Thursday 10 July 2014

Woodwynn Farms

This entry will be a bit out of the ordinary from my usual topic choices...

For those of you in the area, recent news articles may have drawn your attention to a local farm in our community: Woodwynn Farms.


This farm has been in operation for that past five years in Central Saanich. Their goal is to get people off the streets and rehabilitate them back into society through programs, work, and community living. They have boasted some great success in this area.



The concept is by no means a new one. Rehabilitation centres have been putting patients in positions to work on farms in BC before this and this is another grand dream put together by people who have been blessed with a vision and drive to change homelessness in our community.

They have continually come up against the community and the District itself in their work to create the community. The biggest opponent to their goals is the NIMBY (Not In My BackYard) mentality that tends to permeate many areas in Greater Victoria.

I see this a lot through rural Saanich and up through the peninsula, coming from acreage owners. I would (possibly unfairly) categorize these people as the ones who sit on Agriculturally zoned land and have their little hobby farms for the tax breaks, only to pursue rezoning and development when it is time to move on, or the maintenance of a large plot of land becomes too much of a burden. As I stated, perhaps I am being unfair, but I feel it is the case.

Now let me get down off my soapbox and get back to the point.

I believe in what they are doing and I hope you do to. I am reaching out to them in solidarity and will be looking for ways in which I (and hopefully the rest of the farmily) can lend support to their plight.

In the interim, you can lend your support by donating to Woodwynn Farms. They do have a link to a Help with our Legal Defense but it goes to this page.

http://www.woodwynnfarms.org/help-grow-camp-compassion-2013/

Everyone wants to see these problems dealt with until they are being dealt with in their backyard. Time to stop the hypocrisy and be a community.

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