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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A new pilot project set to get underway this fall aims to help those who grow their own food stretch their harvest a little longer.

The NWT Territorial Farmers' Association is currently completing a mobile-community-kitchen project, which executive director Andrew Cassidy hopes will be in operation in time for the fall harvest.

"With this kitchen, what we're hoping to do is be able to travel from community to community doing workshops on food preservation, which is kind of the next step in becoming more food resilient - how to make your products last throughout the year," he said.

The mobile kitchen is being constructed in an enclosed 8x24-foot duel-axle truck trailer. It will be equipped with a fridge, stove, and all other appliances found in a typical commercial kitchen, said Cassidy. It will also have a propane generator to be self-sufficient with full wiring to plug in to an electrical grid when available. The completed kitchen will be able to be towed by a three-quarter-ton truck.

The kitchen will be a fully-inspected commercial kitchen, meaning that any food processed in it will be able to be sold in stores, said Cassidy. However, he added, producing food for sale is not the primary goal of this project.

"We're not anticipating that everyone who's gardening in the North is going to want to start selling their produce. Many of them are doing it for their own food, for their own health benefits," he said.

The ability to produce commercial-grade food products in the NWT will showcase the potential for agriculture in the territory and help ease residents' reliance on grocery store products, said Cassidy.

As it stands now, the NWT is very dependent on trucked-in food. While this process tends to work well, it can leave people vulnerable, said Cassidy, giving the example of the current drought in parts of the southern United States and parts of Canada.

When these types of things happen, food prices are driven up and people living in the margins have to start making difficult economical decisions.

"If we can get more people growing food and then figuring out how to make it last, we're making our communities a lot more self-sufficient - a lot more resilient," he said.

Funding for the mobile commercial kitchen was given to the TFA from the GNWT's Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment (ITI) through its agriculture development infrastructure strategic initiative. The purpose of this fund is to help individuals and organizations produce more of their own meats, fruits, or vegetables, said Mike Maher, business development officer for ITI in Hay River.

"I think, personally, any time you can diversify an economy and increase accessibility to fresh fruits and vegetables or just food - locally-grown food of any sort - that's a huge benefit for the entire territory," said Maher.

The mobility of the commercial kitchen is the key to the project. While current plans are to use it to run workshops in Hay River this fall, it can go anywhere in the region and the hope is that if the pilot project is a success, more of these kitchens can be made accessible to the various regions in the NWT.

"Being that it's a mobile thing, it can go to any community in the South Slave or if it's a model that works, then it can be reproduced in other regions as well," said Maher.

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