Every Saturday morning a group of students from Niagara arrive while most of the people are still sound asleep and start lifting boxes of bananas and vegetables, organizing other food items and preparing the GROW Community Food Literacy Center. in downtown Niagara Falls for the weekly Saturday market.
Soon people were lining up to buy the food at a much lower cost than supermarkets, filling baskets and bags full of healthy meals to take home to cook for themselves and their families.
But it’s not just the food they bring home with them. They also receive a good dose of good humor from the students who volunteer at the Fourth Avenue Market.
Win Laar, a longtime female volunteer, remembers being a little disappointed when the new GROW Marketplace had a soft opening last summer and few people came. But the following week, at the official opening, word got out and people turned out to hear student volunteer Fayth Swain speaking from the top of a staircase about why the new charity was so important.
“Fayth explained why there was a need for GROW, because we’re in a food wasteland here,” Laar said. “From there grew the hope that people have.”
Some of the students have also volunteered to lead virtual healthy cooking classes. For example, Laar highlighted how volunteer Maye Lopez was able to lead cooking classes featuring recipes from her native Colombia, preparing dishes such as patacones, tavce gravce, arepa and pandebono.
Throughout the pandemic, the GROW market has been a constant source of healthy food for people who might otherwise get much of their food from dollar stores and cafes, Laar said.
In addition to the regular weekly markets, GROW also held holiday themed markets, like the Christmas one, where shoppers who live below the low income cut-off opted for capons and all the fixings for stuffing and roasted vegetables, and an Easter theme. a complete with gourmet hams.
In addition to Swain and Lopez, GROW honored fellow Grade 12 volunteers Peter Valla and Leon Tanevski on May 22.
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