The Farm at RRU

RRU has reimagined a former 5.26 acre walled Edwardian kitchen garden into the Farm at RRU, which serves as an important gathering place for diverse community members. Free workshops and community events, courses and research projects, and volunteer opportunities create a strong foundation for learning that drives food security in the region.

Thanks to donor support, we’ve expanded the Giving Garden, established a Market Garden and an Indigenous Medicine Garden, and we’re working to restore and grow the Polyculture Orchard. By 2025, the Farm at RRU is expected to harvest as much as 15,000 lbs of fresh produce each season to provide to local food banks, community fridges, RRU students, and community-serving partners.

Not bad for a garden that was once a lawn!

But, as our food supply grows threefold, there is an urgent need to grow the Farm’s infrastructure. We need continued support to optimize the Farm’s capacity to harvest and distribute larger volumes of produce, while enhancing on-site learning, teaching, research and community engagement opportunities.

Rooted in regenerative and Indigenous practices, RRU will cultivate sustainable food and medicine that grows both community well-being and a shared harvest, reducing food insecurity and fostering community connections and learning opportunities.

Many hands have contributed to the growth of the Farm at RRU. You can meet a few of these supporters and learn more about the project on our Farm at RRU webpage.

The Farm at RRU is supported by TD Bank Group.

Concept map of the Farm at RRU

Gardens as teachers

RRU Master's student develops campus farm for produce, community and learning.
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A powerful space: Indigenous Medicine Garden grows more than food

The newly planted Indigenous Medicine Garden at the Farm at RRU will serve as classroom, teacher and cultural connection.
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Celebrating a successful year of growth at the Farm at RRU

It’s been a BIG year at the Farm at RRU! What was once a fallow, underused lawn is being transformed into a 5.26-acre edible and medicinal greenspace.
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Feeding the future: RRU researchers explore uncertainty in food supply

The Farm at RRU helps address food insecurity in our region. SSHRC-funded research pairs Royal Roads researchers with Revelstoke community group to examine food systems in the future.
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Indigenous Medicine Garden takes root

Our recently established Indigenous Medicine Garden is now home to dozens of native plants, thanks to the guidance of Indigenous Elders, ethnobotanists, staff, volunteers and donors.
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Growing a community: The Farm at RRU celebrates successful harvest

The Farm at RRU held a fall harvest event to celebrate a tripled crop yield for produce donations to community partners.
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Growing resilience and cultural exchange

Community collards workshop a recipe for success.
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The Farm at Royal Roads blooms bigger with TD Bank Group support

The sunshine – and a generous gift from TD Bank Group – is growing the Farm at Royal Roads University (RRU). Today, TD announced a $196,000 donation to RRU’s annual grounds and gardens fundraising…
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Plant starts next to a yellow watering can.

Local food leaves little carbon footprint

Solara Goldwynn, food systems manager for Royal Roads University's Giving Garden, speaks on Conversations Live with Stuart McNish about the university's local solution to address food insecurity. In…
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Smiling woman standing next to fridge holding a plastic bin of rapini

Growing kindness: RRU’s community fridge

It’s been a year since the start of the Royal Roads University Giving Garden. Now there’s a new addition: the RRU community fridge. The initiative is a partnership between the Giving Garden and Student…
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woman standing in garden near a row of kale plants

From no-dig to pollinator plants, try this at home

Solara Goldwynn, Royal Roads University’s food systems manager took staff on a tour of the Giving Garden as part of the university’s celebrations for Earth Week hosted by the Climate and Sustainability…
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1,000 pounds and growing: RRU Garden helps feed community

Royal Roads University’s Giving Garden, part of A Vision in Bloom, is helping fight food insecurity on Vancouver Island
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Royal Roads’ kitchen garden is producing

Right now we are giving the community 120 pounds of organic produce a week, grown right here on campus in our Giving Garden, funded by your donations to A Vision in Bloom.
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100 years of history and the heritage fruit trees of Royal Roads

When is a banana not a banana? When it’s a Winter Banana! (Which is a type of apple and one of RRU’s heritage fruit trees.)
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Buzzing bees will boost Royal Roads’ vision for a productive kitchen garden

Century-old kitchen garden at RRU will produce fruit, veggies for campus and community as part of Vision in Bloom renewal
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President Steenkamp: Good things are growing at RRU

We're reimagining what was once the Dunsmuirs’ kitchen garden into a community food-production hub. Watch the first plot being built in just two days.
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Growing and giving: Royal Roads’ kitchen garden to produce food

RRU’s kitchen garden is the lynchpin of Vision in Bloom, a campaign to restore the university’s historic gardens and grounds.
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Bees from the Royal Roads apiary

Bees produce a buzz in Royal Roads gardens

Bee health is critically important to global health: bees are the most important pollinator of fruits, vegetables, and flowers, and more than a third of the world’s crop production depends on bees for pollination. The world needs more bees, and your gift will help us expand our apiary to enhance food security in our community and grow our living laboratory for students, educators and researchers.
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