The Webster Learning Activity Center’s vegetable garden and roof terrace project is an initiative of Lower Canada College (LCC) which expands the school’s academic mission. This participatory project aims to raise students’ awareness of issues related to urban agriculture and food supply. It will also allow them to have an active role in a sustainable lifestyle.

The school also anticipates that the benefit of these developments could go beyond the utilitarian aspect of supplying their cafeteria to benefit the broader LCC community. The vegetable garden and its production would thus become a driving force for potential projects. For example, the organization of extra-curricular and/or public workshops would increase the visibility/democratization of urban agriculture. Another anticipated program would be to open the vegetable garden’s production for financing activities. The more general objective would thus be to establish a better relationship between the school and its neighborhood. This would help LCC to develop the public presence of the school and its initiatives in urban agriculture.

Indeed, LCC has already mandated the company Micro-Habitat (https://microhabitat.ca/fr/) to install several “growbags” on the roof in 2023 and has initiated urban agricultural production in preparation for more extensive initiatives on the roof. This experience notably made it possible to better plan the current project and demonstrated the school’s commitment in this sector. In addition to the urban vegetable garden, LCC plans to relocate its current beekeeping activities to the roof of the building to complement the urban agriculture program. This synergy and the convergence of these initiatives clearly crystallize the importance of this project for LCC. The project thus acts as a vector for commitment to environmental awareness of the establishment. These efforts are well demonstrated in the presentation of the project that the school is preparing for the attention of its community: https://www.lcc.ca/support-lcc/annual-giving/rock-your-house-giving- challenge

Planting and plant bags: Microhabitat

Structural engineer: D.L. Turner consultants inc.

Construction: 2024