NEWS RELEASE
IGNATIUS JESUIT CENTRE
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The Aviva Community Fund announces Ignatius Jesuit Centre’s “Ignatius Farm Greenhouse Retrofit” has won $10,000 in funding for 2018.
Since 2009, Aviva has funded over $9.5 million in local projects, and has supported over 400 charities and community groups across Canada.
For the 10th anniversary of the Aviva Community Fund, $1 million has been earmarked for ideas that bring people together and create meaningful change in local communities. Aviva Canada chose to focus on bringing communities together because building strong communities creates a more welcoming place to live and builds resilience and trust among community members.
Ignatius Jesuit Centre’s idea to retrofit the Ignatius Farm Greenhouse was selected as one of the small idea winners. The farm wants to improve the greenhouse’s capacity to grow quality seedlings for its 9-acre Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) vegetable production and three acres of community garden fields.
The CSA feeds over 200 local families (about 500 people) with fresh, organic produce every year. The community garden fields supported over 180 community garden plots this year. The greenhouse is a critical training facility for the Farm’s ecological agriculture intern training. Ignatius Farm has trained over 100 interns since 2001.
A total of 50 small idea winners were each selected to receive $10,000 toward their project, and Ignatius Farm Greenhouse Retrofit received among the highest number of votes from brokers, community members and the public for their idea in Guelph to win funding.
Heather Lekx, Ignatius Farm manager, responded to the announcement, saying “thank you to our community for supporting our greenhouse renovation project including casting your votes and spreading the word about the campaign. We are so very grateful and excited to get started on the greenhouse upgrades. This funding will allow us to improve our community engagement. Our community gardens are nurturing a multicultural, multigenerational community of some 500 people who share a love of healthy organic food, better health, physical activity and the outdoors. We will be able to offer workshops and tours that bring people together to learn about ecological agriculture: all our Farm initiatives work to strengthen the health, resilience and well-being of our community.”
“Campaigns like the Aviva Community Fund are successful over the long term because they directly fund local programs, where we also happen to work and live,” says Colm Holmes, President and CEO of Aviva Canada. “As we celebrate our 10th anniversary, under the theme of bringing people together, we couldn’t be more proud to support ideas – big and small – that will have a lasting impact in their communities.”
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