With warmer weather and more people at home because of the coronavirus, a Nanaimo company wants to get people into their gardens.
Milner Group will be handing out two yards of premium soil on Saturday, April 11 between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. at their recycling facility on 4202 Biggs Rd., near Brannen Lake RV Park and Campsite.
Craig Cookman, general manager of Milner Group, said the initiative is the company’s way of giving back to the local community during difficult times.
“We thought it would be a good thing to do,” he said. “People can show their children how to grow a garden and gain some vegetables out of it.”
People won’t need to leave their vehicles to pick up the free soil because Milner Group employees will load it into their vehicles.
“We will be following COVID-19 procedures there and keeping everyone distance,” Cookman said. “We will load it into people’s trucks or trailers. If they’ve got buckets or containers in their car, we will go to the trunk and we will pull the containers out and load them up and put them back. People won’t have to get out of their vehicles.”
Cookman said they are also providing delivery service to front-line health-care workers who reside in Nanaimo and will not be able to make it to the event. He said they need volunteers with either a pickup truck, trailer or any other type of vehicle that can haul dirt, to help deliver the soil.
“It’s going to take about 45 minutes per delivery,” he said. “We don’t have the trucks or the people. We’ve done another little campaign this morning, reaching out to clients like our landscapers and contractors, asking them to come and help, but we still need more volunteers.”
Anyone who wants to have soil delivered or is interested in volunteering to deliver soil is asked to e-mail [email protected] or call 250-756-0773.
Nicholas Pescod
