麻豆传媒

Twenty-four students in Grades 7 鈥� 12 recently participated in the Culture of Growing program, a youth-led community garden and greenhouse program that contributes to community food security.

The program aims to have a generation of young Black individuals that see the value in food production, know how to grow their own food and can capitalize on their gained skills through entrepreneurship.

鈥淚 think this program is very important because research shows marginalized communities across Canada are the biggest group of individuals to suffer from food insecurity,鈥� explained Kayler Mutyabule, Provincial Program Manager, Culture of Growing. 鈥淭here is low representation of Black people within the agriculture industry and Imhotep's Legacy Academy's Culture of Growing program is actively breaking barriers for Black youth through development of knowledge and fundamental skills in agriculture and community food security.鈥�

Participants are exposed to various careers in the agri-food sector with the hopes to have higher representation of Black farmers, agriculture technicians, plant specialists and more. With regional sites located in Truro, Digby, Sydney and Preston area, the program is passionate聽about connecting like-minded students from different parts of聽the province, building bonds, learning and growing together.

Youth are involved in all aspects of the farming cycle including seedling selection, land preparation, vegetable planting, value-added products, marketing and branding.

鈥淢y favourite part of the program was the harvesting and processing,鈥� said 13-year-old Sofi Kifle from Truro. 鈥淧rocessing what we grew into chips, peppers into hot sauce and ketchup!鈥�

The Truro group, utilizing the Sustain by Culitv8 garden space on Pictou Road, grew Bok choi, lettuce, carrots, beetroot, cherry tomatoes sunflowers, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, squash, flowers, kale, cucumbers, watermelon, and corn and learned about transplanting from the greenhouse.

鈥淭his an important way of triggering the interest of youth in our programs,鈥� said Dr. Sam Asiedu co- principal investigator of the project and host of the Truro group on the 麻豆传媒 Agricultural Campus through the department of Plant, Food and Environmental Sciences.聽 鈥淚t enables us to contribute not only to local food insecurity solutions but also nationally and globally,鈥� he added.聽 鈥淚 believe the future of agriculture is in the hands of our youth, so we are using this program to introduce them to career opportunities in agriculture early.鈥�

The Truro group of five students also learned about rocks and soil composition, Ph and ocean acidification, how to make compost and worked around various challenges including frost, weeds, pests and diseases.

The Digby group grew for their local farmer鈥檚 markets with sales being reinvested into the program.聽 The group was also fortunate to take a trip to Acadian Seaplants.聽 The Syndey group gained relevant life stills and learned about the science behind planting their own food.

Culture of Growing is an initiative of Imhotep鈥檚 Legacy Academy (ILA), in partnership with the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture