NASSAU, BAHAMAS — CG Atlantic Family of companies, which includes Atlantic Medical Insurance Limited trading as CG Atlantic Medical & Life, hopes that a bountiful company garden farmed by its staff can inspire more Bahamians to follow the principles of sustainability and good nutrition.
The garden, which occupies 390 square feet of space behind its CG Atlantic House, has distributed more than 125 packages of fresh vegetables to CG Atlantic staff since its creation in 2019.
“We started the garden for the benefit of our staff, thinking we all need to lead healthy lives, not just in terms of our personal health but also in terms of the communities in which we live, and beyond,” Donovan Ingraham, corporate wellness manager for CG Atlantic Medical & Life, said.
“We specifically wanted to focus attention on the importance of self-sustainability and good nutrition because they are the immediate benefits of growing the food one eats. But the process of gardening became something much more, revealing the joys and the importance of working together and sharing.”
The garden, which contains an irrigation system that is timed to water the soil twice a day, has produced an array of vegetables. Some of crops have included butternut squash, green pepper, goat pepper, rosemary, parsley, spinach, Napa lettuce, cauliflower, pumpkin, eggplant, kale, cabbage and radish, as well as tomato.
In addition to producing crops from year to year, CG Atlantic employees have learned skills necessary to cultivate their own home gardens — from the first plantings through nearly two years of monitoring the garden. Their education has been enhanced by expert-led, on-site tutorials.
“During the past year of lockdowns and COVID restrictions, this garden has proved to be one of the best decisions we’ve made,” Ingraham said. “With rising prices for vegetables, the garden also showed the economic benefits of growing one’s own food.”
Colleagues, Ingraham added, are “always delighted to receive the harvest”.
“My feeling, at the end of the day, is that the positives of this programme continue spreading out in the best ways possible — in teamwork and comradery, in new skills and awareness and in the joys of watching something grow, all culminating in the harvest that ends up on one’s plate, providing nutrition,” he said.
“This little garden has done so much for us. It’s why I want to spread the word that a project like this is all good.”
Ingraham said he hopes the garden would inspire homeowners and more companies to start their own “farms”.
What CG Atlantic has developed is a model that can be easily replicated in private homes and in corporate spaces. Starting a garden can be as simple as filling an old tire or a blocked-out space with soil.
Ingraham said it was also important to know the growing seasons for crops:
The winter months of October to February are best suited for leafy greens, tomatoes, peppers and herbs; while the summer months of May to September are more suited for root vegetables, carrots, onions, okra, squash and herbs.
Ingraham added that CG Atlantic Medical & Life’s vendor, GrowLife Supplies, had supported the project by providing soil treatment and crop management expertise.
“For us at CG Atlantic Medical & Life, wellness is an important concept to uphold and having a backyard garden producing fresh food for our staff turns it into something very real and good,” he said.
