HEFC Heroes April 2025: Kilborn Garden Group

The Kilborn Garden Group, our Heroes for April, and their efforts towards Seedy Saturday, are a perfect example of one of the interesting projects which make our community so vibrant.  The Kilborn Garden Group, formed in 2022, advocates for growing more food locally, specifically in Ward 18. The coordinator of the group, Janet Mark Wallace, stated in her email to HEFC: “We hope to continue to work with the HEFC to envision a more self-sufficient, healthy, bio-diverse community where everyone has access to the best quality, fresh, locally grown food.”

HEFC received a donation collected by the Kilborn Garden Group, at Seedy Saturday which was held at Emmanuel United Church on March 1st. The centrepiece of the event is the seed exchange table where anyone can donate and exchange seeds. This year, seeds for the seed exchange table were donated by Just Food and catalogued over the winter by the Hillcrest High School Garden Club and the Kilborn Garden Group. A donation jar for HEFC was placed at the seed exchange table and many customers willingly left a donation in exchange for their seeds. Many thanks for your efforts towards food security and for the donation to HEFC!

The Ottawa Seedy Saturday event is part of Seedy Saturday, a national Canadian project which began in 1990 and has been held at Emmanuel United Church for the past two years. This event provides an opportunity for vendors of organic and heirloom plants and seeds to showcase and sell their produce.

The cooperation and collaboration of so many local community organizations; Emmanuel United Church, the Kilborn Allotment Gardens, the Hillcrest High School Garden Club, the Kilborn Garden Group, and Seedy Saturday, promotes a common vision of food self sufficiency for our future. Food insecurity in our community is increasing year over year, and with awareness of our current economic uncertainty, is unlikely to diminish in the near future.