You have been empowering our national program team to plan for significant upcoming projects. ADRA recently hired new regional program managers to assist in the implementation of your vital work across Canada. That team has been steadily developing new programming – the Seeds of Change project.

Your funds have helped to support this initiative in the Yellowknife community. For many indigenous and low-income families in the area, the soil itself has been spoiled by the presence of arsenic. With limited capacity to grow food in the ground and extremely high prices for groceries, fresh produce can be hard to find. You supplied ADRA with 150 large cedar planter boxes filled with seeds, fertilizer, and tools with about 20 tons of top-quality soil and with the help of volunteers, they were distributed to community members. You are helping to support these families as they learn how to grow vegetables in their planter boxes – creating a reliable source of fresh produce in their communities.

Our goal is to holistically strengthen family bonds, so the project has a special activity for kids where they can feel included in the food-growing process and participate alongside their parents. Participating children received planter pots for growing small herbs and vegetables, which they decorated to their liking. With your help, 70 pots with tomato seeds and accessories were proudly customized by the children before they were brought home.

Because of your support and the strong volunteer and community response, ADRA is now able to organize emergency preparedness groups, which will also engage in continual environmental cleanup activities, and we aim to eventually establish a greenhouse to function as a community garden, allowing people without access to private property the opportunity to grow food.

These projects are only a few amongst nine other projects that we launched in Canada — all of which you have played a part in helping our national team to develop.