TORONTO -- A community initiative in Canada's North is working to help isolated areas grow fresh fruits and vegetables year-round in the subarctic climate.

The Pirursiivik Project has provided a hydroponic container to the community of Inukjuak, Que. Karin Kettler, the head of the project, told CTV's Your Morning that the container will provide residents with a regular supply of fresh produce so the community will no longer have to rely on food shipments from the south.

"We just recently received the container so we're just waiting to do some technical aspects to take care of it, get it connected and started. But we hope to start in January," Kettler said in an interview on Wednesday from Inukjuak.

Kettler explained that the hydroponic container is a refitted shipping container that can grow the same volume of produce as five acres of traditional farmland. She added that the container has the capacity to grow 200 heads of lettuce in just six to 12 weeks.

The Pirursiivik Project started in October 2017 and is jointly funded by the One Drop Foundation, the Makivik Corporation and the RBC Foundation. Kettler says the idea for a hydroponic container came about a couple of years ago following some of the initiative’s other farm projects' success.

Last summer, Kettler said the Pirursiivik Project installed a number of "cold frames" around Inukjuak to help encourage residents grow their own vegetables, which is something she says "the community really wanted."

According to the Pirursiivik Project, "cold frames" are raised glass boxes with plastic lids that allow for produce cultivation in warmer months.

Kettler said Inukjuak's ultimate goal is to build a year-round greenhouse with the new hydroponic container being another step towards that goal.

However, Kettler says the community first needs to educated about the kinds of fruits and vegetables the container can grow.

Inukjuak is a small northern town of 1,800 people on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. Linguistically, there is only a handful of words describing fruits and vegetables in Inuktitut, the community's local language, according to Kettler.

"Through this project we've been doing a lot of educating and prepping the community for growing," Kettler said. "There's still lots of learning to do for the community members, but they're very eager and very excited about having fresh, local food."

Kettler said the Pirursiivik Project has also purchased two hydroponic towers for Inukjuak to help get the community "up to speed on growing their own vegetables."

Using the "cold frames," Kettler says the community has been able to grown kale, bok choy and spinach.

"Those are kind of the new vegetables that people are learning about," she said.

Kettler said the Pirursiivik Project conducted a survey in Inukjuak to find out what produce residents would like to eat and see growing in the new container.

"A lot of people like carrots and potatoes and broccoli, but we hope to also plant tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers," she said.

Kettler said the community will likely have its first harvest from the hydroponic container by March or April 2021.