New Horizon Co-op: Cultivating connection between community and food
Project at a Glance
- Installed in October 2021 and located in the parking lot of New Horizon Co-op in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
- Project goal: Tap into grocery store sustainability ideas to answer their co-op members’ growing demand for high-quality, locally grown produce available year-round.
- Distribution model: Hyper-local greens grown steps away from the store are harvested by store employees and delivered directly to store shelves. The store supplies fresh produce to all of the Co-op’s food stores.
- Impact: Increased the store’s supply chain resiliency, the produce aisle’s freshness, and local impact among customers who support store initiatives. The project also decreases food waste because locally grown produce is located steps away from the store instead of coming from farther away and being exposed to potential spoilage.
- Operator: The farm is operated by co-op team members.
“The New Horizon Local Garden provides food security and sustainability for our members and customers. Its controlled environment allows us to provide local produce that is fresh, fresh, fresh! 365 days, all year round.
As a community-invested business, New Horizon Co-op is proud to have brought this new, innovative concept to Grande Prairie.”
Locally grown greens travel from the parking lot to the produce aisle to offer northern Albertans fresh, quality produce year-round.
The call for fresh produce
It might seem implausible to try to grow fresh, hyper-local greens year-round in northern Alberta, Canada, where temperatures can drop as low as -40°C in the coldest months of the year. When you have a fully insulated, hydroponic farming solution right in your store's parking lot, however, the idea isn't so far-fetched after all.
A garden built to grow abundantly
New Horizon Co-op decided to partner with Growcer and invest in hydroponic farming so they would have the ability to supply their co-op members with hyper-local greens year-round, even in sub-zero temperatures.
The New Horizon Local Garden is a self-contained, insulated “farm” that sits just steps away from the co-op’s Trader Ridge location. Using sustainable technology, team members plant, tend to, and harvest the plants, which are planted in Rockwool stone wool instead of soil and sit in small rafts that float on water. In as little as six weeks, growers can grow up to 140 types of leafy greens — with very little infrastructure required.
Sustainability-wise, the hydroponic farming method can’t be beat: It uses less water and land and requires no pest control products — even allowing for fresh produce in temperatures as low as -50°C. “Whether it is +40 or -40, we are able to produce a consistent amount of produce all year long,” says Shelley, the lead grower for the garden.
Only months into the project, every week New Horizon team members harvest an average of 216 heads of lettuce, 45 packages of kale, 30 packages of spinach, and 150 packages of various herbs, including mint, cilantro, dill, and basil.
The New Horizon Local Garden sits in the parking lot and growing fresh greens year-round, even when temperatures dip below -40’C in Grande Prairie, Alberta.
Lead grower Shelley transplants seedings from the seedling area into the growing racks. Once in the growing racks, lettuces are ready for harvest in as little as 4 weeks (2 weeks in the seedling area, 4 weeks in the growing racks).
Growing locally also improves supply chain resiliency and reduces the packaging required for transportation. The store promotes sustainability by sourcing environmentally friendly packaging, and a small New Horizon Local Garden stamp placed on produce packages lets customers know the product was grown right in Grande Prairie.
New Horizon Co-op also stuck true to its commitment to local by partnering with Growcer, a Canadian company, to invest in a turn-key modular farm that is 100% designed and built in Canada.
“Growcer is extremely excited to have partnered with New Horizon Co-op to bring fresh, locally grown vegetables to the co-op's network of loyal customers and partners through the launch of the Local Garden. The strong start that the project has gotten off to, thanks in large part to the dedication and hard work of the New Horizon team, has Growcer very excited to scale our partnership and continue to grow alongside New Horizon and other Co-op stores across Canada,” says Drew Stirling, customer success lead at Growcer.
New Horizon Co-op with the Growcer team during training week. The Growcer team walks you through everything you need to know about your farm and stays on to support you every step of the way.
Results so far
New Horizon Co-op provides a place where people can shop for locally grown produce all year long and meet the farmers who grow their food.
The New Horizon Local Garden is a great example of how local food and co-op grocery store innovation ideas can help grow the local economy, all while promoting sustainability right in your own neighborhood. The store provides a place where people can shop for locally grown produce all year long and meet the farmers who grow their food.
The effort also increases employee engagement, involving store workers directly in the process of planting and growing produce and getting it onto store shelves. Lead grower Shelley worked for New Horizon Co-op for 11 years before taking on the new adventure of growing food for the store — and she’s embracing the challenge. “Having the harvest going onto the shelf was a fantastic feeling for me, and going from the little seeds to now being able to purchase it for my family was amazing,” Shelley says.
Meanwhile, the local community has welcomed the shift to supporting local farming and enjoying year-round, farm-to-table greens. Events such as “Meet the Grower” day and attendance at a local trade show hosted by the City and the County of Grande Prairie enabled Shelley and Jody, New Horizon’s marketing manager, to present the local garden initiative to a captive audience. "We were able to showcase our product as well as hand out samples but ran out fast as we saw over 1,000 people," Jody says.
New Horizon Co-op is well on its way to creating a sea of change in Grande Prairie and beyond. They recently expanded to all of their food store locations, including Falher, Rycroft, LaGlace, Beaverlodge, Hythe, Valleyview, and Grande Cache to allow those communities to have access to the freshest of greens. Plus, there’s visions to create a virtual school tour to share the garden concept with local communities and educate students on the local garden.
It’s a labour of love that Shelley enjoys from start to finish: “What you put in, you get out. We put in all this time, we harvested, and we have this wonderful, fresh product to offer our members and all of the citizens of Grande Prairie and the surrounding area,” Shelley explains. “Food production, just like farming, is a lot of work. But the rewards are amazing.”
“Having the harvest going onto the shelf was a fantastic feeling for me, and going from the little seeds to now being able to purchase it for my family was amazing.”
Growers use a software to help with plant scheduling and environmental control within the modular farm.
