THUNDER BAY— Residents of the city came together to eat, connect and grow at a community barbeque.
On Tuesday, NorWest Community Health Centres and Willow Springs Creative Centre welcomed community members in the garden area at 433 and 435 Simpson Street for a free community barbeque.
“The garden's starting to really explode, we want people to know they can come by anytime, help us garden if they want, or just come and take the food if they want it or need it,” said Judi Vinni, coordinator for Willow Springs.
“There's always fresh food, today we picked peas from the garden. There's some radishes that are ripe and strawberries are on their way,” she said.
The barbeque brings a sense of community and belonging to people living on and around Simpson Street, she said.
“I think especially in the Simpson neighbourhood it's very important to have a place where people can meet each other and feel proud,” she said.
Proving just how important it is to the community, approximately 20 community members were lined up to the street at the start of the event.
“Today (we have) fantastic, local smoked meats and we have chocolate cupcakes made by our young summer baker at Willow Springs with some edible flowers on top,” she said.
While Willow Springs took the lead in the community barbeque, Norwest Community Health Centre supplied the beverages, tents and year-round garden support, Vinni said.
Local artist Julia Tribe also hosted a crafting station for community members, where they worked in collaboration to make finger puppets after eating, she said.
“We have started a new two-year art project called Exploring our Diversity through Puppetry so all summer we will be making puppets of all sizes from finger puppets to big parade puppets,” Vinni said.
Community members looking for information on future events can visit the Willow Springs website, and go to 433 and 435 Simpson Street on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
