ST. PAUL'S CHURCH
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We are deep into mid-summer and if you are looking for garden-fresh produce, St. Paul’s Orillia would like to share with you.
For the past five years, St. Paul’s eager team of willing volunteer gardeners have produced lots of fresh produce to give away to anyone in the Orillia area who would like to come and get it.
Prior to this year, volunteers would pick some of the harvest and leave it in a basket, but much of the harvest would be for people to pick themselves. This led, sometimes, to produce being picked unripened or, conversely, being left on the vine for too long.
St. Paul’s has come up with a low-tech way to deal with this: a cheery red cooler is now placed in the shade at 62 Peter St. N. and a sign welcomes visitors to help themselves.
“This approach mirrors a movement happening in New York where they are putting fridges in the street for people/restaurants to put out food that would otherwise go to waste,” explains Sharing Garden coordinator Audrey Bayens. “This is our simple way of doing something similar.”
For now, the red cooler is doing a great job. Hungry visitors can help themselves to items in the cooler, or look for the prominent “Pick Me” signs in the garden beds along Coldwater Road and Peter Street.
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