Local Community Food Centre to host Community Farm to Table BBQ

Volunteer members of the Local Community Food Centre’s Urban Farmers work – and laugh – at the Oak Street urban farm in Stratford. Photo courtesy of the Local Community Food Centre

For anyone in Stratford, St. Marys and the surrounding communities who has ever wondered where their food comes from, the Local Community Food Centre (LCFC) is hosting a Community Farm to Table BBQ featuring a tour of the Local’s urban farm in Stratford and a free barbecue lunch at the centre afterwards.

Set for Sunday, July 6 with the farm portion of the day beginning at 11 a.m. at the Local’s urban farm at Dufferin Park (off Oak Street beside the Dufferin Arena), the event will feature a guided tour by the Local’s Urban Farmers group and garden educator Lucas Tingle.

“People don’t know that we have a farm in the middle of Stratford,” said LCFC community connector Julie Docker Johnson. “So, (this event) is to introduce people to the farm. From 11 a.m. until 12 p.m. out at the Oak Street farm, we are going to do tours of the farm, we’re going to have the Urban Farmers, our volunteer team, out there to explain the different things we do and the different techniques that are done. There’s going to be games and things for the kids, and there’s possibly going to be something for everyone to plant so, throughout the summer, they will be able to go and see something growing.”

From there, the event will move from farm to table with a free barbecue lunch back at the LCFC from noon until 1:30 p.m. Hotdogs and hamburgers are being donated by Delmar Foods and Egg Farmers of Ontario is donating devilled eggs. Added to that, the LCFC will prepare an array of salads with greens fresh from the urban farm.

“Come have a barbecue, watermelon and see the Local because if people haven’t seen the Local, it will give them that opportunity as well,” Docker Johnson said. “We just want to introduce the farm so people know what’s going on and that the whole farm-to-table concept is real.”

As part of this event, Stratford Transit is providing a bus to shuttle eventgoers from the LCFC to the farm at 11 a.m., then back to the Local for the barbecue lunch at noon. For those who live near the Oak Street farm, the bus will also be available to take them back there after lunch so they are free to walk straight to the farm at the beginning of the event without worrying about how they will get to and from the Local after the farm tour.

“Everybody’s welcome. There will be a donation box; it’s not necessary, but it’s there,” Docker Johnson said. “The farm is really important and the Urban Farmers and Lucas have worked so hard on it. So, we want people to come see it and understand that whole process. We want people to see that some of the produce they buy at the Access Market in Stratford and the Nourish Market in St. Marys is coming from our own backyard.”