New food program in Guelph offers pay-what-you-can model for fresh fruits and vegetables

Food program growing in Guelph A passion project aimed at reducing food insecurity and food waste is growing in the Royal City. Hannah Schmidt reports.

There’s a new food program growing in the Royal City. It’s the passion project of a University of Guelph professor aiming to combat food insecurity and waste and offers a pay-what-you-can model for those with a limited income.

Poritosh Roy spearheaded the program called FarmFresh and says he asks people to pay what they can. It is meant for seniors, students and new immigrants to access fresh produce at a price they can afford.

"Food prices skyrocketed and some people…senior people, even they want to grow or they want to get fresh vegetables, they're not able to do that all…they cannot do physical work," said Roy.

The initiative - launched by GreenTech Agrifood and Innovation Canada - offers a wide variety of produce from squash and okra to cucumber and watermelon each week throughout the summer.

"If we can do something, grow those vegetables here and then we can have a longer shelf life and reduce food waste…that way we can help reduce food waste and also reduce the pollution.”

Maintained by Roy and some volunteers, the produce is grown on a two acre plot behind a housing complex just off Fife Road in Guelph.

Roy says people’s lack of access to fresh produce could be due to a limited income or a lack of space to grow their own food.

"I know the limitations of immigrant people and I also have some similar friends who want to get fresh vegetables and farm fresh vegetables but they don’t have the ability to do that on their own and first I initiated to help them," said Roy.

Laura Pocroianu lives just a few steps away from the produce patch and has been taking advantage of its offerings.

"We are excited to get anything, anything like from tomatoes from all the vegetables, it's very important so we can afford.”

She says the program is important for people on a lower income as food prices continue to soar.

"Nowadays with these prices so high, it's very important for our community to afford buying it because it's getting more and more expensive," she said.

Roy says if the program is successful, they hope to expand with a bigger plot and a greenhouse next year to grow even more produce.