Jardin Éducatif wraps up summer activities

August 14, 2018

Caleb Nickerson

caleb@theequity.ca

Students from the Jardin Éducatif program in Litchfield pose with Pontiac MP Will Amos and Director Martin Riopel (left and second from left). The program offers activities and practical agricultural knowledge for local at-risk youth throughout the summer.

Jardin Éducatif students Brooke Black and Scott Laporte were slinging vegetables to the visitors that turned up for the wrap up barbeque on Tuesday afternoon.

CALEB NICKERSON
LITCHFIELD Aug. 7, 2018
Dozens of locals turned up to the Jardin Éducatif in Litchfield on Aug. 7 for a barbeque fundraiser with toppings fresh from the garden.
Director Martin Riopel explained that each year the group holds the event as a wrap-up of their summer program and to raise money for their end of the year trip to Montreal.
Riopel said that they had 23 youth in the seven-week program this year, turning up to the property next to Hwy. 148 just outside Campbell’s Bay.
The program is intended for at-risk youth in the region as a productive way to pass the summer months. Riopel said that during the winter months, he operates an alternative program for a similar demographic of youth.

Students are in the garden for the entire morning, Monday to Wednesday, with different activities and workshops in the afternoons. Each Thursday is a special activity like a field trip.
To close out the summer, they have the barbeque and a longer trip that they look forward to from the start.
The produce that the students tend, pick and package is also sold at a booth on site. The onions and tomatoes that visitors used to top their barbequed meat were grown only metres away in the field.
“It shows them that if you want something, you have to work to get it,” said Riopel, who noted that there are other rules that structure the camp.
Students aren’t allowed to swear, smoke or have cell phones, but receive a small compensation for their labour in the field.
“They do a lot of the weeding,” Riopel said with a laugh. “I think that shows them resilience.”
The garden has all types of produce, from cherry tomatoes and cucumbers to radishes and kale. Riopel said the beans are just now ready to pick and are already flying off the shelves.
“Everybody wants them,” he said.
Next year will be the program’s 30th anniversary and Riopel said that they would put together something special for the occasion.

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