Northern Growing Abilities has set up shop in their new base, moving on to the next steps in their plan to bring a hydroponic veggie garden and employment to Creighton.
The project, through which organizers are hoping to both grow local hydroponic produce and to create jobs for people with intellectual differences, is moving ahead slowly through the pandemic.
“The goal is still the same. The main goal is to employ our neurodiverse community members - people with autism, Down syndrome, like the vocational centre,” said Amber Beaton, board chair for Northern Growing Abilities.
“That’s always been our goal, to create a sustainable business for these people to work at.”
The biggest jump forward is having a new home base - the Northern Fellowship Chapel building at First Street West in Creighton. The building needs some work for the project to move along, but having a roof and four walls is a big step forward for the group.
“We’ve been getting estimates on the renovations and seeing how much that’s going to be. We’ve been doing two fundraisers and we just started a new one again today,” said Beaton.
“We’re just kind of trundling along, trying to get some work done and get the funds raised so that we can build our greenhouse. We’ve been making pretty good progress the past few months.”
With a building in hand, the group is now looking at renovating the space. While money is being raised, organizers want to firm up exactly what they’ll need inside, including equipment and supply.
“That was a huge step. We’re so excited - got a sign put up and everything. That is our home,” Beaton said.
“The building is older, so there will be quite a few renovations that need to happen - you have to put in the kitchen, things like that.”
Options include building modular units for the greenhouse, freestanding growing areas or other plans entirely.
“We’ll be meeting up pretty soon for some strategic planning, so we can really get the ball rolling on rentals and getting the greenhouse up. We’ve still got a few options for what we can do with the greenhouse,” Beaton said.
Various draws and fundraisers have been the group’s most constant fundraisers recently, along with lip sync battle events at the Creighton Community Centre. Those battles, much like most public events, were put on hold during the pandemic, but Beaton and the board are hoping to return to them soon.
“We’re going to be doing more draws in the future, more raffles. When we can open up more with COVID-19 restrictions, we can do our lip sync battle again - that was a lot of fun and was a really good fundraiser too,” Beaton said.
Along with fundraisers, the board is pursuing grant funding to help cover expenses and new equipment.
“I love this cause - we’ve been working on this for a few years now and I’ve been on this since the beginning, so I’ll keep with it,” said Beaton.
