It's called "gardening for groceries"; an idea a woman south of Ottawa had to help food banks in need because one had been there for her when she needed it most.

With every seedling Lesley Johansen plants, she is cultivating hope and promise. It is something she had little of 14 months ago, when high hydro and propane bills forced her to turn to the local food bank, the House of Lazarus in Mountain, where she worked.  ‘I don’t want to be in this position in my life,’ a tearful Johansen told CTV Ottawa at the time, ‘I'm 40 years old, I've worked hard.’

During those dark hours, a seed was planted, one that has now taken root.

‘It set me on a mission to do something about it,’ says Johansen today, ‘so I thought if I started my own garden, I could have fresh vegetables and donate it back to the food bank.’

Johansen moved in with her parents, started a small back yard garden and launched a social media campaign called @Gardening4Groceries, calling on other gardeners in the area to grow a row for the local food banks, even offering starter kits and tools to clients of the food banks.

‘People always at harvest time, they can't give tomatoes away so why not donate them to local food banks?’

Several local businesses are on board.  Riley’s Valu-Mart in Morrisburg pitched in with plants.

‘For us to have the product available and the means to provide it, says owner Riley Hatherall, ‘it made sense to jump on board in the program's infancy.’

The Dundas County Food Bank says the idea couldn't have come at a better time.  Demand jumped 15% last year, forcing the food bank into a deficit for the first time in 25 years.

‘I think it's a terrific idea,’ says Ian McKelvie, the administrator of the Dundas County Food Bank, ‘because we are small food bank, it's common for others to have community gardens or contributions from gardens like she's setting up so it's great she is taking this initiative here.’

The future is looking brighter for Johansen.

‘There's been such a response to it, it's overwhelming how everyone is on board with it,’ she says as she plants tiny pepper and tomato seedlings in her garden.

She hopes, eventually, to expand her idea to a year round farm in a shipping container.  Those small seeds of hope are starting to grow.