Elaine Dobbin Centre for Autism digs deep for food bank

Potatoes grown at the Elaine Dobbin Centre for Autism vegetable gardenare headed for the Bridges toHope'sThanksgiving hampers.

Clients at the autism centreharvested some of those potatoes Thursday.

Megan Marshall,the centre's Transitions Programco-ordinator, and her groupvolunteered at thefood bank for eight months last year and saw first hand that there was a need for vegetables.

"One thing we realized while stocking their shelves and preparing their hampers for their clients was that they lacked produce,"said Marshall."It's all canned goods and boxed goods."

The autism centre has such a large gardenand they wanted togive something back to the food bank to saythank you.

"They were so good to us letting us volunteer, letting us learn and fail. All of the things that happen when you try new things," Marshall told CBC's St. John's Morning Show. "So we came back here and built four, ten-by-ten garden beds and shoved them full of potatoes."

ChadCoombs,thecommunity chef at Bridges to Hope,saidclients are amazed to be getting fresh locally grown vegetables.

"The fact that they're getting locally grown vegetables from people that have nurtured them and cared for them andthey'regetting them regardless of who they areorwhat walk of life they're actually really blown away," said Coombs.

'It works both ways'

Partnering with Bridges to Hope gives the food bankfresh produce, but Marshall said the food bankgets to see autism in a different light.

"They get to see that persons with autism are very capable people in their community," said Marshall. "That people with autism can work can be engaged, can be involved, it works both ways."

Clients at the autism centre also learn and grow from the experience.Marshall said they love being outdoors, learning new skills and their social skills blossom.

"There is a lot of team work involved in gardening and farming and they love knowing that their food is going back to a place that they volunteer," said Marshall. "So it's quite a full circle opportunity."

To date, the group has harvested 110 pounds of potatoes.Marshall hopes to get in a few more harvests to add to that amount.