Celebrating the Urban Food Harvest with Telus

At the beginning of June, Telus held an official launch event to celebrate its first ever attempt at curating and growing a food garden on the 5th floor terrace of its downtown Toronto office tower.  A converted ornamental garden would produce food crops and then at harvest time they would be sold to Telus employees with all proceeds going to support local charities.

I attended the original launch event and prepared both a written recap as well as a video to cover the event.  When leaving the press conference I suggested to Telus’ Chief Sustainability Officer, Andrea Goertz how it might be a fun idea to host a Harvest Dinner to celebrate the results of their initial attempt.  She immediately thought it was a good idea, but heard nothing more.

The Telus Harvest Dinner Table

Move forward to late August and an email arrives from Telus inviting me to just such an event.  The bonus of it all was that they (unknowingly) held it on my birthday, so my wife and I graciously accepted the opportunity to return once again – but this time with the intent of enjoying the fruits of their labour, while celebrating my ascension into the mid-40’s at the same time.

In addition to being able to sample some of what had been cultivated, grown and harvested on a rooftop in downtown Toronto, a bonus element was the fact that the meal was being prepared by celebrity chef Massimo Capra.  Chef Capra did not disappoint as he artfully blended many of the unique heirloom vegetables into both the main entree and the antipasto that was served prior to the meal.

Prior to the meal some formal proceedings took place, which included the handing out of two cheques, each for $600 to 2 local charities who were chosen as the beneficiaries from the proceeds of sale during the in house farmer’s markets.  The two charities, Green Thumbs Growing Kids and Seeds for Change were both on hand to accept and were grateful for the donation.

Celebrity chef Massimo Capra prepares the main course

Towards the end of the evening the natural discussion lead towards next season and what plans Telus has in store to move ahead following a successful initial trial.  While no firm plans have been established, the likelihood seems strong that a much larger growing area, located one floor below will be fully utilized, thus multiplying the harvesting potential by several times.  It is also hoped that Telus will replicate the success found in Toronto as they currently develop new office complexes in both downtown Calgary and Vancouver.

Suffice to say that the proverbial seeds have been planted on an initiative that sprouts positive results in many ways.  I was pleased to have been a part of the effort through the initial sharing of information and the celebrating of the harvest.  It would give me great pleasure to see this opportunity grow not only through Telus but to other companies and organizations as well.  I was told that the initial video I prepared was seen by a prestigious business club in Toronto with a rooftop garden and they have decided to replicate the Telus initiative on their own.  I found this news to be very exciting and if given the opportunity to visit and share the story of their initiative as well as others, readers can be assured that those stories will be told on the pages of Envirodad.com just as this one was.

After all, when a good seed is planted, it only makes sense to help it grow and spread far beyond it’s initial reach.

Eric Novak

About Eric Novak

Eric Novak is a father of 4 who also thinks that environmental stewardship is a requisite of parenting. He's not a professional Dad nor is he an environmental scientist, but he's someone who gives a damn and is trying to make the right decisions as he lives his life as a father, environmentalist, part time professor and business owner. Eric has 4 children and resides in Ajax, Ontario.