On the morning of the 26th of July, a hydroponic farm was launched at Africville Lookoff Park to provide the immigrant and African Nova Scotian communities access to culturally relevant food. The project, co-founded by Dr. Simone Le Gendre and Chukwuku Orji under EduHaus Inc., is called the Roots and Harvest Africville Farm Project. It was initiated when Feed Nova Scotia announced its Shipping Containers Community Pitch Project — which called for pitches from community organizations working to promote food justice.
The co-founders participated in the contest and won two shipping containers. They then converted the containers into an AI-powered hydroponic farm with the help of several partners, including Halifax Regional Municipality.
To provide a home for the farm, the Africville Museum partnered with Le Gendre and Orji and offered space at Africville Lookoff Park for the containers. Later, CUA donated funds to help buy solar panels to power the farm, which are yet to be installed.
"We chose Africville as our inaugural site partner because we believe that this is what reclamation looks like," Le Gendre said during the Saturday event. To start, the organizers plan to grow okra in one container within a climate-controlled environment, as it is a vegetable that travels long distances before reaching Nova Scotia. As a result, it is expensive and loses much of its nutritional value along the way.
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