L’Aube Food Hub is a real team effort! Did you know that a total of seven farms are involved in the project? We’ll take you on the road to discover them, from Senneville to Montreal, and from the Eastern Townships and the Outaouais region.
Founding Farms
First Stop: Les jardins Carya
Les jardins Carya vegetable farm is renowned for its certified organic vegetables grown with passion on Montreal’s West Island.
- Location: in Senneville (land), in Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac (land) and in Kirkland (microgreens and fresh herbs greenhouse)
- Operational since: 2012
- Agricultural expertise: organic cultivation of young shoots, microgreens and tomatoes.
- Renown for: providing employment opportunities for graduates from the MacDonald campus of McGill University.
- Beneficiaries include: grocery stores, community organizations, CPEs and food banks
"To succeed in agriculture in the 21st century, we must work together, and with the participation of all levels of government, community and institutions."
Ramzy Kassouf, co-owner and co-founder of Les jardins Carya
The main spokesperson for Les jardins Carya is Ramzy Kassouf, co-owner and co-founder of the farm. He is pleased to have succeeded in developing the project with eight institutional clients in 2023, and says he is very satisfied with the operation and distribution processes, as well as the coordination with L’Aube.
“[Joining L’Aube] allows us to all come together, to have a specific place where producers bring their products, and be able to sort and deliver them to the various institutions in Montreal”, he points out.
Second Stop: Santropol Roulant
Santropol Roulant is a community and intergenerational food hub whose goal is to strengthen Montreal’s social fabric by bringing its community together through various programs, activities and services.
- Location: on the Island of Montreal, more specifically in Senneville, on the Morgan family farmland, and in Montreal, on the roof of its building in Plateau-Mont-Royal, in the Terrasses Roy and in the garden of the Cité-des-Hospitalières.
- Operational since: 1996. Its urban agriculture program dates back to 2002, while the organization obtained the right to use agricultural space in Senneville in 2012.
- Expertise: providing education on small-scale diversified market gardening.
- Renown for: its meals-on-wheels program in Montreal’s inner-city neighbourhoods, and three well-established areas of impact: food security, social inclusion and community involvement.
- Beneficiaries include: everyone, but its activities benefit two groups of people in particular: young Montrealers and Montrealers living with a loss of autonomy.
"When you think about it, farmers are like utility knives: we tend to do so many jobs! Delivery, growing food, coordinating product distribution, accounting, selling everything, going to farmers' markets, compiling CSA baskets... All of this, and it's a lot for one person. With the collective offer, it is taking some of those roles off our shoulders."
Katherine McDowell, manager of the Ferme du Roulant
The agriculture team includes Katherine McDowell, Magali Casaubon, Adrienne Richards, Noah Fisher and Simone Chen. Katherine McDowell, manager of the Ferme du Roulant, says she and her colleagues are excited about working with L’Aube: "The L’Aube team complements us with some many skills that we don’t have! So many resources, networks and connections – and we are really excited that, with those connections, we can upgrade our social impact."
A strength that certainly serves the community as well as Santropol Roulant itself. Because, as Katherine points out, where community institutions are stronger, food insecurity is significantly reduced.
In other words, there’s strength in numbers!
Third Stop: Regroupement Partage and its Cultiver l'Espoir program
Cultiver l’Espoir is a peri-urban organic agriculture program that aims to promote regional food autonomy as well as local purchasing and consumption. It was launched in 2015 by the Les jardins du Cap de D-Trois-Pierres farm. The latter ceased operations in December 2023; the Regroupement Partage has since picked up the torch.
- Location: on the Island of Montreal, in Senneville to be precise, on 25 hectares of land in the Bois-de-la-Roche agricultural park made available by the City of Montreal.
- Operational since: 2015
- Agricultural expertise: 5 varieties of long-life vegetables (beets, carrots, cabbage, potatoes and rutabagas) as well as summer vegetables such as lettuce, bok choy, kale, cucumber, peppers, tomatoes and garlic.
- Renown for: its mission, among other things, which is to provide organizations working in food security in Montreal with a sustainable supply of fresh, organic and ultra-local vegetables during the off-season in the winter.
