Futurpreneur Panel: Food Security and Social Entrepreneurship
On April 21, Futurpreneur and Growcer hosted a panel discussion on food security and social entrepreneurship. The discussion centred on how social entrepreneurship can be a tool to improve food security.
The key takeaways were:
- It’s important to build a food solution in collaboration with your community (i.e. community surveys, engagement events, and then making changes accordingly)
- Sometimes, a for-profit model is beneficial because it builds self sustainability into what you’re trying to do
- Food businesses are more than food - it’s about increasing the economic and social benefits within a community (i.e. employment opportunities, gathering spaces, building confidence of youth, promoting healthy eating, etc.)
Building confidence through entrepreneurship
Arctic Fresh is a Nunavut-based social enterprise online retail store with a mission to make food more accessible to northerners. It was started by Rhoda Angutimarik and propelled by her desire to change the state of food insecurity in the north.
Silvano Cendou, vice president of commercial sales at Arctic Fresh, joined the Futurpreneur panel and focused on the spillover benefits of their grocery store.
In particular, Cendou shares upcoming plans to turn Arctic Fresh into a multi-dimensional “healthy hub” that provides bulk goods, fresh produce, and abattoir services for hunters. It would also serve as a gathering place for community members to come together.
“That was something that a lot of our people wanted. Where Elders can come sit down and have a cup of coffee, talk about their hunting trip, and then they might pick up some food and take it home and prepare it,” Cendou explains. “So it’s social, it’s economic, it’s everything to a community.”
“It’s social, it’s economic, it’s everything to a community.”
Cendou also talks about education - not just in demonstrating new recipes, but also in teaching basic business skills. Right now, the Arctic Fresh team helps train aspiring entrepreneurs twice a week. Beyond mentorship, they also help supply the young entrepreneurs with supplies they need to turn their ideas into reality.
“We’re helping create people who are starting businesses in the North,” Cendou says. “It gives them confidence and we’re seeing that they love coming in . . . we find that there’s so much out there, the potential just hasn’t been nurtured that’s all.”
Self sustainability through food
Sheshegwaning First Nation is located on the far side of Manitoulin Island in Northern Ontario. April Folz, economic development director for Sheshegwaning, shares that self sufficiency became a larger concern during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We wanted to make sure we had access to fresh food,” Folz says. “We’re 40 minutes away from a grocery store. When we do get to go there, sometimes there’s nothing or it’s not fresh. And we wanted our people to have that [fresh food].”
Inside the Growcer container garden in Sheshegwaning First Nation.
Folz shares how she remembered seeing Growcer’s modular farms at a trade show and worked with her Chief to bring the container garden into Sheshegwaning in late fall to grow fresh produce for the community. Folz explains the steps she took - from conducting community surveys on what to grow to hiring staff to run the container farm.
“Our main priority is making sure our community is taken care of first,” Folz says, adding their first year is focused on becoming more experienced and comfortable with growing. In the future, Folz says they are expanding and want to provide fresh greens to other parts of the Island.
“The community loves it. It’s very nice to have people so excited. ‘Oh when can we have fresh lettuce? Oh, I’m running out of this, can I get this?’” Folz shares. “It’s very nice that people love it.”
Growcer’s social entrepreneurship journey
Alida Burke, co-founder and COO of The Growcer, was on the panel to shed light on Growcer’s own journey deploying modular farms and working with communities to improve food sovereignty.
“Ultimately, it comes down to that facet of being able to increase local access to fresh and affordable food. That’s our vision moving forward in the next five years,” Burke says.
Burke speaks to how the company has grown over the years and the decision to remain a for-profit social enterprise - similar to Arctic Fresh’s model - instead of switching to a charity or non-profit structure. Burke also adds to the panel’s conversation that it’s “more than food.”
“There are some interesting models that individuals are looking to do with growing food that is not just for the produce itself,” Burke explains, sharing the example of Chrysalis non-profit in Edmonton that hopes to use their container farm as an employment and training opportunity for citizens with disabilities.
Like others on the panel, the predominant theme was that food is an avenue for social change that goes beyond the plate.
“It’s the things that April and Silvano are doing in their communities that inspires myself and the [Growcer team] . . . and that really pushes us to do what we do every day.”
Register below to access the full recording of the April 21 Futurpreneur panel to gain a deeper understanding of the speakers’ journeys and how it might help your own.
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