Coming Soon to North Saanich – a Harvest Hub
by Meenal Shrivastava
Food makes the world go round. More than a necessity for survival, food is the bond between communities and cultures, for sustenance, medicine, and ceremony. With increasing food and fuel costs, coupled with the impact of climate change, more food may need to be grown and processed locally.
Supporting the objective of local food security, did you hear that the District of North Saanich received a gift of $750,000 for the purpose of constructing a 1000 sq ft Food/Harvest Hub? This facility will include a cold storage area and freezers, as well as primary food processing facilities.
When Greg Warner and Dianne Rife moved to North Saanich, they saw a community that was rooted in agriculture and really treasured that. Soon after buying their place, they turned their front lawn into a 1700 sq ft garden and orchard. It produces most of the food they eat, and they are able to share with friends, family and neighbours. The success of food production on this small plot made them wonder how they can help others in the community to do the same.
So, Greg decided to join the Agriculture and Food Security Committee of the district of North Saanich. He met several farmers and people involved in the food chain explaining where the gaps were and what was missing.
Most of the farms in North Saanich are less than 10 acres and are an integral part of the social and economic identity of the community. The notion of protecting and maintaining North Saanich’s farmland has broad community support. Many residents actively maintain home gardens that could be used to grow food.
North Saanich has 35% of district land within the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), which is an excellent land base for food production. Coupled with our mild climate that provides year-round growing opportunities, you would think we have the ideal conditions for increasing food production. Yet, the number of the number of registered farms as reported by Statistics Canada has declined from 92 in 2011 to 62 in 2021.
When asked about the motivation for making this generous gift offer to the community, Greg mentioned his close ties with the family farm in Saskatchewan and his garden in Calgary where, along with Dianne, they produced as much of their own food as possible. Dianne is a firm believer in supporting the local economy and eating locally. The disruptions of COVID confirmed her commitment to the vision that inspired their gift offer for establishing a Harvest Hub for the community.
The Harvest Hub will provide community-owned infrastructure to support food growers in primary processing and storage. Depending on uptake, the scope and the area of the Hub could be expanded in future. Dianne and Greg also see the Harvest Hub as an exercise in community-building, bringing people together through their shared love for good quality local food. This was also one of the reasons they decided to partner directly with the municipality rather than with another charity or non-profit society.
The process of creating the Hub could pioneer a way for the municipality to draw donations from other private community members for similar projects. It also makes perfect financial sense to leverage the existing municipal staff, council, and district land to ensure that the full amount is utilized to directly fund such projects.
Given the North Saanich Agriculture Plan of 2010, which created a Food Charter for the district and recommended support for the local food processing and storage facilities, this conversation has been going on in the district for a long time. Through their thoughtful generosity, Greg and Dianne have created the space to convert these ongoing conversations into real action. They hope that this expandable model of the Harvest Hub will eventually grow into a full-fledged community-led Food Hub supporting numerous local farmers and inspiring the next generation of food growers in the community.
They are also not stopping with this one project. Greg and Dianne have purchased a farm on Towner Park Road, called Thatch Creek Farm, with the very vision of providing infrastructure to allow the farmer to be able to do the farming. They are in the process of building a thousand sq ft processing facility for young farmers on their farm. This primary processing facility will prevent the abundant local seasonal produce from being sent to the landfill or shipped to be processed elsewhere.
Eventually, their vision could contribute to develop a hotbed of agricultural activity where young farmers can make a good living and have a great future in a rewarding way.
This Harvest Hub may just strengthen other such thoughtful community-led initiatives in North Saanich in the form of food gardens, school gardens, community-led greenhouses, and more. After all, healthy food systems support healthy communities.
