Flour Mill Community Farm doubling in size after soil donation

A community garden in Sudbury is doubling in size this season, thanks to a donation from a local group.

On Wednesday, work started to expand the Flour Mill Community Farm, after receiving a donation of soil from the NOAH Community Hub, a local group working to reduce poverty in the city.

It's the third year the farm has been in operation. Ten students will be hired through the YMCA to work at the farm.

"They will be gaining important job skills and learning about how to go from field to table," Annette Babcock, a senior planner with the Social Planning Council of Sudbury and member of NOAH said.

"So learning how to take a seed, put it in the ground, nurture it, grow it, harvest it and then sell it."

The produce grown at the farm is sold at a neighbourhood market each week.

"That allows the local residents to have affordable, fresh, local, organic produced food," farm coordinator Leah Longworth said.

She says it's rewarding to see the students learn while working on the farm.

"One of the local youth who participated last year told us that this job helped them become an actual human being," she said.

"So it taught them human skills, just to be a person and be accepted within your community."