Source: Posted in the St. Catharines Standard on April 7th 2025 by Matt Barker.
Sowing seeds to feed the community is the goal of Start Me Up Niagara’s Adopt-a-Row fundraiser, which runs until the end of May.The campaign hopes to raise $10,000 in support of the agency’s 0.8-hectare garden at Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, which last year produced more than 6,350 kilograms of fruits and vegetables for food insecure people across Niagara.
Garden staff and volunteers in 2024 also collected about 12,700 kg of fresh produce from the research centre’s fields.
Based on average store costs, Start Me Up Niagara garden manager Linda Crago said combined that equated to about $150,000 in food distributed to families through pop-up markets, Feed Niagara-affiliated food banks and other methods.
“They (food banks) all have a budget to buy food, so getting the food from us helped a lot because they’re getting it at no cost,” Crago said. Money raised through Adopt-a-Row will help with staffing, materials, equipment and seeds.
Emily Fieguth, the agency’s fundraising co-ordinator and event director, said excitement is mounting as the campaign had “great success” last year.
“We hope for the same success this year, maybe even grow it a little bit more,” she said.
“It is our largest fundraiser for our garden program, which is valuable to the Niagara region.” Fieguth said sponsorships range between $500 and $1,000 per row and offer various perks to go with those levels.
“They’d have signs and potentially a story in our From the Garden newsletter, an opportunity to bring their team out and see the row or maybe participate in a team building exercise,” she said.
Fieguth said the agency accepts community donations as every dollar counts when trying to fulfil the need for food.
“Five dollars purchases a pack of seeds. Those seeds will grow 100 pounds (45 kg) of food so even if it’s a small donation you’re giving, it’s making a big impact,” she said.
“One hundred dollars will provide a sprinkler for automatic watering or purchase straw to put down on the beds, so we don’t have to weed as much.”
Produce grown last year included onions, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and beets and peaches, plums, nectarines and apples.
“A lot of times food banks get donations from grocery stores the … produce is at the end of its life,” Crago said, “whereas when we send the (produce) out, it’s been picked that day. So, it’s fresh and a real treat for people to get something like that.”
Matthew P. Barker is a St. Catharines-based general assignment reporter for the Standard.