Campus Food Projects: Acadia University
Acadia University grows its Growcer greens to provide a positive message and learning opportunity for students while minimizing the footprint of its food services.
It has been more than a year since a Growcer unit was installed at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. We spoke with Laura Miller, director of food services at Acadia University, about the past year and the impact of growing their own greens on campus.
How the hydroponic farm is used
Acadia’s Growcer unit sits steps away from its dining hall and keeps the salad bar stacked with fresh mixed greens for the 1,400 students who live in residence in a normal year.
“So what we were turning over in the Growcer, [students] were consuming within three to four days,” Miller shares. “So it took a while to get into a rhythm of how much we needed to produce for their consumption, and now we’re a lot better prepared.”
When the growing container was first brought on campus, there was some concern that it would impact the University’s local suppliers but that hasn’t been the case. Miller explains that because they built a donation model into the system and there’s so much consumption, existing suppliers weren’t impacted.
Acadia grows greens for their dining and catering services, but they also donate 10 percent of the harvest to help food insecurity on campus.
Bags of mixed greens and lettuce are donated to different groups on campus like the student union food bank. Earlier in 2020 The Chronicle Herald profiled the project and noted that their two campus give-aways of “Lettuce Help” were very popular.
Acadia grows greens for their dining and catering services, but they also donate 10 percent of the harvest to help food insecurity on campus.
How the project started: Chartwells partnership
Acadia is an early adopter, partnering with its food service provider Chartwells Canada to bring the Growcer’s hydroponic, vertical growing system to campus in August 2019. The project is part of the University’s larger Food Services Plan that focused on healthy eating, sustainability and affordability. It’s also aligned with Chartwells Canada’s Thinking Ahead Giving Back (TAGB) vision that pledges to tackle food insecurity locally and globally, as well as support student wellness and employment.
Acadia grows mixed greens like wild greens, different types of arugula, green and red leaf lettuce and romaine lettuce. The campus had their first harvest three to four weeks after the installation.
Chartwells Canada and Growcer working together
In 2019, Chartwells Canada partnered with Growcer to deploy its smart farming tech on postsecondary campuses nationally and will donate 10% of annual crop grown to tackle local food insecurity. Chartwells, Canada’s largest educational foodservice provider, was the first to bring this innovative and exclusive program to the Canadian higher education landscape with this unique and exciting partnership.
Learning tool for students
The hydroponic farm is also used as a learning tool on campus and students are hired to operate it with the food services team. Miller says other students love to hear from fellow students about what the experience is like.
The Growcer unit provides an extra learning opportunity that isn’t offered elsewhere on campus, but ties in with the University’s environmental, nutrition, and entrepreneurship studies. During campus tours, Miller shares that their Growcer unit is visible from the dining hall and this adds to their recruiting efforts.
“The Growcer unit provides an extra learning opportunity that isn’t offered elsewhere on campus, but ties in with the University’s environmental and entrepreneurship studies.”
The hydroponic farm also builds on other agriculture-related projects on campus like the Acadia Community Farm, where students operate a half-acre educational garden and grow vegetables for the dining hall and local foodbank. There is also a student group, Acadia Food and Fork, that grows beans, lettuce, and tomatoes in the K.C. Irving Environmental Science Centre to share with students.
Miller says that Acadia is located in an agricultural area so there is a real interest in being sustainable and minimizing the emissions footprint associated with campus operations. “It’s just the right thing to do for this area,” Miller says.
Campus feedback
Miller says that the students have responded well to the hydroponic greens on campus and the feedback has been positive.
“Super positive because it’s very fresh,” Miller says. “The way it grows, you don’t have to worry about any pests or any kind of contamination because it’s all hydroponically grown.”
The produce can go out immediately and this is appreciated by the staff too.
Can this work for other schools?
Miller takes a pragmatic approach noting that Acadia set up their Growcer system to work for their goals. She says they’re not in it for a high return on investment because they want to keep donation as part of their model, but they like having a unit on campus because it’s a positive, sustainable initiative that doubles as a learning tool.
“For us and our needs here, we’re not using it for harvest, harvest, harvest, and reduce our costs, it’s more for ‘here’s our produce that we’re growing 20 feet outside our door that we didn’t have to ship in from the United States in the middle of February,’” Miller says. “For us, it’s that positive message, learning opportunity and minimizing our footprint.”
“For us, it’s that positive message, learning opportunity and minimizing our footprint.”
Safe food for students
For Miller, having a unit that can grow greens locally makes an impact on her day-to-day. The local growing season in Nova Scotia winds down in the fall. While there are greenhouses that extend the growing season by a couple months, Miller explains that by March, April and May, produce is coming from far away.
“I don’t have to worry about an E. coli outbreak because I grew it myself in the Growcer,” she explains. “I know I can grow safe produce and have it year-round for students.”
When universities reframe the project as safe food for students, they’re able to get people on-side who might not be familiar with the details of hydroponic growing.
“We want to provide great, safe food so a Growcer is a great unit for that for us because we’re controlling what we’re doing in there,” Miller says.