Nurturing Possibilities Garden Program
Grow, Learn, Inspire
We are excited to launch the
Nurturing Possibilities Garden Program.
With the help of sponsorship funds, DueNORTH is offering each public school in Nunavut the opportunity to apply for and receive a vertical aeroponic growing system (tower garden) for its classrooms. As interactive educational tools, growing gardens are multi-dimensional. With the potential to engage students of all ages, they can be utilized as major components of science, mathematics and business courses at any level.
Tower gardens also offer:
-Nutritious and fresh food for the children of the community
–An educational platform that can be used at any grade level for different purposes, from the simplicity of watching plants grow at a primary level to the running of controlled experiments at a senior level.
-An opportunity for students interested in business to harvest, package and sell any surplus to the community.
–A collective pride as students nurture their own plants.
If you are a teacher, school principal or representative of a school, you can apply here to receive a growing tower. It is very important to us that this initiative has community support, so please consult your fellow teachers and community members before submitting an application. The instruction manual provided is in the process of being translated into Inuktitut so everyone in the community can use and enjoy.
Information for Teachers & Schools
Everything You Need To Know + How To Apply
We’re excited about our latest DueNORTH initiative. But first, a little about us. DueNORTH is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization based in Ottawa. We are a small but mighty group of citizens who are concerned about the issue of food insecurity in our country, and in particular, in Nunavut. We want to do something.
As a high school student in 2014, Eva von Jagow came across the staggering reality of food prices in the Far North. With further research she learnt that those food prices translated into high rates of food insecurity and ultimately into higher rates of diabetes, dental problems, malnourishment, school absenteeism and mental health problems.
With a formidable committee and a lot of long hours, Eva started an annual fundraiser to help address the social injustice of food insecurity in Nunavut. To date that fundraiser has raised over $150,000. Working in partnership with the Breakfast Club of Canada (BCC), we have established a BCC program in Coral Harbour, and supported the breakfast programs at the three schools in Arviat.
Realizing that there needed to be further awareness about food insecurity in Canada, Eva and her mother, Karen, founded DueNORTH, a nonprofit organization with the mandate to raise awareness about the Inuit struggle to procure fresh, affordable and ample food for their families. We visited Coral Harbour, Rankin Inlet, Kimmirut and Iqaluit and have seen first-hand the need for affordable, nutritious food as well as food literacy.
But, we feel there is still so much else we can do to help.
So when we learned about vertical growing towers, our interest was certainly sparked. With resounding success, these aeroponic towers are starting to be used in many southern schools, community centres and libraries as educational tools and a means of growing fresh affordable produce.
We entered into dialogue with Nunavut educators and sought their advice on the place of these towers in the Far North. They agreed that they could serve as amazing educational tools while at the same time provide students and their families with a substantial harvest of fresh fruits and vegetables. Students from Kindergarten to grade 12 could partake in what these towers have to offer – from a simple nurturing perspective at a very young age to running controlled experiments to devising business plans to grow and sell produce to the community.
Their potential is fascinating but ultimately it would be up to the community, and you as teachers as how best to use them.
How to Procure a Growing Tower for Your School? If you are part of a Nunavut school, it’s as simple as filling out our on-line application. We do require one principal/teacher to assume ownership for the project.