Ottawa’s Growcer sets up urban vertical farm at Area X.O to support The Ottawa Mission

With food costs top of mind for many charities, Ottawa company Growcer is partnering with the Ottawa Mission to set up an urban vertical farm to provide fresh leafy greens to the charity’s food program.

With food costs top of mind for many charities, Ottawa company Growcer is partnering with the Ottawa Mission to set up an urban vertical farm to provide fresh leafy greens to the charity’s food program.  With the goal of addressing food insecurity across Canada, Growcer builds hydroponic modular farms and food storage solutions, which were originally designed for remote communities with harsh weather conditions, said Corey Ellis, CEO and co-founder.  “We’ve got about 120 (vertical farms) across the country and only one in Ottawa to date,” Ellis told OBJ on Tuesday.  Growcer initially targeted primarily northern and Arctic communities, where Ellis said food insecurity is the highest. But in recent years, interest in urban farming solutions has grown.  “It was just honestly in the last two or three years that we started doing more projects in urban settings, starting to gain some traction and success there,” he said.  “The product is actually identical. What has changed is that the economics have gotten better for us. When you’re in an urban setting, the price of food is already so low, in order to compete, you need to grow food much more cost effectively than we could 10 years ago. It’s been a process of refinement of our farms, where now they’re generating the value that's required in growing food that makes sense in an urban setting.” In April 2024, Growcer announced it had raised $3 million in Series A financing to accelerate the company’s growth.  With the Ottawa Mission, Growcer is setting up two modules at Invest Ottawa’s research and development complex Area X.0 in Nepean. 

The farms will supply leafy greens like spinach and different types of lettuce to all the shelter’s meal programs as well as its food truck program, which serves 10,000 meals a week. Every year, the two farms will be able to produce up to 20,000 pounds of fresh greens. The program enables the Mission to sustainably grow its own food and build resilience to climate change. In a press release, the charity said that by bringing food production closer to consumers, it’s lowering transportation emissions, reducing water usage and minimizing food waste.  “The Ottawa Mission is the city’s oldest and largest homeless shelter,” Mission CEO Peter Tilley said in the release. “Over each of the past three years we’ve served over one million meals per year to people in need. A greater number of people than ever before can’t afford to eat healthy food, which leaves them at higher risk of diet-related illness. We’re delighted that this initiative ensures access to nutritious local produce year-round which will help keep our clients healthy.” Shelters and food programs across Canada, including in Ottawa, have faced mounting financial pressures in recent years as demand increases and costs go up. For organizations like the Mission, food costs are a primary concern. “What we’re trying to do with this project is eliminate as much of the cash cost that they have for fresh produce and what we’re doing instead is, in effect, investing in a project together that will produce that food 100 per cent for the Mission at a lower cost,” said Ellis. “Effectively, we’re trading an increasing operating cost that goes up every year for a capital investment that we’re putting into the ground. It’s a lot more fixed every year and it is lower than what they’re currently spending on food.” The Mission will also extend its free food services training program to the farm with support from the RBC Foundation. Ellis said demand for skilled labourers such as greenhouse growers, farm managers and horticulture technicians, especially with the increased popularity of hydroponic farms, is on the rise.  Through the program, students will be able to gain skills in food production and sustainable farming by working on the site.  “As the cost of healthy food has gone up, this has made it harder for us to ensure that the people who depend on us have access to healthy food,” Ric Allen-Watson, the Mission’s director of food services, said in the release.  The new farm officially launches on Thursday, but Ellis has plans for more. Over the next year, he said he hopes to partner with more local organizations on similar initiatives across the city. “We’ve got a model now that is replicable,” he said. “Now we’re finding community organizations and charities that are willing to run the farms on the ground. The goal is to get a dozen more. But of course that requires us to find land to place these farms. We’re looking for partners who already have a need for fresh leafy greens and landowners who want to provide a tiny piece of land for a charity to run a farm.”