Whitehorse hotel grows veggies in parking lot
Parking-lot planters supply carrots, potatoes and even kale to local food bank
A hotel in Whitehorse says it's happy with the results of a summer experiment.
Instead of planting flowers, the Days Inn planted vegetables. The potatoes, carrots, beets, Swiss chard and kale were shared with Whitehorse's food bank.
Manager Francis Van Kessel doesn't know how many kilograms were harvested, instead measuring the harvest in milk-crate-size boxes.
"When we did our potatoes and carrots we got about eight containers of potatoes and about seven of carrots," she said.
Greens, like beet tops, were brought to the food bank once a week during the summer.
"I did this, pretty much, because we as people need to change our society and the change comes from within. There's hungry people in the city of Whitehorse and we need to start fixing that," she said.
Council recognizes community, environmental work
The Days Inn was one of the three businesses in Whitehorse mentioned by city council this week, as councilor Mike Gladish listed what he called positive examples in the community.
One of those, the Riverside Grocery in Whitehorse, is doing away with plastic bags.
Levi Commons works at the grocery and says the change is being made on principle.
'We're trying to make the first step to eliminating plastic bags. I know a lot of places around the world are doing it."
Gladish also mentioned Yukon College, which has stopped selling bottled water on its Whitehorse campus. Instead, the school has installed water fountains designed to refill re-useable bottles.