Kemptville Campus Community Garden

The Kemptville Campus Community Garden (KCCG) is led by a group of community volunteers and supported by the Campus. The community garden offers a vibrant, inclusive public space to share food growing skills and build community.

The garden was established in 2023 at the corner of Curtis Drive and Campus Drive, to provide space for local residents and community organizations to grow their own food using the allotment model. Start-up funding for the project was secured through the Municipality of North Grenville’s Community Grants Program and the Kemptville Horticultural Society. Garden volunteers worked in partnership with Campus staff to design and build the garden and its infrastructure.

In the garden’s first year, 26 plots were rented out to garden members, spanning all levels of garden experience. Now in its second season, the community garden has taken on new members and hosts many visitors – from local arts groups holding paint nights, to school tours, to visits from Communities in Bloom judges. One plot is managed by the North Grenville Learning Co-operative (also a campus tenant), with many little hands helping to grow and harvest the food!

All are welcome to visit the garden – we just ask that you not harvest any crops without asking a gardener first, as our members are growing food for their households. Surplus produce is donated weekly throughout the growing season to the Kemptville Food Bank, Beth Donovan Hospice and other community groups.

To learn more about the Kemptville Campus Community Garden, book a tour, or be added to the waiting list for a plot, please contact Samantha Lavitt, KCCG President at Samantha.lavitt@gmail.com.

Visit the Kemptville Campus Community Garden Facebook page to learn about upcoming events at the garden!

Agri-Food Business Course

In 2023, Kemptville Campus partnered with the Conseil des écoles catholique de centre-est (CECCE) and Académie catholique Notre-Dame (ACND) to offer a new high-school course in Agri-Food Business at Kemptville Campus. Students from multiple school boards participated, gaining a unique opportunity to visit and learn directly from local farm business owners through monthly field trips. They also studied online and in person, learning how food is grown, processed, and distributed in Eastern Ontario.

As a project, the students wanted to create a local food network comprising of products such as fruits and vegetables, meat, flowers, honey, soap, maple syrup, and more! They built a website that contains a network covering roughly a 100 km radius from the municipal center of Kemptville. Check it out here!

The course content is now available in English and French. If your school would like to offer the Agri-Food Business Course, please contact Leela Ramachandran, Program Manager for details.

Skilled Motive Power Trades Training - TR Leger

Since 2021, Kemptville Campus has partnered with the Upper Canada District School Board’s TR Leger School of Adult, Alternative and Continuing Education to offer apprenticeship training in the motive power trades. Programs train apprentices to become Truck and Coach Technicians (310T), Agricultural Equipment Technicians (425A) or Heavy Equipment Technicians (421A).

A range of training options are available at the TR Leger Apprenticeship Training Centre at Kemptville Campus, including:

• Registered apprentices can complete the in-class portion of their Level 1 Commercial Vehicle and Equipment Apprenticeship - and new in 2024, Level 2 CVEAP is also available!
• Hybrid course models allow apprentices to continue working while completing their training (theory is completed online in the students’ own time, while practical skills are covered in-class)
• “Try A Trade” for those who are not yet registered apprentices but are interested in power motive trades - this program combines the CVEAP in-class training with paid work placements in the Truck and Coach, Agricultural, and Heavy Equipment Technician fields.
• Micro-credentials allow students to select specific modules for upskilling, or complete all 7 modules and receive their Level 1 certification
• High school students can complete their Level 1 CVEAP through the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program
• Grade 7 and 8 classes can sign up for “Introduction to the Trades” 1-day, hands-on skilled trades workshops
• Many courses are offered at no charge to students

For more information on upcoming courses, contact the TR Leger Apprenticeship Training Centre at 613-258-8519, or visit their website.

School Workshops on Local Food Systems

Building on the AgriFood Business Course, Kemptville Campus has begun offering school workshops on Local Food Systems. These workshops can be a half or full day, and can be tailored to your group’s level (K-12) and particular interests. Workshops can include interactive learning activities, site visits of our gardens, greenhouse and sugar bush, and hands-on projects. They can be hosted on campus or delivered at your location.

Topics include:

• What is a Food System?
• Benefits/challenges of Local Food
• Exploring our local food system
• How can students engage with local food?
• Hands-on projects can include school gardens, composting, growing plants for sale, creating local food inventories, and more

To learn more or book a workshop, please contact Leela Ramachandran, Program Manager.

Incubator Kitchen Project

In 2023, Kemptville Campus conducted a feasibility study to explore the creation of an incubator kitchen. The facility would offer affordable, local kitchen rental space to launch and grow small food businesses. It would also offer specialized training and business supports, building a network of local food producers and processors who collaborate and learn together. Our vision is to support a vibrant local food system in Eastern Ontario, with thriving food businesses and retail opportunities, celebration and promotion of local food, and increased connections between growers, producers, processors and eaters.

Based on the results of the feasibility study, we are now fundraising to retrofit a kitchen on campus, while also researching and developing operating systems and programming for an incubator kitchen.

Forest School

Forest and Nature Schools are a growing movement across Canada and around the world. Operating from a common set of principles, Forest Schools connect children to their natural environments through outdoor play. Spending time in the same places throughout the seasons allows children to build a relationship with their local ecosystem. Forest Schools also engage children in self-directed play and inquiry-based learning, building their creativity, problem-solving, observation and teamwork skills.

With hundreds of acres of natural space including forest, wetlands, farm fields, trails, a working sugarbush and more, Kemptville Campus is the perfect setting for Forest and Nature School. We are fortunate to host several successful Forest School programs on campus already. École publique Rivière Rideau offers a Forest School program where each class spends half a day in nature per week. The North Grenville Learning Centre has integrated forest school principles and elements into programs at both of their campus locations (Centre éducatif Rivière Rideau for French programs, and the Leahurst building for English), and are continuously training staff to become Certified Forest School Practitioners. Feedback from educators, students and parents to these programs is consistently positive, with waiting lists for more families to participate.

Building on this foundation, Kemptville Campus is working to offer new forest school programs to the broader North Grenville community in 2025. Stay tuned!

Regional Agri-Food Events

Kemptville Campus is pleased to partner with community food and farming organizations to host regional events around food and farming, including:

Eco Farm Day, February 24 2024 – in partnership with Canadian Organic Growers and Community Futures Grenville, we welcomed nearly 200 participants to this longstanding event, held in person for the first time since the Covid pandemic, and at a new home at Kemptville Campus. Farmers and others working in the organic farming and food sector across Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec joined us for a full day of learning, networking and sharing with peers and experts in the sector. Participants and organizers were very pleased with the experience, and we look forward to hosting the event annually going forward.

Good Food in Schools, April 11 2024 – hosted in partnership with Foodcore Leeds Grenville Lanark, The Table Community Food Centre and the Leeds Grenville Lanark District Health Unit, this one-day event brought together stakeholders working on school food education and programs across Eastern Ontario. Educators and staff from five school boards were joined by parents, volunteers, and community food organizations to share their efforts to create healthy and positive school food environments. From the newly announced federal universal school meal program to school gardens, grow towers, greenhouses and cafes in our community, participants were engaged and inspired. In response to attendee feedback, we look forward to making this an annual event.