Risk & Business Magazine Knight Archer Insurance Spring 2017 | Page 6

REGINA FOOD BANK
Regina Food Bank
Four Seasons Urban Agriculture Project
T
he Four Seasons Urban
Agriculture Project at
the Regina Food Bank
engages clients and the
community year-round
in the unique hands-on experience
of producing healthy, nutritious, and
affordable food. With tremendous
support from the Co-Op Community
Spaces program, the Regina Food Bank
transformed a pre-existing Quonset
into a four-season greenhouse, complete
with heat, light, water, and ventilation.
This will allow the Food Bank to
grow produce even in the harshest of
weather conditions and when fresh
seasonal donations are at a minimum.
The year-round greenhouse space
includes raised planter beds and
composting vertical garden towers.
This configuration will maximise the
space available to grow food as each of
the 48 vertical garden towers requires
only four square feet to accommodate
70 plants. In addition to maximizing
space, this layout allows for easy and
safe gardening for clients, partners,
and volunteers with a diverse range of
abilities and gardening experience.
To help the plants receive the proper
amount of light, 100 blue and red LED
lights and 48 Nanotech lights are used
for optimum plant growth. This allows
the Food Bank to adjust the amount
of light the plants receive throughout
the different seasons. The lighting
system has an integrated automated-
timer mechanism that allows hands-
free operation and provides consistent
lighting for the plants. As well, each
tower is installed with Aqua Jet irrigation
and controlled through a computerised
watering system. Water use is minimal
and excess water will drain into a
reservoir container at the bottom of
each garden tower, creating nutrient
“tea” that can be poured back into the
tower. The greenhouse is also equipped
with a state-of-the-art monitoring
system for temperature, humidity,
power failure, and carbon monoxide.
It will also send alerts if systems fail or
change from their controlled settings.
To help ensure the best soil conditions,
the Regina Food Bank has thousands
of Red Wiggler earthworms working
very hard at vermin-composting in the
garden towers. This helps to ensure
that the soil is rich with nitrogen and
other important nutrients. The worms
can also help filter out different fungi
and remove pathogens. They work
faster at producing compost than the
traditional method of letting waste and
plant clippings decompose slowly.
The fully developed community
garden space will provide clients the
opportunity to learn new skills, grow
food based on preference, and increase
food security. Community partners,
volunteers, and others will be engaged
in this process, supporting individual
gardeners and maintaining a larger
communal garden that can be used for
teaching and for providing produce
to supplement food hampers.
All towers are portable, which means
that the Regina Food Bank can showcase
this program in the community when
requested. Several school groups have
been in since the official launch of
the project and have taken away great
information on how the food system
works. The Regina Food Bank will also
be developing an outreach program
that will see several schools in the
community adopting a tower for the
school year. The program will hopefully
provide another way to help school-aged
children understand where their food
comes from and encourage families
to grow their own food at home. +
STEVE COMPTON , CEO
REGINA FOOD BANK, 445 WINNIPEG STREET REGINA, SK S4R 8P2
P. 306-559-1508 F. 306-347-0884
6
WWW.REGINAFOODBANK.CA