back. The Reel Greenbelt Team
would like to highlight a fantastic grant the Friends of the Greenbelt
Foundation made this past year that is truly in the holiday spirit.
During the Foundation''s previous granting round they provided funds for
"Community Harvest Ontario in the Greenbelt." This exciting project is in
partnership with the Ontario Association of Food Banks. The Association of
Food Banks enables thousands of large and small programs to relieve hunger
in 120 communities across the province. 375, 000 Ontarians turn to food
banks every month of which 40 percent of those served are children.
An abundance of fresh fruit and vegetable is often tilled back into the
soil or sent to landfills. Community Harvest Ontario in the Greenbelt is
an innovative agricultural partnership with Ontario's food banks and
farmers in the Greenbelt. Community Harvest reduces hunger by engaging
thousands of volunteers through innovative agricultural partnership
projects such as post-harvest gleaning and farming a donated plot of land.
One result of these projects is an increase in the quality and quantity of
fresh, nutritious food that is distributed to vulnerable communities
through Ontario''s food banks.
One million pounds of fruit and vegetables were gleaned and harvested this
past season, double what was expected, and I can''t wait to see what
happens next year!
For more information about giving to Ontario''s food banks this holiday
season check out: http://www.oafb.ca/act.html
For those of you who are frantically looking for ideas for "What the
Greenbelt is Worth to You" I highly recommend you check out some of the
exciting grants the Foundation has made. Grant proposals simply represent
people's ideas of what the Greenbelt means to them. To learn about our
grants visit: http://www.greenbelt.ca/grants/grants-made
Submission Deadline: January 2, 2011
For details on submitting a video visit: http://www.reelgreenbelt.ca
--Happy Holidays from the Reel Greenbelt Team