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Nanaimo company offering free soil for self-isolators to get into gardening

Milner Group inviting the public to pick up soil at its Biggs Road recycling facility on Saturday
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Milner Group’s recycling facility on Biggs Road in Nanaimo will be the site of a community support initiative Saturday, April 11, as the company is giving away soil to people for use in their gardens. (Black Press file)

Milner Group wants to get its hands dirty at its Nanaimo recycling facility to help take people’s minds off their worries about coronavirus.

The company will be handing out two yards of free soil at its 4202 Biggs Rd. facility Saturday, April 11 from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a community support initiative. Nanaimo is going through challenging and unprecedented times due to COVID-19, and Milner Group wants to support residents, said Craig Cookman, general manager.

“With everything going on in the world at the moment, we thought we needed to do something for our community … we decided to put together a little event there and give away two yards of garden soil for people to start up their own vegetable gardens and that’s open to the public to come to our facility and grab their two yards of material,” Cookman said.

He said Milner Group will do the loading, but people will need to bring a truck, trailer or containers to carry the soil.

Front-line health-care workers are in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and Cookman said he wants to show gratitude by offering them free soil delivery. Health-care workers can e-mail admin@milnergroup.ca to arrange for delivery.

Cookman said social distancing requirements will be followed on Saturday, with people asked to stay in their vehicles as workers load the soil.

He is also asking for volunteers to help to distribute soil to health-care workers. Anyone with a pickup truck, any sort of trailer or dump trailer, that can handle the two yards of soil, and wants to help can either e-mail admin@milnergroup.ca or call 250-756-0773.

READ ALSO: Stay informed about COVID-19



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Karl Yu

About the Author: Karl Yu

After interning at Vancouver Metro free daily newspaper, I joined Black Press in 2010.
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