KITCHENER -- A network of people is growing food to help with food security for the local Indigenous community.

Shantell Powell is planting all kinds of food, from onions to cucumbers.

“To produce healthy, nutritious food for ourselves, for our elders, to make sure no one is left out and without the food that they need,” she says.

It is part of an ongoing effort to help the Indigenous community with food sovereignty

Powell is part of a food network that includes drivers, foragers, and some who hunt or fish.

“We have a lot of settler allies who are helping us too,” she explains.

They’re donating time, money, tools and equipment, and additional space for gardening.

Tauni Sheldon is another gardener in the network who has also helped with local indigenous services during the pandemic.

“For ‘Healing of the Seven Generations’, I have talked to a lot of people, I have been out once. I have gone out to deliver food for those that need it,” she says.

Sheldon says initiatives like this one help Indigenous communities with food security.

“Talking about food prices, the sources of finding food has also become harder and harder,” she adds.

Sheldon says there is also a cultural aspect to gardening

“Reclaiming indigenous peoples as who we are,” she says.

“Revitalize like traditional seeds, corn seeds that may have been lost in generations.”

Powell says she plans to keep growing her garden, in order to help feed the community in the future.