Selby Garden Centre is among a hand full of garden centres across the province that are being included in the Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group’s annual ‘SEEDit’ garden voucher giveway,
Entering its third year of ‘SEEDit,’ the mutual insurance company is providing Ontarians with over $225k in funding for 4,500 $50 individual garden centre vouchers. The program will help residents get home gardens growing and provide an ‘organic’ way for them to share a bounty of produce with their communities and help foil food insecurity.
Since 2021, the program has had massive interest from the Ontario communities in ‘Commonwell Country’ ranging from Ontario’s west coast to the eastern border that The Commonwell serves. In its second year, the online program saw massive numbers of people trying to sign up on the first day. At one point, so many people accessed the site at the same time, causing it to crash temporarily. The giveaway even had excited green thumbs on the site at midnight the night before the launch.
“With food prices and food insecurity rising in Ontario, we’re thrilled to announce that 2023 will have a record number of voucher giveaways,” said Tim Shauf, president and CEO of The Commonwell Mutual Insurance Group. “We decided to increase the program this year to 4,500, $50 garden centre vouchers and strongly encourage families to share their bounty of produce with local foodbanks and neighbours.”
The SEEDit program has a highly engaged Facebook group of aspiring gardeners that provides both practical and personal advice to aspiring green thumbs. The SEEDit facebook community at https://www.facebook.com/groups/798694074394163 has grown to 2.1k members and is going strong.
Starting May 1 at noon, while supplies last, the vouchers are available for select garden centres to residents across ‘Commonwell Country.’ Participants can sign up at thecommonwell.ca/seedit.