Almost a year after their greenhouse project started running, Yale First Nation said they’ve seen members form a stronger sense of community connection through addressing food insecurity.
“The main goal is for this project to help with food security in the Nation,” said Sarah Bélair-Bergman, the food sovereignty program director for Yale. “And then to make sure that it can be a really self-sustaining project in the next however many years, and to keep empowering members to come get involved.”
Up and running since May 2024, the Yale First Nation Greenhouse was created to combat food insecurity for their members and to help foster a stronger sense of community spirit. This is their first community greenhouse and the experience so far, according to Bélair-Bergman, has been a positive one for Yale. Their first year of harvests yielded an impressive 1,300 lbs. of vegetables that was shared with band members and the Fraser-Cascade School District. The district, where many Yale youth attend school, used the vegetables for their food program.
The project has also succeeded in helping to strengthen relationships between community members who live apart from each other, and to help foster stronger cultural connections.
Yale’s territory begins in the Fraser Valley and runs along the Fraser River to the beginning of the Fraser Canyon. It starts 18 kilometres from downtown Agassiz, and occurs sporadically along the highway to Yale, 33 kilometres away.
The community has 16 parcels of reserve land, “four of which are distinct and separate residential communities which are currently occupied by 59 of the total 176 registered community members.”
According to Janita Peters, who is part of Yale council, food insecurity affects over 70 per cent of band members both on and off reserve. To enhance food security and community spirit within their nation, Yale began developing their first greenhouse three years ago with a goal of providing band members with “the opportunity to cultivate their own seedlings.”
These seedlings, according to Bélair-Bergman, can then be planted in their community gardens located in Stullawheets and Lukseetsissum.
Development for the project began after Yale planted those two community gardens. The goal was to introduce band members to gardening and getting their own planter boxes to start their own mini-gardens. This led to conversations and interest around food preservation and combating food insecurity within the community.
From these conversations came the idea of creating a greenhouse for all Yale members to use and taking the vegetables grown there and, through their social work department, bringing them to community buildings for members to pick up.
The project is both community focused and driven. Plans for the greenhouse were created after consultation with Yale elders and band members. This included having Janice Hope working as a greenhouse worker, and Elder Cathy Hope as the Elder in residence for a food workshop. Cathy is in charge of passing on knowledge about food preservation, which she does through workshops for the community. Perry Hope, another band member, also helps out at the greenhouse.
“The vegetables in the store are too expensive, especially when you’re on a limited income,” Cathy said. “You can only buy so much. So, the greenhouse has been helping. It’s there for us.”
Consultation with the community also guided the program on what vegetables to grow. Bélair-Bergman and Janice said that the community’s preference, so far, is to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, root vegetables, stinging nettle, lettuce, and a variety of herbs in the greenhouse. This produce is either picked by band members, or picked by the greenhouse members who put them into bags for members to pick up.
Aside from improving food security, the greenhouse has helped to lessen any shame people may feel around needing extra help to keep their pantries and fridges stocked. Members of the food program said that they have seen the community start to drop their own vegetables in the community pantry and feel more comfortable around taking food.
They’ve also seen members seeking out knowledge, especially knowledge on Yale cultural practices, around food preservation and medicinal and cooking recipes.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Janice said. “I think every community and reserve should start this. And its coming at such an important time, with food insecurity being an issue right now.”
Additionally, the project has led to other Indigenous communities considering the idea of building greenhouses for their own people. In fact, Bélair-Bergman said she’s been approached by other First Nation communities who’ve asked her questions on how Yale set up their greenhouse and how its been helping their band members.
Meanwhile, Peters said she hopes that Yale’s youth takes inspiration from the greenhouse and see it as something for them to continue fostering and developing as they get older. She hopes that they can feel a sense of cultural and community pride in knowing that something like this exists within their Nation.
“I really want to hone in on our youth, because they’re the next ones that are going to be coming up. And we need them to be involved, as much as they can, in our community,” Peters said.
Seeing the different communities within Yale First Nation connect has been a highlight of the program.
“It’s just really beautiful. And I also get emotional when I think about it because we continue to grow,” she said. “And I think it’s going to definitely take us places if we’re always united, and if we come together, because we can definitely make changes.”
The project’s next step is to make the building more sustainable and energy efficient. To do this, Bélair-Bergman said they want to install solar panels, switch their heating to electrical and install heat pumps. Long-term goals for the project is ensuring that it continues to help the Nation with food security through food workshops, a larger variety of vegetables being grown and continuing to empower band members.
Bélair-Bergman also said they will eventually need more volunteers as the greenhouse continues to grow. For the moment, the program is only seeking volunteers from the community but this may change to include other communities, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, depending on how large and long-lasting the greenhouse project becomes.
To learn more about Yale’s food sovereignty program and greenhouse, readers can visit yalefirstnation.ca/about-5-2. Readers can also check out the nation’s Instagram page about their greenhouse and food security program at @yalefoodsovereignty.
