Connaught Youth Centre to build year-round garden with Co-op grant

Year-round locally grown fresh vegetables are coming to some of Prince George’s most vulnerable youth and families.

Thanks to $58,000 from Four Rivers Co-op, the Connaught Youth Centre will begin work on a hydroponic grow shed for lettuces and herbs.

“We serve the highest risk community members within Prince George,” Katharine Kendall, Connaught Youth Centre Society’s Executive Director told My PG Now after the cheque presentation. “There is no food production year-round. We will be able to have fresh lettuce at Christmas, we will be able to get that out in the community and make amazing food for the kids we serve.”

All of the Youth Centre’s programs are free.

The Connaught Youth Centre was one of 14 chosen recipients of this year’s Co-op Community Spaces Program grants.

715 groups across western Canada applied for these 14 spots.

Four Rivers Co-op’s CEO, Allan Bieganski, presented the cheque to Kendall yesterday afternoon (Thursday).

“Our Community Spaces Program allocates one million dollars to various groups working on projects in Environmental Conservation, Recreation, and Outdoor Spaces,” he explained.

“You have to work on a project that makes your community a better place to live and has long term value,” Bieganski said. “The food program they are working on was very worthwhile.”

This is the third time in the Community Spaces Program’s 10 year history that a north central BC area project has been selected.