Harvesting good with United Way Elgin Middlesex

Western partners in annual Day of Caring 

By Communications Staff, June 19, 2025

Two participants in the Day of Caring 2025

Hidden behind rows of industrial buildings on London’s Exeter Road sits a roughly half acre parcel of fertile land.

Working within this dirt is a ‘growing’ Canadian non-profit ensuring Black Canadians and minority groups are not only given access to but are also equipped with adequate resources to better manage and prevent diabetes.

Type Diabeat-it is a London, Ontario-based organization, and their garden and greenhouse location called ‘Harvest Haven’ at 165 Exeter Road was one of many sites participating in the United Way Elgin Middlesex annual Day of Caring.

Gonzalo Gomez is operations manager for Type Diabeat-it

Gonzalo Gomez

Gonzalo Gomez is operations manager for Type Diabeat-it, a United Way-funded organization. He said, “A lot of times we struggle to get people out here. When we are downtown it’s easy for people to come on the bus. I really appreciate having volunteers here today to do work that would normally take us a couple of months to do, we can do it in just a day of work.”

Day of Caring brings the London and Elgin Middlesex community together, to demonstrate the power of volunteering and what can get done when organizations are ‘united in local love’. In one afternoon, teams of volunteers from 25 local workplaces, travel across the region to visit and offer help to dozens of local agencies.

“Each year, Day of Caring brings our community together in an unforgettable way – showing just how powerful volunteering can be when it’s driven by local love,” said Kelly Ziegner, President and CEO of United Way Elgin Middlesex. “This day is not just about painting walls or pulling weeds – it’s about building bridges, sharing stories, and transforming lives.”

Western staff joined colleagues from Fanshawe College at Type Diabeat-it to pull weeds, plant flowers and vegetables, organize their green house and create a functioning watering system.

Everything that is grown at the Exeter Road site is sent to 630 Dundas Street where Type Diabete-it has a food box program on Wednesdays and Fridays. The organization rescues food from all over the region, and what they grow at this site gets added onto that produce. Families are called once a month, and they pick up about $200 worth of fresh produce that has been saved or grown.

Gomez and his team are appreciative of their United Way funding and ambitious about the impact they can make long-term.

“Canada spends $29 billion a year on people who are already diabetic. The way we can prevent it is through education. Having a healthier lifestyle. Educating children on better eating. Understanding our relationship with our food. Understanding how our food is grown. Eventually that’s what’s going to keep us Canadians from spending so much on diabetes,” said Gomez.