Community garden set to double output with help from Toyota

A Waterloo region community garden is about to undergoa growth spurtover half a square kilometre large,thanks to a cash injection from an unlikely partner vehicle-manufacturinggiantToyota.

Rare charitable research reserve announced the $100,000 partnership with the Japanese automotive companyin a news release Thursday. The money will mean that Springbank Community Gardens will be able togrow its 15,000 square footplot dedicated to foodbanks by another 6,800 square feet, the release said, an expansion expected to double the garden's organic produce outputfrom what it was in 2015.

"We are thrilled and grateful for this amazing gift," Rare's executive director Stephanie Sobek-Swantsaid in the release. "I'm particularly thrilled that the support allows us to grow our food bank garden significantly, serving more people in need of healthy foods and activities across the region."

A low Canadian dollar and steeper production costs mean the need for local produce is growing, Sobek-Swant told CBC News.

Increasing demand

"With the cost for produce increasing (remember $7 cauliflower last fall), many people have been priced out of the market," she said. "This increases demand."

• Cauliflower prices spike to $8 a head

Theorganizationalready provides produce to the Cambridge Self-Help Food Bank, but plans to nowexpand its reach to several others in the area.

The gardens are home to 110 plots that the public can use to grow their own vegetables. An educational garden housed at the reserve also teachescommunity members how to grow organic produce.

"Working with the team at RareCharitable Research Reserve, we saw an opportunity to support their environmental protection efforts at the same time as helping local not-for-profits access gardens and grow their own fresh, organic produce themselves,"Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada's Suzanne Baal told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo.

'An ideal combination'

"For us atTMMC, this was an ideal combination," Baal added.

The vehicle manufacturer has three plants locally, two in Cambridge and a third in Woodstock, Ont.

In May, the company announced $250,000 in funding to the Grand River Conservation Foundation to help expand recreation programs in the watershed.

"Giving back to the community is an important part of what we do,"Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada president Fred Volf said in the release.