M. Denisse de la Torre Crosse - https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-denisse/ Shauna Cassin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shauna-cassin-3a1a64229/
We identified that our challenge is shaped by three key dimensions:: high import dependency, insufficient local food production, and affordability barriers to nutritious food. St. John’s imports 50% of all goods and 70% of fresh vegetables via a single ferry route, creating systemic vulnerability. In 2022, 22.9% of the province lived in food-insecure households, resulting in a 7% increase since 2019 (Statistics Canada, 2024).
We narrowed our scope to an insufficient level of local food production as the most actionable intervention point. The problem affects the entire local community, who lack consistent access to affordable, healthy options. Compounding this is a social barrier, where the community’s willingness to adopt local alternatives is diminished by past government failures, such as the Sprung greenhouse project, and a widespread lack of education about the importance of food security and nutrition. This combination of structural fragility and social scepticism creates a cycle that reinforces continued dependency on imports.
Our solution is based on year-round urban greenhouses to provide the community with more choice, better access to nutritious and affordable options, and greater education and awareness around nutrition. A pilot project will launch at a local school, supplying fresh produce for school lunches, as well as nutrition education campaigns to build food security awareness from a young age.
The university would serve as our main stakeholder, providing accountability, research expertise, community credibility, and financial resources. The Government of Newfoundland could support the project with grants and subsidies, and local private companies could provide sponsorship through their corporate social responsibility programs. The greenhouse model is technically feasible using controlled-environment agriculture suited to St. John’s climate. Environmentally, it drastically reduces food miles and packaging waste from ferry imports. Socially, it rebuilds trust through transparent, education-first community engagement. Financially, the pilot is grant-backed and low-risk. Once validated, the model can scale to serve the broader community with produce priced lower than supermarket alternatives (see more details in further explanation section)
We still have crucial gaps in our solution. First, we ignore if that current government policies and legislation impose regulatory barriers to establishing urban greenhouses or school-based food programmes. Any zoning, health, or food safety restrictions would directly affect feasibility.
Second, we assume that the university will collaborate on the project by providing accountability, resources, and credibility, but this partnership has not yet been confirmed.
Third, the long-term business model is unclear; the program would start as a social enterprise is still an open question if in the future we want to get profit out of it, and how the transition would look like.
Fourth, private-sector sponsorship is uncertain, assume the oil sector would be willing to sponsor our initiative but we don’t have clear plan on how to motivate them to do so.
We recognize that there is still uncertainty regarding how well this project will be received by the population, particularly given that similar initiatives have been attempted in the past and have not succeeded.