Campus Food Projects: The University of Ottawa
Adding a Growcer unit on campus was a way to support a rising uOttawa student business and build resiliency into the dining hall’s operations.
The 2020/21 school year is the third year The University of Ottawa (uOttawa) has grown greens right on campus.
The University uses a Growcer unit to grow greens for its dining hall and catering services. During a normal school year, uOttawa is able to easily consume 100 per cent of what’s produced from a Growcer unit with 8,000 students passing through its dining services each day.
The University only grows Monte Carlo romaine, because it’s a green that holds up well after multiple washes and has a good shelf life. Maryann Moffitt, dietitian and food liaison officer at the University of Ottawa, says she’s still learning and experimenting with what varieties work because there’s so many to choose from.
“If it’s fresh, it’s got crisp, some nice colour, people like it,” Moffitt says.
During the COVID-19 outbreak when the dining hall shut down, uOttawa donated its surplus harvest to Shepherds of Good Hope, a homeless service in Ottawa, throughout the summer.
How the idea started
Growcer co-founders and uOttawa alumni Corey Ellis and Alida Burke in front of the uOttawa unit.
Moffitt says there’s been lots of interest in community and school gardens, but it’s not the best fit because the growing season happens when nobody is at school. The challenge was, what does the school do during the winter months?
On the other side of campus, the idea for The Growcer was brewing among students part of Enactus uOttawa after a trip to Iqaluit.
“So when [Growcer] came with this idea, I saw the value to have local greens grown on campus but when we need it, which is December, January, February, so I was very excited about that idea,” Moffitt says.
“I saw the value to have local greens grown on campus but when we need it, which is December, January, February, so I was very excited about that idea.”
The Growcer unit on campus was born out of a partnership with the school’s food service provider Chartwells Canada. The unit was installed in August 2018.
The company saw Growcer as an important partner in the delivery of their Thinking Ahead Giving Back (TAGB) vision. Chartwells Canada's TAGB initiative is committed to continuous innovation to benefit the students they serve and supporting projects that tackle food insecurity, student wellness, and student employment.
uOttawa pride
Moffitt says adding a unit on campus was more than adding a supply of local greens for the dining hall.
Co-founders Alida Burke and Corey Ellis appearing on Dragon’s Den.
“It’s also supporting The Growcer team, and giving them another location and place to learn . . . We were happy to let them experiment with us and it fulfills our mandate of supporting our students and supporting research,” Moffitt shares.
“When they went on Dragon’s Den, that was a point of pride for all of us . . . it’s not just a business arrangement, we’re in it together as a partnership and we learn to take the bumps together and then share in each other’s successes.”
Moffitt says hydroponic growing systems make sense for uOttawa and the Canadian and urban context overall.
“It’s such a great sense of pride for us to say it was our students that developed this,” Moffitt says. “And then it’s nice to see them develop it into a business, and see the business grow.”
Sustainability in more ways than one
A Growcer system is a plug-and-play hydroponic growing system that allows people to grow greens year-round. For universities, it provides a sustainable supply for food services steps away from the dining hall. At uOttawa, produce is delivered by hand.
“It’s like a crown jewel of food services sustainability initiatives,” Moffitt says.
“It’s been a very tangible sign of our commitment.”
“A lot of the stuff we do you just can’t see. Nobody knows we sell our cooking oil for biofuels. You can’t see that, it’s all behind the scenes, but The Growcer you can see it. We put windows in our units, so you can see the lettuce growing through the window. It’s been a very tangible sign of our commitment.”
Padding against price shocks
Moffitt explains how food services are vulnerable to produce recalls and price shocks when they have to import food from other places.
“I’ve even seen signs in the dining hall, like ‘none of this product is available right now’ because of the price shocks - that was at the time of the $8 cauliflower,” Moffitt explains. “So it does provide some stability and some control, which is not something we get a lot of over our food system.”
Part of the product mix toward better food systems
Hydroponic growing systems produce more food using less land, water, chemicals and labour than traditional agriculture. For Moffitt, these systems are a part of the “product mix” when it comes to solving food sovereignty.
“We’re helping to pilot the systems that can lead to long-term highly sustainable urban food systems,” Moffitt says. “It’s going to require a mix and this kind of product is going to be part of that mix I’m sure of it.”
Getting buy-in from stakeholders
The Growcer project started at uOttawa when the University and Chartwells were actively looking for ways to support their sustainability goals. It was wonderful timing, but for other institutions that need to find buy-in from administrators and other decision-makers, Moffitt offers some words.
1. Look at your institutional priorities
Moffitt says most universities have wellness or sustainability as part of their institutional priorities so it’s easy to make the case for how a growing unit will support healthy eating and in turn, academic performance. A resource-efficient hydroponic farm also works to enhance the reputation of being a sustainable institution.
2. Find the champions
“Every institution has a foodie, you just got to find them,” Moffitt says. Making the case to people who get excited about food or environmental initiatives will be smoother because they already have an understanding of the benefits it can have on campus.
Read about how other universities are putting a Growcer system to work on their campus.