- Beneficiaries include: more than 150,000 underprivileged people and, more generally, Quebec consumers – several varieties of vegetables are grown and redistributed free of charge to Montreal food banks, so that citizens experiencing food insecurity can have access to quality, organic, locally-grown vegetables.
“Recently, we've seen a wave of collaboration taking place more and more between different organizations and different institutions. That really helps."
Audrey Renaud, general manager of Regroupement Partage
Three key members of the team are Audrey Renaud, general manager of Regroupement Partage, Alexandre Godley, farm supervisor, and Chanel Perreault, coordinator of the Cultiver l’Espoir program.
Audrey is grateful for the contribution of L’Aube and Collectif Récolte, which, among other things, pave the way for farmers to have access to infrastructure and machinery, and, above all, to what she describes as a fantastic collaboration between farmers in the region. "This makes it much easier and more efficient to reach the local market and the population, which ultimately gives back to the community", she emphasizes.
Partner Farms
Fourth Stop: Les Siffleux farm
- Location: Frelighsburg, southeast of Montreal
- Operational since: 2021
- Agricultural expertise: nearly forty certified organic vegetables
- Renown for: its NPO Les Cocagnes, an innovative agroecological collective farm that hosts several agricultural projects and showcases products through agrotourism, and its involvement in two urban agriculture and social greening projects in Montreal: Notre Quartier Nourricier, in Centre-Sud, and the Circuit Jardins de Sentier Urbain, in Côte-des-Neiges.
- Beneficiaries include: more than a hundred families who buy weekly baskets of vegetables from June to October through the Réseau des fermières et fermiers de famille; certain chefs and restaurateurs; and all the curious, residents, passers-by and gourmets who discover their products thanks to Les Cocagnes.
Fifth Stop: Aux Pleines Saveurs farm
- Location: St-André-Avellin, in the Outaouais region
- Operational since: 2002
- Agricultural expertise: more than thirty fruits, vegetables and herbs, from garlic to cantaloupe, as well as certain types of root vegetables such as lettuces, onions and peppers. The many fruits and vegetables produced on the farm are distributed fresh or as products cooked directly on site.
- Renown for: its use of organic farming methods and desire to maintain biodiversity throughout the farm and respect natural cycles.
- Beneficiaries include: the Marché de l’Outaouais, in autumn baskets, at the farm store, in many health food stores and even in a few restaurants in the Outaouais region and Ottawa!
Sixth Stop: Aux Colibris farm
- Location: Ripon, in the Outaouais region
- Operational since: 2022
- Agricultural expertise: A variety of vegetables (spinach, fennel, peppers, etc.) and root vegetables, herbs and even... chicken!
- Renown for: its product offering through local marketing. In this way, it promotes the importance of agriculture, but also the appreciation of agricultural know-how through proximity to consumers. The Colibris believe that by developing a sense of belonging to the food we eat, to the land where it is produced and to the people who work hard to grow it, we can hope to create a healthy food system.
- Beneficiaries include: members of the surrounding community who take advantage of their subscription to one of the following baskets: the farm stand in Ripon, the Marché de l’Outaouais, or the Racines Rurales in Gatineau; as well as subscribers to the The Colibris baskets in the Montreal area, in partnership with Les jardins Carya.
Seventh and Final Stop: La tête dans les pommes Orchard
- Location: Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, in the Laurentians
- Operational since: 2014
- Agricultural expertise: more than 30 varieties of apples, as well as pears, plums, raspberries, grapes and garlic – all certified organic.
- Renown for: their desire to introduce new apple varieties to their customers, and by their predominantly local supply chain marketing.
- Beneficiaries include: local customers, who buy their products at the farm, at farmers’ markets, in small local grocery stores, or by subscribing to organic baskets.
We’d like to thank all the farms for their amazing work, which makes a difference every day and strengthens our food systems.
L’Aube Food Hub is a project of the Local and Integrated Food System in Montreal (SALIM) program, a multi-partner program led by Collectif Récolte, with funding from Montreal in common. Montreal in common is a project piloted by the City of Montreal as part of the Smart Cities Challenge, made possible with the financial support of the Government of Canada.
