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What is this project about?
SEEd was founded in 2018 by the Karma Project, with the support of a diverse multi-sectoral Advisory Board from across our region, including partners from the Simcoe County District School Board, Georgian College, Lakehead University, Student Nutrition Ontario, the County of Simcoe and the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit. Each of these partners continues to influence and support our work today!
SEED stands for Social Enterprise Education, and it offers local at-risk youth the opportunity to explore the mission and work of social enterprise through a multi-week experiential education program. Using the lens of food security, we engage youth across the seed-to-plate journey in gardens, kitchens, and markets. In the spring and fall, we work with the local alternative high schools, where youth receive credit for their participation in SEED; in the summer months, we host community cohorts, through which youth are paid minimum wage for the hours they spend in our training programs. All of the revenue generated by the social enterprises led by our youth staff and participants is reinvested into our co-op and supports our ability to continue our work. These social enterprises include student nutrition, affordable markets, a brand new food truck, and other education programs.
Why is this project important to the community?
Our main work space is in Port McNicoll, which is a rural food desert, without a grocery store, school, municipal office, or health care facility (which are all a minimum of 10km away). We chose to open a food shop and community garden here in 2014, in order to start to support the community's food security and access to social inclusion, so the location of our project is intentionally situated in a place where the populations who are experiencing barriers (low income, food insecurity, discrimination, geographical disparity) can more easily access our offerings. We also serve 19 local schools with student nutrition items made and packed by our youth team, delivering to them each week. Similarly, we host Affordable Markets in seniors residences and low income housing co-ops to meet our clients where they are at, as best we can. Finally, while the SEED youth do all the amazing work listed above to support vulnerable populations, they too are marginalized community members, living with multiples barriers to social and physical wellness, so the SEED program itself is a key means of engaging the underserved in our region.
Target Completion Date
November 30, 2026
Location
543 Calvert St BOX 639
Port McNicoll
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