How year-round hydroponics is improving food access in Leaf Rapids
In Leaf Rapids, a small northern Manitoba community of about 300 people, a local education centre is now growing 60 heads of fresh leafy greens every week year-round using indoor hydroponic growing systems, helping address ongoing food security challenges in a remote region where fresh produce can be difficult to access.
The initiative, known as Grow North, is delivered through the Leaf Rapids Education Centre and supported by the Frontier School Division. It combines indoor hydroponic growing with outdoor horticulture and traditional land-based learning, including hunting, fishing, and trapping, creating a hands-on food systems program for students and the wider community.
Food Security Challenges in Northern Manitoba
Leaf Rapids is part of a broader northern Manitoba region where many Indigenous and northern communities face ongoing food access challenges shaped by geography and long supply chains.
“For this community that I’m living in, at this point, even our only grocery store is not selling fresh vegetables anymore,” explains Rick Barentsen, Grow North’s northern gardening coordinator. “Pretty much everything has to come from the closest town 200 kilometers away.”
Over time, these challenges have reinforced the importance of developing local food production capacity.
“After COVID, there was already an interruption in transportation for food coming out of the States,” he says. “We get more and more awareness that we have to grow our own food.”
Producing Fresh Food Year-Round
To help address these challenges, the program operates a multi-unit indoor hydroponic growing system known as the Terrace Pro Community Harvest System, which produces fresh lettuce and leafy greens throughout the year regardless of season or weather conditions.
Today, the team distributes 60 to 70 heads of green vegetables every week through community giveaways.
“People are really waiting for it,” says Rick. “We post it on social media and on the bulletin boards. Usually we say we’ll be there for two hours, but most of the time in an hour everything is gone.”
Clean, Ready-to-Eat Harvests
One of the most noticeable benefits of indoor growing is the quality and cleanliness of the produce.
“When we harvest, we wrap it up and they can go home and eat it right away. There’s no work to be done on it.”
Unlike produce grown outdoors, which often requires washing and cleaning, the indoor system produces lettuce that is ready for immediate use.
Simple, Low-Maintenance Operation
The Grow North team has experience with a range of growing methods, including outdoor gardens, greenhouses, grow towers, and other indoor systems. That experience has highlighted how much simpler the current system is to manage.
“There are less errors, it’s just easier. And you can grow a large amount in it. Everything is so much easier to do with those big units,” he says of the Terrace Pro units.
Despite producing significant weekly output, the system requires very little time to maintain.
“If you give it twice in a week, half-hour attention, that should be enough to monitor it,” he explains.
This simplicity is especially important in school and community settings where staff time is limited and programs often rely on volunteers.
A Model for Northern Food Security
As northern communities continue to explore practical solutions to food insecurity, indoor hydroponic growing is emerging as a powerful complement to outdoor agriculture and traditional food harvesting practices.
By producing fresh food locally, reducing dependence on long and uncertain supply chains, and creating hands-on learning opportunities for students, the program demonstrates what is possible when communities invest in local food systems.
For the residents of Leaf Rapids, the impact is already clear: fresh lettuce every week, grown locally, and shared quickly throughout the community.
To learn more about the Terrace Pro Community Harvest System used in Leaf Rapids and how multi-unit indoor growing systems can support schools, community programs, and food security initiatives in northern and remote communities, visit our Communities page here.
For project inquiries or to discuss a potential setup for your school or community, connect with our team at hello@lesverts.com or 604-300-1267.
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