Ecotrust Canada introduces Prince Rupert's new Urban Farmer

Charles Gerein has joined
the staff at Ecotrust Canada
to serve as coordinator of their
Food system Program 

With Spring just around the corner and growing season almost upon us, Ecotrust Canada's Prince Rupert office is putting the final touches in place towards their next community initiative of an urban farm to be located somewhere in the downtown core.

While still keeping some of the details to themselves for the moment, the local office of the national organization has provided for an introduction for a new member of their team and the new coordinator for their Food Systems program.

That as the organization welcomes Charles Gerein to the community, providing a short biography of his work and travels through their website.

In their short profile Ecotrust Canada observes how his travels across Canada and the world will help towards his role as part of the Northwest Food Systems Initiative.

As we noted last November, they provided some background information on the project, noting that the Kaien Island/Kxeen Urban Farm would be located on a downtown lot in Prince Rupert.

"This will be a space for local growers, workshops to increase food literacy, donations to local food programs, and research activities to inform policymakers and planners. To scale up the urban farm, the second activity will involve building the Northwest Food Network across Northwest BC. 

This network will be based in Prince Rupert and will facilitate sea- and agri-food trade and procurement in the region. The network will aim to build local, resilient, food economies by creating more employment, trade agreements between communities, and increasing domestic demand for food products." -- From the Ecotrust Canada statement of November 2020

The initiative is a partnership of sorts with the City of Prince Rupert, with the city accessing the funding for Ecotrust Canada through the Northern Development Initiative Trust.

In November, Councillor Barry Cunningham issued an invitation for the organization to appear at City Council to provide some further notes on the project, but with COVID protocols now in place again at City Hall, that community tutorial has yet to take place.

You can follow the progress of the urban farm as it moves closer to launch through the organizations social media streams of Facebook and twitter

More Community notes of interest can be explored from our archive page here.