Going green in Naujaat
Dome capable of producing 29,000 pounds of food annually
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
NAUJAAT
A geodesic greenhouse dome put into development by a pair of Ryerson University students is on the brink of paying huge dividends in Naujaat.
Project Growing North team members Stefany Nieto, left, Christian D'Antonio, third from right, and Savreen Gosal, far right, meet with Mayor Solomon Malliki, centre, and other community members for an update on the greenhouse dome in Naujaat earlier this month. - Photo courtesy of Stefany Nieto
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Stefany Nieto, 21, of Toronto, and Ben Canning, 20, of Delta, Ont., co-founded Project Growing North in 2013.
Nieto said she and Canning were exploring topical issues in Canada when they stumbled upon food insecurity.
She said the issue sounded strange to her and Canning at first, because they hadn't heard about it on the news or in the classroom.
"We started our research and found Nunavut had the highest rate of food insecurity in Canada at, what we found to be a staggering, more than 45 per cent," said Nieto.
"We started looking into ways we could tackle this issue, and we landed at the geodesic greenhouse dome.
"We choose to go this way because it would be easy to get into a community, and also have its residents accept it, be a part of the project and plant themselves.
"But, more than that, we found it would be the most efficient way to produce food in the North, both in the amount of production it was capable of and the fact it can withstand the extreme weather conditions of the North."
Nieto, Canning and a group of team members and local volunteers began planting this past May.
The greenhouse dome will produce beans, peas, tomatoes and kale, and the crop is well on its way to harvest.
The project will run through a co-operative program, and the Growing North team is creating a curriculum to be adopted by Tusarvik School.
Students in grades 10 to 12 will have the opportunity to work in the dome, for which they will earn academic credits.
The team also began a partnership with a women's collective this past year.
The women will use produce from the greenhouse to create local traditional foods to sell within the community at affordable prices.
They will also attempt to export the items to nearby communities.
The maximum annual yield of the greenhouse is about 29,400 pounds.
Nieto said the collective also makes clothing and various items for around the house from local material.
She said team members will take the items back south to sell, with the profits going to the collective.
"Everyone was pretty skeptical when we first started because growing in the North is not really done, or heard of, for that matter.
"But as we continued to work with the community, and started building the greenhouse and planting, people in Naujaat really came on-board to help us build the dome, plant, form the women's collective, and the various partnerships we have within the community, such as the Co-op and health centre.
"Everyone has really come together to help this project come to life.
"The locals have nicknamed it the green iglu, and the overall response has been overwhelmingly supportive."
Nieto said those helping Growing North build and run the greenhouse, such as Barney Taparti and Edmond Bruce, have helped the project flourish.
She said during the next six weeks, the team will choose one or two people who have been helping out to be part of a job-share program that would put them in charge of the greenhouse year-round.
"I'm pretty optimistic, right now, on the success of the greenhouse.
"If you had asked me that about a year back, I would have said guardedly optimistic because it was a very big project to undertake.
"However, during the past 18 months, we've really seen not only the local community come together, but, also, our Ryerson University come together to help us turn our idea into reality.
"So, now I'm happily optimistic that everything will move forward successfully."
It cost about $130,000 to build the Naujaat greenhouse, and it will cost about $15,000 annually to run the dome.
However, Nieto said, because of what they learned during the pilot project in Naujaat, they expect to reduce the building cost of the next dome to about $80,000.
She said, hopefully, that greenhouse will be located in Arviat.
"We've been speaking to people in Arviat and they seem interested in our expansion, so we're drawing up plans for the community.
"If everything goes through all right, we hope to do a needs assessment in Arviat this coming August.
"Naujaat has been an amazing community to work with.
"We've been super open and really collaborative in working on this pr
