{"id":699130,"date":"2026-05-28T10:20:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T10:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/699130\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T10:20:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T10:20:18","slug":"iqaluit-greenhouse-is-open-and-seeking-volunteers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/699130\/","title":{"rendered":"Iqaluit greenhouse is open and seeking volunteers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Iqaluit Community Greenhouse Society is gearing up for another growing season.<\/p>\n

The society held a grand opening for its greenhouse on Saturday, when about two dozen kids, parents and volunteers showed up to prepare soil. This year, the greenhouse will concentrate on growing edible plants to distribute to Iqalummiut.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really focusing on making sure that the community has ample access to fresh vegetables for free,\u201d society president Stephen Branston said in an interview. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing a sharp uptick in the cost of living, so any amount of food that we can provide goes a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being a non-profit with limited resources, the greenhouse relies on volunteers. The first adult volunteer gathering of the year is Wednesday evening at the greenhouse, located behind the Nunavut Research Institute on Nunavut Drive.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We\u2019re] providing a unique opportunity to the community, the experience of growing these plants,\u201d Branston said. \u201cWe have people who don\u2019t even eat the food that they\u2019re growing. They just want to help the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nubiya Enuaraq is an Iqaluit mother who has involved her daughter, Sianna, in the greenhouse youth program for six years. After seeing the work that the society does, Enuaraq attended the annual general meeting and joined the board of directors in April, after which she took on a communications role.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing how much my daughter enjoyed the youth program at the greenhouse, I wanted to bring that sense of joy and belonging to the community,\u201d Enuaraq said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Branston is a Grade 5 teacher at Nakasuk School, where he also runs the eco club. Sianna found herself in Branston\u2019s class this year and happily joined the eco club and greenhouse youth program again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t need any convincing to join the board,\u201d Enuaraq said. \u201cI presented [at the AGM] with my daughter. It was very important for me to bring her because she\u2019s so active, she\u2019s pretty much part of the board too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enthusiasm from community members is vital to the greenhouse society\u2019s growth, Branston said. And as a teacher, he knows that the best time to get people excited and involved with any program is to reach them when they are young.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been growing beans with the eco club at Nakasuk [elementary school],\u201d Branston said Monday, while repairing a pump for the greenhouse\u2019s hydroponics system. \u201cThe enthusiasm from the kids is brought right over here. I\u2019ve got so many regulars from previous school years who are coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Iqaluit Community Greenhouse Society adult volunteer nights run from 6 to 7 p.m. every Wednesday during the growing season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Iqaluit Community Greenhouse Society is gearing up for another growing season. The society held a grand opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-699130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}