With the Ontario Government announcing that it was giving the green light to community gardens, the Renfrew County District Health Unit has developed a toolkit to help gardeners build community gardens during the pandemic.
The toolkit includes a fact sheet with directives for gardeners and coordinators. It also includes a template for opening a community garden, ways to maintain a membership list, and a self assessment tool. Acting medical officer of health for the unit Dr. Robert Cushman says that the tracking tool will help with contact tracing should someone become ill with Covid-19. The Ontario Ministry of Health says that in order to open, gardens must get approval from their local health unit. The RCDHU says that grants are available to build gardens on the County of Renfrew Website.
The guidelines also includes garden-specific safety measures. They include physical distancing, limiting the number people in the garden, no communal seating, and hand washing etiquette. They also include no work bees, no sharing tools and equipment, and strict cleaning.
A link to the full toolkit can be found here.