Strengthening the connection from farm to table, one visit at a time.
From the get-go, with our first rooftop greenhouse built in 2011, we’ve opened our doors to the community for visits to learn about how we do sustainable urban agriculture. It’s a key part of the problem we set out to solve in building a better food system - creating transparency in how food is grown and reconnecting people with where their food comes from. In 2018, we're taking community visits to the next level by bringing urban ag to classrooms.
It started with seasonal open houses throughout the year. These are our big weekend-long events where we invite all our Lufavores, and everyone really, to come visit our first farm, meet our team, and learn about our inner workings. These have become a tradition of sorts, with our annual Earth Day and Halloween editions being some of the most fun, and they’ve inspired some recent renovations to better accommodate big group tours in the greens zone of the greenhouse.
For our most recent edition, we threw a block party on our street, and it was a blast! As usual, everyone was invited to tour our rooftop greenhouse and distribution centre, and we also set up an outdoor farmer’s market with over a dozen of our partner farms and food makers, like Fabrique Arhoma, Boucherie Nordest, Miels d’Anicet, Oatbox, and Bio-Saveur. Our friends at Alvéole (urban beekeeping!) and Poc Poc (urban chicken coops!) also joined us. We ended up hosting over 1500 people, making this edition one of our most attended ever.
Join us for any upcoming open house by reserving a spot (it’s free!).
Over the last year, we also started our first educational visits program. We began hosting small weekly visits for groups like day camps, elementary school field trips, horticulture clubs, university students, and government delegations. So far this year, we’ve welcomed over 5,000 visitors to our Ahuntsic greenhouse (and counting!). These visits are education and outreach focused and can be requested by filling this form.
The next step: urban agriculture in the classroom. We’re building out this community program even more this year - more visits, more students, more outreach. We’re taking things further to teach kids about urban agriculture by hosting more field trips each week and getting out in the field ourselves to visit classrooms. Whether you’re a parent, teacher, or student, we’d love to have you over for a visit or come visit your school. If you’d like to get involved, fill this form to get started!
