Young people to help seniors grow own food to ease cost of living
Young people have rallied together to give boxes full of herb and vegetable seeds to seniors to help them to grow their own food and avoid paying “exorbitant prices”.
Cathy Bassett, the youth director of the Hamilton Rotary Club, said during the organisation’s weekly meeting yesterday that members from the club’s youth division thought that the boxes would reduce the cost of living for Bermuda’s ageing community.
She said: “This year, we asked the children what sort of projects that they would like to do. They said maybe they could help seniors plant their own food so that they will not have to go to the store and spend exorbitant prices.”
Zayne Sinclair, owner of gardening business Sinclair’s Seed Sowing, helped the young Rotarians with the project, saying he wanted to help the seniors to grow their square-foot gardens as well as teaching them about living healthier lives.
He said: “These seniors should not have to choose between medicine and living, so I am here to make sure that the project succeeds and to close the gap between elders and the youth.
“This project creates an opportunity to get everybody involved in camaraderie and harvesting this food. I look forward to seeing the interactions that are going to come from the youth and elders working together.”
Ms Bassett said that so far the project has cost about $4,000 for the seeds, the soil and transport.
She added: “This is a pilot programme. It is the beginning and hopefully others will see fit to work along with us to create more of these initiatives throughout Bermuda.”
The seeds will be presented to the seniors today.
Martin Schulman, the district governor for Rotary District 7230 in the United States, which encompasses Bermuda, was at the meeting yesterday.
He said: “Our success as a club is that we bring young people up to peer level. We bring them into the workings of our club at the committee level, so that we have a guaranteed younger voice in decision-making and planning.
“The fact that the Hamilton Rotary Club has donated more than a quarter of a million dollars to the Rotary Foundation over the course of its measurable life shows your strong commitment to service.”
The nominee for district governor, Syed Alihari, also attended the meeting.
He said: “I hardly see any clubs that have generated funds from non-Rotarians, and your club has 13 non-members that have donated to the work. This is a very unique thing.”
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