Welcome our summer students Johnny and Maliha

Dear MLC Congregation,

My name is Johnny, I’m one of the 2021 summer students working with the church on community development to tackle issues of food security. I am 20 years old, born in the Etobicoke area and am currently going into the third year of my computer science degree at Carleton University, Ottawa, as a Co-op student. Aside from computer science, I am also very interested in learning about the mind, specifically Psychology; how and why people think the way they do. I hope to improve my ability to communicate and connect with those in our community and to plan and implement projects that are tied to community needs. I’m open to listening to anyone’s suggestions.

My name is Maliha, and this June I started working at Martin Luther as a summer job. I am 15 years old and live in the Mimico region of Toronto. I study at Lakeshore Collegiate Institute and am in Grade 9. I intend to work at Martin Luther as this job allows me to express myself through my work, and has fun, interesting projects which I am extremely excited about. This is no typical job, it’s a fun job! The first thing that struck my eye was gardening. I have always been interested in gardening. I hope to gain plenty of knowledge and experience while working at Martin Luther Church with some awesome people! In my free time, I love sports, drawing, painting, reading, writing, extreme adventures, trekking, hiking, gardening, and community involvement. I am more than thrilled to work here and spend my summer enjoying what I’m doing and learning with it!

Week 1

Greetings friends, neighbours and church members!

As our (Johnny and Maliha’s) first week working with the Martin Lutheran Evangelical Church comes to an end, it is always good to reflect on everything we’ve done and everyone we have met this week as well as what the rest of the summer holds. While our first week was greeted with paperwork and training, we also met some fantastic people who have helped us better understand the nature around us and how to cultivate and grow our upcoming projects involving tackling issues of food security in our community, more on these soon. Let’s start with the people we’ve met.

Marlena, Iris, and Adam

The first people we had the pleasure to meet with were Iris, Marlena and Vicar Adam. They gave us a wholesome rundown of the church, their goal in the community, and the projects they currently had going on like Bowls and Blessings and Fab Fridays. They all played an important role in giving us a look at projects which we will take hold of and implement, and we appreciate that.

Gardening with Catherine

On Wednesday we got to meet our ‘Gardening Guru’ Catherine who we had the delight of meeting for the first time in front of our raised beds at 5 Superior. She taught us the roots of how to grow vegetables and flowers. This being the start of the community garden project Maliha is in charge of, with the goal of both serving those in need in the community with fresh greens, as well as teaching neighbours around us how to cultivate each plant and its individual uses. She also taught us that some plants mingle and grow with specific kinds of others, called “pairings”, while some do not grow well together at all. Tomatoes, for instance, grow very well together with carrots, chives and marigolds — all of which are planted in the very same community garden! We also learned very recently that not only will the community, hopefully, like the fresh vegetables and herbs but the squirrels also (the cherry tomatoes in particular, which one took a huge chomp out of). Hopefully, the garden will grow into something amazing.

Exploring the wildlife around the front of the church with Alfred and Linda

On Thursday we met with Alfred and Linda. Alfred is a professional landscaper. He has been a volunteer of the church for a long time and loves taking care of the plants. He also picks up the litter, cuts the grass, and waters the plants, taking much pride in it. They led us through the front garden of the church and introduced us to the different species and names of the plants and flowers. We went through each plant & flower there and wrote their names on labels (popsicle sticks). It was super fun to meet them and learn about the plants and flowers. We saw some Korean plants, Daylilies, Monkshoods, Lilacs, Sundrops, Cornflowers, Tulips, Irises, Bellflowers and many more. Alfred seems to be a very passionate person that loves what he does. He enjoys anything related to plants and it was a pleasure meeting Alfred and Linda. Alfred has a lot of knowledge about the plants that he takes care of and it feels great to have someone so knowledgeable to be around. We hope to take up the torch of what he has been doing and continue to nurture the plants if he ever decides to retire from his garden good deeds.

The future

In the coming weeks, we have many things planned. The project Johnny is working on is the idea of a community pantry that will serve as a hub for people to donate pantry goods such as Rice, Oatmeal, Canned fruit, Canned vegetables, Peanut butter, Pasta and Pasta sauce to a little pantry that will let those in need select items which may benefit them. This will help tackle issues of food security while also promoting the idea of the “take some, leave some” message, much like the community garden. Currently, Johnny has an idea of what the pantry might look like from looking at previous successful community pantries from the “Toronto Little Free Pantries Project” which already have over 45 community pantries marked on their interactive map on their website. The next step is to hopefully get the materials needed to build a pantry, potentially repurposing a shelving unit, as well as getting permission to locate it on-site at the church. Maliha’s next step for the garden beds will be to fertilize and tend to the plants so that they grow well. There was also the idea of decorating the raised garden beds and making some nicer labels for the plants that grow there so people can learn about each plant too.

That’s all for now folks.