We are proud to officially announce a very significant school-community project that we have been planning and working on for the past several months – Grizzly Gardens! This 1/2 acre shared use, school-community garden will be built on the vacant school property, between MDJH and Toronto Street.

It will be used as a teaching and learning space for both Macdonald Drive Elementary and Junior High, where we will integrate the benefits of gardening and the growing of healthy, sustainable food into our curricular studies.

In addition, we are especially excited that we have connected with Tiffany Village – Retirement Home, The Association for New Canadians, MacMorran Community Centre, and Food First NL to be active users of the garden as well. Once constructed, we will also be inviting families from the MDJH Community to come grow with us.

With a project like this, there is a lot of work to be done and a lot of funds to be raised. Among our fundraising efforts, we have set up a 50 / 50 raffle for this spring. We are hoping that you will support our project by purchasing a ticket and helping us to spread the word of what we are building at MDJH. If you believe in hands-on learning, food sustainability and security, and the power of a community working and growing together, this is likely a cause you would want to support.

To learn more about our garden, please visit us at Grizzly Gardens – we hope our vision is something you will want to join in. To enter our raffle, please go to MDJH Community Garden Raffle or connect, on the Grizzly Garden Website.

Finally, we really appreciate your support … If you would like to learn more, please drop me a line: chesleywest@nlschools.ca.