First food bank in Canada to produce its own fish and greens with aquaponics
It is, by all accounts, a fine kettle of fish.
The Mississauga Food Bank has become the first in Canada to use aquaponics to produce its own fish and greens as a food source for hungry clients.
Through the recent establishment of its own AquaGrow Farms, the Greater Toronto Area food bank is now raising tilapia in tanks, while also growing hydroponic vegetables. This venture into aquaponics—a combination of fish farming and hydroponics, or growing plants without soil—aims to establish a sustainable source of food in the face of declining fresh food donations.
“People tend to want to give us a can of soup and a box of macaroni and cheese, which is fine, but we’re trying to also source higher-quality nutritional value food,” Chris Hatch, executive director at The Mississauga Food Bank, recently told Metro News.
Tilapia fingerlings grow to a kilogram in about half a year, and can then be processed and packaged. As part of the aquaponics ecosystem, tilapia waste is converted to nitrate to fertilize hydroponic produce. Hatch estimates that The Mississauga Food Bank will provide over 11,000 servings of proteins and greens each year.
Enbridge Gas Distribution is committed to making communities better places to live by supporting AquaGrow Farms’ innovative solution to the community’s growing need for nutritious, fresh food.
“Enbridge has a long and proud tradition of supporting the community. For more than 165 years our motto has been ‘for the good of the community,’ which we still live by today,” says Malini Giridhar, VP of Market Development and Public and Government Affairs for Enbridge Gas.
“We are honored to partner with The Mississauga Food Bank’s AquaGrow Farms which provides our neighbours in Mississauga with a steady source of healthy greens and protein,” says Giridhar. “Together, we share a vision for a cleaner, more sustainable future.”
The AquaGrow Farms initiative, says Hatch, shows the community that the food bank is tackling an issue by thinking creatively. The Mississauga Food Bank and its member agencies saw about 200,000 visits in 2016.
“It may be cold and grey outside at the moment,” says Colin Cotton, aquaponics farm supervisor, “but it’s great to know that we’re filling up bowls of greens across the city.”
(TOP PHOTO: AquaGrow Farms raises tilapia in tanks as part of a venture into aquaponics, a combination of fish farming and hydroponics.)
