A new produce stand, free to anyone who needs fruits and vegetables, is up and running at McDonald Park (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

FRUIT AND VEGETABLE STAND

Free produce available at McDonald Park in new pilot project

Aug 5, 2022 | 3:26 PM

KAMLOOPS — Every vegetable imaginable is being grown in two plots that belong to the McDonald Park Neighbourhood Association.

They are contributing to the association’s newest pilot project — a produce stand inside the park that’s available to anyone who needs vegetables and fruit.

“If you have extra produce from your garden or it can even be store-brought from your fridge, that’s fine too, you can come down to McDonald Park and you can drop it off. As long as the shelf is open, that means the stand is open. You leave whatever you like,” said Sarah Johnstone from the neighbourhood association. “As far as taking produce goes, it’s very similar. You can wander on by, if something’s here you can decide to take it.”

After dealing with break-ins at the community gardens, the association looked at improving the gardens and the accessibility to the food being grown in them.

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“We started to brainstorm this idea of why would someone be breaking into the garden, so one of the things we thought of was the potential for food insecurity,” noted Johnstone. “So if you’re breaking into a community garden, the likelihood is you don’t have access to fresh vegetables, fresh fruit.”

Now, however, anyone can come through McDonald Park and help themselves to whatever is on the produce stand for free.

Community gardens coordinator with Interior Community Services Greg Unger says the project is greatly needed.

“There are huge issues with rising food prices, a lot of rising food insecurity — globally, but definitely here in Kamloops it’s an issue,” said community gardens coordinator with Interior Community Services Greg Unger. “There are people who need produce and this is a great way for them to get it rather than jumping the fence and damaging somebody’s hard work.”

Unger says this is a model that could easily be implemented at other community gardens around the city.

“We had in the past tried putting at other gardens a milk crate by the entrance and gardeners could put produce in them, but people wouldn’t know what it was, it didn’t really look good. This is the first community produce stand of this calibre,” he said. “It got posted on Facebook and some of the gardeners at one of the other community gardens saw it and approached me maybe two weeks ago and they were like ‘Can we do something similar?!’ So yeah, the energy is there. People think it’s a great idea.”

The association says volunteers are needed to tend to the stand on occasion. It also would like donations from anyone in the community who wants to see the pilot project grow.