A $150,000 dollar donation will help the Red Deer Food Bank create an indoor food farm.
The money is from Federated Co-op in the form of a Co-op Community Spaces Grant which was presented on June 12th.
Executive Director Mitch Thomson with the Red Deer Food Bank Society mentions that the Co-op Community Food Farm will be located inside the food bank and it will produce just under one million cherry tomatoes in the coming year. He says “Well for us, this is a game changer. Fresh food is becoming harder, and harder to get for most of the year. So this investment by Co-op, we are going to be able to make sure every person that comes into the Food Bank and has a need, has access to food. The tomato is such a versatile substance that we are really excited about it.”
He adds, the Red Deer Food Bank has also received some other donations which has allowed them to get into hydroponic seed cans. Thomson says “So not only are we growing fresh cherry tomatoes but we’re growing lettuce, leafy greens. Soon to be growing spinach, radish, in our green house. We’re growing cucumbers and peppers. So this is all part of a larger initiative to move from salty, stale, canned, and packaged goods to more fresh produce to provide people with a healthier food source for their diet.”
Thomson explains what spaces the Red Deer Food Bank is using to grow the fresh produce. He says “When you look at the total space for the Food Bank, we have two hydroponic seed cans, an indoor food farm, and then a geodesic dome – a green house. We are also growing in ten community gardens. So we have about two-thousand square feet of indoor space that we are producing food in and another just about half acre of gardening that we are doing in the community.”
When it comes to distributing their fresh tomatoes, Thomson says “These are cherry tomatoes and we will be giving them out in little packages of about 15 cherry tomatoes. It’s going to allow us to create 68,000 packages for people that use Food Banks in central Alberta. So the Red Deer Food Bank is a hub in the region and it supports some of the rural Food Banks as well. It will help us get fresh food out to many Food Banks in the region.”
Thomson points out that they hope to have the project completed by this Thanksgiving and the Co-op Community Food Farm will be located inside Bay 12, at 7429 – 49th Avenue in Red Deer.
More details about the Food Bank are available online at RedDeerFoodBank.com.