THUNDER BAY – Most modern youngsters have little or no connection left with the land.
In a world of smart phones and video games, it’s tough enough some times for parents to get their children to go outside for a little old-fashioned playtime.
It’s precisely why Little Lions Waldorf Child and Family Centre has decided to partner with the Finlandia Club and the Regional Food Distribution Association to provide outdoor programming that includes a taste of gardening and taking care of rabbits and chickens.
It’s a great education, said Lindsay Gaw-Martin, chief executive officer at Little Lions, speaking this week at the Pento Road site.
“The children are able to take part in actual planting, and then taking care of a garden over the summer and watching things grow, to actually harvest those things in the fall and be able to use them for the program and also for the RFDA,” Gaw-Martin said.
Learning about the land should be an important part of everyone’s upbringing, she added.
“We’re grounded in the Earth. We need to make sure we’re taking care of the Earth and we’re raising children who want to take care of the Earth moving forward, so that we’re taking care of the environment, making sure we’re being kind to animals – all those things we want to instill in children, ” Gaw-Martin said.
June Gaw, who chairs the RFDA and is also the Little Lions board of directors, said the Tapiola community garden has been a huge success. Recently they added transplanted apple trees from the Salvation Army’s Cumberland Street site, trees that had to be moved to make way for the organization’s new facility.
“We are developing a whole area that is going to be a wonderful nature experience for children throughout the summer,” Gaw said.
“A lot of children don’t realize where food comes from. The can is opened and there are the peas, or their parent goes to the supermarket and buys a bunch of carrots and brings them home and cooks them. This way the children are planting and seeing things growing.”
During the summer the youngsters pull kale and feed it to the rabbits, for example.
“It’s an experience with nature that many will not otherwise have,” Gaw said. “I think by encompassing all of our community partners, we’re creating a better Thunder Bay and a better place for all of us to live.”
