It’s growing season, and Sustain by Cultiv8, a student-run vegetable farm at the Faculty of Agriculture on Dalhousie's Truro Campus, is up and running. Students are not only applying the sustainable agricultural practices they are learning to grow everything from peppers, tomatoes, and greens to fingerling potatoes, ground cherries, and watermelon, they are also selling their produce at their weekly farm stand.
According to Jason Grant (Class of 2011, MSc'13), manager of Cultiv8, hundreds of people from across Colchester County and beyond visit the stand each week for essentials. “We’re giving the community access to locally grown, affordable, nutritious alternatives to more widely available food options that are cheap but not necessarily healthy,” he says.
That appeals to Tena Keefe. In 2024, she signed up for Sustain’s farm box subscription service, which offers a mix of produce in a range of sizes and prices for weekly pickup.
“I’ve been declared disabled because of a head injury, so eating nutritiously is important for me,” she explains. “That’s challenging on a budget. But Sustain helps make that possible.”
Sustain is also addressing food security in other ways. It donates unsold produce to food banks serving the campus and Colchester County, offers subscribers the option to donate their farm boxes to the United Way, and hosts events and workshops to teach agriculture skills to the community. Grant is looking at more opportunities to make a difference, such as the possibility of having donors support a climate battery greenhouse. A climate battery would help regulate temperature and moisture to expand Sustain’s growing season to year-round.
“The more support and focus we can provide to Sustain, the more people we can bring in through workshops, research, and other experiences,” Grant says.
Sustain by Cultiv8 students work on the vegetable farm on Dal's Agricultural campus.
Sustain is also addressing food security in other ways. It donates unsold produce to food banks serving the campus and Colchester County, offers subscribers the option to donate their farm boxes to the United Way, and hosts events and workshops to teach agriculture skills to the community. Grant is looking at more opportunities to make a difference, such as the possibility of having donors support a climate battery greenhouse. A climate battery would help regulate temperature and moisture to expand Sustain’s growing season to year-round.
“The more support and focus we can provide to Sustain, the more people we can bring in through workshops, research, and other experiences. That could mean research that focuses on everything from small farm agriculture and health care to community development and food security. The list is endless." — Jason Grant