From tomatoes to ketchup: Culture of Growing provides hands‑on agriculture opportunities to youth across Nova Scotia

Sofi Kifle, a 13-year-old student from Truro, was one of 24 students who nurtured their green thumb as part of the Imhotep Legacy Academy's (ILA) Culture of Growing program last month.

“My favourite part of the program was harvesting and processing what we grew into chips, hot sauce and ketchup!” said Sofi. 

Contributing to community food security
 

Culture of Growing is a youth-led community garden and greenhouse program for students in Grades 7 – 12 that contributes to community food security. The program aims to have a generation of young Black individuals that see the value in food production, know how to grow their own food and can capitalize on their gained skills through entrepreneurship.

“I think this program is very important because research shows marginalized communities across Canada are the biggest group of individuals to suffer from food insecurity,” explained Kayler Mutyabule, Provincial Program Manager, Culture of Growing. “There is low representation of Black people within the agriculture industry and ILA Culture of Growing program is actively breaking barriers for Black youth through development of knowledge and fundamental skills in agriculture and community food security.”

Opportunities across the province
 

Participants are exposed to various careers in the agri-food sector with the hopes to have higher representation of Black farmers, agriculture technicians, plant specialists and more. With regional sites located in Truro, Digby, Sydney and Preston area, the program is passionate about connecting like-minded students from different parts of the province, building bonds, learning and growing together.

Youth are involved in all aspects of the farming cycle including seedling selection, land preparation, vegetable planting, value-added products, marketing and branding.

At various sites
 

In Truro, the group used the Sustain by Culitv8 garden space on Pictou Road to grow Bok choi, lettuce, carrots, beetroot, cherry tomatoes sunflowers, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, squash, flowers, kale, cucumbers, watermelon, and corn. Once grown, they learned about transplanting from the greenhouse.

“This an important way of triggering the interest of youth in our programs,” said Dr. Sam Asiedu co-principal investigator of the project and host of the Truro group on the Dalhousie Agricultural Campus through the department of Plant, Food and Environmental Sciences. “It enables us to contribute not only to local food insecurity solutions but also nationally and globally. I believe the future of agriculture is in the hands of our youth, so we are using this program to introduce them to career opportunities in agriculture early.”

"I believe the future of agriculture is in the hands of our youth, so we are using this program to introduce them to career opportunities in agriculture early," says Dr. Sam Asiedu. 

The Truro group of five students also learned about rocks and soil composition, Ph and ocean acidification, how to make compost, and worked around various challenges including frost, weeds, pests and diseases.

In Digby, the group grew for their local farmer’s markets with sales being reinvested into the program. The group also visited the Acadian Seaplants — a company that provides agritech solutions for healthier plants, animals & people.

In Syndey, the group gained relevant life stills and learned about the science behind planting their own food. 
 

Culture of Growing is an initiative of Imhotep’s Legacy Academy (ILA) in partnership with the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture.