A photo of one of Food is Free’s youngest and oldest members watering the garden together captures a moment in time of Food is Free’s philosophy.
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Volunteer Carol and four-year-old Ella met through the grassroots community organisation’s volunteer system and have since formed a friendship and shared knowledge in the garden.
Food is Free founder Lou Ridsdale said she loved seeing intergenerational community activity at the Green Space beside the Western Oval, an idea that forms the basis of upcoming Little Sprouts children’s garden workshops.
“So much of what you learn as a gardener is passed on, particularly from the generation above with grandparents,” she said.
“I know myself a lot of my gardening tips and tricks have come from my grandparents. It just seems to be something in a gardeners DNA.”
READ MORE: Food is Free movement empowers a community
Food is Free Inc. will run two Little Sprouts workshops for three to six-year-olds at the Green Space in collaboration with Munash Organics and Playgroup Victoria, to inspire the joy of growing things at home.
Children will participate in story telling, nature hunts, worm farms and planting seedlings.
We want to encourage that the garden is a place for adventure, it is a place for fun and a place for growth.
- Lou Ridsdale, Food is Free
Anna Paxton from Pootilla family business Munash Organics, said the workshops will show the younger generation where their food comes from and how they can create their own garden space.
Her children Luka, 6, and Conor, 2, have just returned home from spending three weeks with their grandparents, which involved plenty of gardening.
“We picked some sorrel from our garden yesterday and Luka said straight away ‘I would like to try that’. Ordinarily if we bought something from the supermarket he wouldn’t do that. He was straight in there eating four, five leaves of sorrel just on his own because it came out of the garden he helped build initially,” she said.
“That is one thing that is so fabulous about getting kids involved in gardening and growing their own food.”
The Little Sprouts workshops will be held at the Food is Free Green Space at the corner of Ripon Street South and Urquhart Street on January 21 and February 18.
Visit foodisfree.com.au to book via the ‘More’ tab or the Food is Free Laneway Facebok page for more information.
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