TD gives grant to KPU’s Richmond Farm School

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Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Richmond Farm School received a $300,000 grant from TD Bank Group’s TD Ready Commitment earlier this month. 

The donation aims to get the Richmond farm program started on new initiatives and boost community engagement opportunities for students enrolled in the farm school. 

“We’re so proud to support the KPU Farm as it expands its work to tackle food insecurity, advance reconciliation, and foster environmental stewardship,” said Tony Mauro, district vice president for Richmond-South Vancouver-South Delta, TD Bank Group in a KPU press release.  

“We’re investing in organizations focused on enhancing and activating green spaces that help build stronger, more resilient communities.”

The grant will also help fund the formation of a KPU learning gardens community board, a volunteer program, an outdoor demonstration kitchen, and an Indigenous voice self-guiding tour.  

Rebecca Harbut, a sustainable agriculture and food systems instructor at KPU, applied for the grant.

“I wrote a grant proposal suggesting … how we [can] improve our community’s understanding of food systems, of sustainability, and give them opportunities to engage with the farm,” Harbut says. 

“Understanding how the production of food relates to how we use the land … is quite distant from a lot of our population’s conscience.” 

The goal of this initiative is for students and community members to connect with nature and learn more about the work that goes into growing sustainable food production. 

Some initiatives have already begun as a result of the grant money, which the farm school aims to use over the next three years. 

“We’ve had workshops for community members, we have added onto our learning garden, which is a community space. Every year there will be additional elements that come into play,” Harbut says. 

Harbut is excited about the volunteer program which has already started.  

“It allows members in a very urban environment … to have that experience that they might not otherwise have,” she says.  

The farm has also implemented interactive signage to benefit community members and help them learn more about farming. 

“We’ll have signs with QR codes so that they can see and understand what is happening on the farm and how it connects to a sustainable food system,” Harbut says. 

Students will also have more opportunities to improve their learning experience with the grant. 

“Increased opportunities to engage with the community is such a great way for [students] to use their learning, even while they are still in the program,” Harbut says. 

“These community outreach initiatives will give students the opportunity to also demonstrate their leadership [skills] within these initiatives.”  

The Sustainable Agriculture Student Association (SASA) is also continuing their community fridge initiative which began last fall and contains produce grown on the Garden City Lands, which is city-owned land that KPU leases for the farm school. The fridge is located at the Richmond campus in the Kwantlen Student Association lounge and is free for students to take from. 

“We will keep producing until October or November and then the season slows down … Then, it will start up again in the spring,” Harbut says. 

“One of the cool things about the KPU Farm and our whole program is that it only exists because of partnerships with community members, like city non-profits and companies like TD. I feel so thankful because we would not be able to do what we do without these kinds of partnerships.”