At the NWMP Barracks Provincial Historic Site at 609 8th Street in Canmore, volunteers with the Canmore Museum’s heritage gardens donate more than 600 pounds of fresh vegetables annually to the Bow Valley Food Bank, boosting local food security.
The gardens feature over 500 heritage varieties of flowers and traditional vegetable crops and are maintained to reflect the varieties typically grown in the Bow Valley between 1893 and the 1920s. Volunteers tend the plots from April through September, with harvests peaking in late summer and early autumn.
The Bow Valley Food Bank has reported demand has risen by about 20% over the past year, making fresh produce donations especially valuable in a mountain town where the cost of living is high and fresh items are hard to access.
The museum is now recruiting spring gardening volunteers for the April–September season. Anyone interested can learn more and express interest via the Canmore Museum volunteer page (Volunteer Coordinator: volunteers@canmoremuseum.com).
