In a collaborative effort, Operation Come Home and Just Food have received a two-year grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation to launch FarmWorks, OCH’s fifth social enterprise.
Social enterprises employ youth, who are either homeless or dangerously close to it, to provide products and services to Centretown. In return, these programs provide income, job experience and social support to help the youth get back on their feet and off the streets.
The program will have 12 youths rotating through in groups of three, each for a 12-week period. They will be working an acre of land on Just Food’s farm in Blackburn Hamlet. The youth will plant, weed, water and harvest organic heirloom vegetables, including squash, kale, spinach and a variety of culinary herbs.
Spearheading FarmWorks is Catherine Dowdell, who says the program is extremely beneficial. “Literally and figuratively, it’s a good way to ground people. Getting your hands into the dirt, into the earth, like our skin covers so much of our body, it’s like the skin that’s protecting the earth.”
According to the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s website, the FarmWorks grant is valued at $158,800, enough to cover operating costs for two years. Once the grant runs out, the plan is to sustain FarmWorks through community supported agriculture shares.
The shares model allows local customers to buy into a farm before the growing season starts. When the harvest starts rolling in, shareholders receive a portion of all the produce on a regular basis. The risk is that if the harvest flops, there are no refunds.
FarmWorks is selling a total of 30 shares. The cost for each depends on where customers decide to pick up their weekly produce. If at the farm, shares cost $575 and $675 if pickup is at OCH. Dowdell says these prices are comparable to other CSAs, and that one share is enough to feed a family of four for the 18 week harvest.
Dowdell says FarmWorks begins pre-training in mid-March, with the actual farming beginning in April or early May.
She says her hope for the program is that it will be able to eventually provide year-round training, especially during winter, so OCH youth can have another opportunity to get out of the cold and learn valuable job skills.