Support from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is helping provide 16,000 pounds of fresh produce annually to food banks across the Canadian province of Alberta.
The Vegetable Garden in Taber, Alberta, Canada, began in 2016 on Church-owned farmland, after local Church leaders discovered a need for fresh produce at the Taber Food Bank. They decided to allocate the farmland to food-growing efforts and work with community partners to support the food bank.
In 2023, the Church sold the garden’s farmland; however, the town of Taber leased new land to the Taber Food Bank, while the Church’s Humanitarian Aid Fund provided money to support fencing, an underground water pipeline, gravel for parking and electrical work. The new garden plot is within Taber town limits and is more accessible to volunteers, which refocuses the garden as a community-driven project with support from the Church.
“I feel that the community garden is a very great opportunity to both feed the hungry and also to help build community,” said Elder David C. Stewart, an Area Seventy living in Lethbridge, Alberta, in a news release from the Church’s Canada Newsroom. “Our common desire to serve sons and daughters of God unifies us in a remarkable way.”
Community support has been essential to the garden’s operation. For instance, one company donates fertilizer every year, and another provides a portable toilet. Local farmers also volunteer their time and equipment to till and spread compost and to plant corn.
Today, the garden operates on 1,500 hours of volunteer labor each year. Church members work alongside faith, community and school groups, food bank staff and others interested in helping, including food bank clients. Typical tasks include planting, weeding or harvesting.
“Families will bring their little kids, and it’s just a great way for people to be out together,” said David Torrie, a former counsellor in the Taber Alberta Stake presidency and chair of the garden committee. “It’s really popular.”
Tami Torrie, Taber Alberta Stake communication director, added that the garden has been “the single best thing to build community relationships in Taber, without a doubt.”
Though the garden’s primary recipient is the Taber Food Bank, production often exceeds local needs. The Taber Food Bank gives extra produce to associated food banks in the area, or other southern Alberta food banks and soup kitchens send vans to pick up produce for their clients.
Excess produce also goes to food banks around the province and beyond via the Food Banks Alberta terminal in Leduc, with local farmers donating shipping costs to Leduc.
