This was an in person meeting and there is no recording.
President Elena welcomed all to the meeting and reminded us that yesterday, March 8 was international Women’s Day. She provided background information of how the day came to be recognised internationally and celebrated all of the ladies present with the gift of a red rose.
Happy Jar
President Elena was happy to have participated in the Coldest Night of the Year Walk on February 28 along with 6 other members of our club. Our club raised $1,750 that contributed to the Kitchener walk total of $244,000, all in support of our unhoused neighbours.
Membership Updates
We were very pleased today to induct Donna Duncan as a new member, introduced by her sponsor Karen Redman.
Donna Duncan has lived most of her life here in Kitchener. After attending a Christian college in Chicago, she finished up her education at the University of Waterloo. She had several years working in banking before transitioning into sales jobs and work for various companies, including the local Greater KW Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses.
But life has a way of making other plans for you or derailing plans and she hasn’t been in the work world now for almost 16 years. Although she did help her son run his woodworking business on the mom’s payment plan, she also had the opportunity to volunteer for Hospice of Waterloo Region and also Bereaved Families of Ontario.
She and her late husband, Bill, had a blended family of five children, and they were all raised here in Kitchener as well. She has had a very hands-on-role in raising her grandchildren and is now seeing them off into their own busy lives. You will often find her at a hockey rink cheering on her favourite hockey players. Relationships are the most important thing in her life.
She is looking for opportunities to contribute to her community and make connections with like-minded people. She is very much looking forward to being involved in Rotary and is bringing her time, energy and enthusiasm with her.
Meet Jenny Weickert!
Jenny is the Our Farm Coordinator and has been working at KW Habilitation for 28 years. Jenny grew up on a local farm and is life-long gardener. When the Our Farm project first started she was excited to share her knowledge and get the program off the ground, turning both growing sites from grassland into farmland. Over the last 12 seasons, Jenny has worked hard to transform the farmland at both our urban and rural growing locations. She has successfully applied for many grants throughout the years to help reforest our growing sites, support local declining bird populations and to build a public walking trail at our rural site.
Favourite Vegetable: Parsnips
Favourite Farm Task: Weeding
Favourite thing to do off the farm: Spend time at her family cottage
Meet Laura Bredschneider!
Laura is the Farmer at our rural site in Erbsville and this will be her fourth season working at Our Farm. She has been working in small-scale ecological vegetable production for the last 10 years and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to our program. She loves to think about farming year-round and thrives when putting together the plan for up coming seasons. She is very excited about the variety of vegetables we’re growing this year and can’t wait to share them with our community.
Favourite Vegetable: Heirloom Tomato
Favourite Farming Task: Creating crop plans
Favourite thing to do off the farm: Support local shops, farms and restaurants
Jenny and Laura provided much information on the history, operation and success of their Farm. Highlights include:
Our Purpose
- Connecting people to the land, food and each other through sustainable agriculture
Who We Are
- Founded in 2011 with first seeds were sown in 2013
- We remain an unfunded program / not for profit organization
- We grow organic produce on ⅓ acre, with planting done 3 times a year
- We have two sites – one in Erbsville and one in Waterloo
- We directly support a 22-unit affordable housing complex with another 18 units soon to be added
- We take our responsibility for Land Stewardship very seriously
- We have grown from 6 planting beds to 120, all prepared by hand
- We have planted 1,800 native trees and installed 15 bird boxes
- We have a 1.2 k walking trail at our Erbsville site
What We Do
- Weekly veggie pickups from KW Habilitation
- CSA veggie box
- Donations to other non-profits in KW
- Welcome Volunteer groups
- Canada Summer Jobs Interns
2025 – A very Successful Year
- More than $59,000 of produce was grown and given to our community
- $5,500 worth of produce was shared with other local organizations
- We opened community garden plots to the public
- We planted 300 native pollinator plants
- We had 90 volunteers donate 600 hours of help to Our Farm!
- We had 848 food pick ups from KW Habilitation
Kitchener Rotary e-Newsletter
