"Our spinach is really big spinach, sometimes the leaves are bigger than my head," Makenzie Jones said of the greenhouse he manages in Nipissing First Nation. "The arugula as well, sometimes they're as big as my forearm. It's not typical stuff you can get in a grocery store."
Jones works at Mnogin Greenhouse, which supplies his northeastern Ontario community with reasonably priced local greens year-round. Like other northern, rural, and remote communities in Canada, his nation experiences high rates of diet-related diseases like type 2 diabetes, largely because of the limited access to nutritious, fresh food. To help reduce those ailments, and provide better food security in a changing climate, the nation opened the greenhouse in 2023.
Fast forward nearly seven years, past a feasibility study and a push to secure funding from the federal government and others. Mnogin now harvests between 45 and 70 kilograms of greens and herbs per week, all of which sell out. It earns money selling produce directly to consumers, as well as supplying a handful of local businesses, while also contributing produce to community programs including the monthly food box the nation's health center sends to expectant and new parents, Elders' club lunches, and the Nipissing First Nation Food Bank.
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