Operation Grow in Midland has been growing and growing and growing. A day after its seventh anniversary, the indoor, vertical farm was recognized by the province with an Excellence in Agriculture award in the Workforce Excellence category. It was one of 13 agriculture awards handed out during the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto earlier this month.
The reason it won for workforce excellence is because Operation Grow is a social enterprise supporting women who have suffered from abuse. Operation Grow is run under the banner of Huronia Transition Homes (HTH), which runs a women's shelter in Midland.
"It's huge. It's such a big deal for the organization," says HTH executive director Haily MacDonald. "The thing about Operation Grow that sets it aside from so many social enterprises is violence against women impacts every aspect of a woman's life. It impacts their access to food, their self-esteem, their ability to meet basic needs," MacDonald explains. "What Operation Grow does is target all of those things. That's what makes it so brilliant."
Operation Grow means a lot to MacDonald. She wrote her master's thesis on Operation Grow. In 2015, her first full-time job with HTH was overseeing the design and build of Operation Grow at 436 Bay St.product
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