The Farm at RRU

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

Thanks to donor support, the Farm at RRU’s Giving Garden that was planted last year provided more than 1,000 pounds of fresh vegetables to food-insecure seniors, single parents and newcomers to Canada. With continued donor support, the size of our crop – and the people helped – will increase and the Farm at RRU will expand to include:

  • a larger Giving Garden and new Market Garden
  • an Indigenous Medicine Garden
  • and a restored and expanded polyculture orchard.

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.

The Farm at RRU is supported by TD Bank Group.

Growing resilience and cultural exchange

Community collards workshop a recipe for success.

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…
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…
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…
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…

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

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.

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.)

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

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.

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.
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.