Grow and Gather helps feeds the Norfolk community

John Kinaschuk and Brett Dennie add zucchinis to their bags at the first Grow and Gather event in Delhi, Sept. 27th.

Chris Abbott

Editor

The idea behind the first Grow and Gather – From Farms to Families event on Sept. 27 was simple – give back to the community.

The work involved during harvest season, enormous.

“We wanted to host a produce giveaway event,” said Rebekah Jean Konrad, Marketing Manager, Sandy Shore Farms Ltd, who took the lead on the one-day event. “We just wanted to give back to our community.

“At Sandy Shore, one of our purpose pillars is to grow community and we do that many different ways, growing relationships with other growers in the area. As growers, we rely on each other sometimes to fulfil orders. We do a lot of back and forth with our neighbours, so having those good relationships with our competitors is important.

“So the idea was Norfolk County growers – in Norfolk County – for our Norfolk County community.”

Sandy Shore Farms was supported by a dozen Norfolk County farms.

“We had probably 12 growers participate with us,” said Konrad, who reached out to the Norfolk farmers in the area. “We had overwhelming response from everybody.”

Trucks full of food started to unload at 6 a.m. that morning. Families filled bags, and sometimes even came back for more free food.

“You should have seen it at the beginning, we had probably two or three times more food than what you see right now,” said Konrad, noting they started with close to 80 bins of produce – each bin about 1,000 pounds.

There were bins of apples, pumpkins, squash, onions, cabbage, sweet and russet potatoes, zucchini, eggplant, sweet corn, and multiple varieties of tomatoes and peppers… 

“All different varieties of sweet and hot peppers,” Konrad nodded.

Konrad said they knew people in Norfolk County needed food – they did not know how much. How many people would show up at the Delhi Friendship Centre parking lot between 9-2 for free produce?

“We had no idea how many people would come,” Konrad smiled. “Starting at 8:30, people have just been streaming through. Some people came back and filled up again.”

They did not have exact numbers, but safe to say ‘a lot.’ People were still arriving close to 2 p.m. 

“Some people that came today told our volunteers their family only eats once a day. And if there isn’t quite enough, the one mom said she didn’t eat that day. So we filled up their car, literally.”

About 25 people volunteered during the five-hour event.

It felt good to offer a much-needed and successful event, said Konrad, happy that so many people learned of their one-day giveaway project.

“This is wonderful… this is incredible. We are overjoyed at the turnout. This is much better than I think we could have imagined, though I did imagine it to be great. I think we pulled it off.”

No food went to waste. Leftover produce was taken by Second Harvest and Harvest Hands, who were on site.

“They will take everything that is left over, and they will find a home for it.”

Plans are to do it again in 2026, said Konrad.