The North Grove: A Glimpse into a Grantee

As a community hub based in Dartmouth, the North Grove offers a wide variety of programming, all of which is centered around family, food, and friendship. These three pillars build a foundation that focuses on programs that increase food access, strengthen families and  build connection and belonging.

Catherine Morley, the Volunteer and Social Enterprise Manager at The North Grove, sat down to chat about the organization’s new social enterprise, Primrose Preserves, and the impact it’s had on the community.

“We’ve been running [Primrose Preserves] for about the past 10 years. A few months after the food centre opened, we ran our first Primrose Preserves program. And that involved harvesting crab apples from right outside of our doors here. And we invited community and some staff to help create crab apple jelly.”

While the preserves were initially shared with volunteers and staff, things snowballed quickly.

“[It’s gotten] to a point where we feel that we can, transform it into a new social enterprise, which we have a lot of hopes and dreams for.”

After more than 10 years of creating preserves, The North Grove began to think about what this social enterprise could really entail. With support from a long-time donor, The North Grove decided to apply for the Innovation and Learning Grant.

“We saw this as a platform to start getting the cogs turning…After seeing the popularity of this community program and how much of a benefit it was bringing to community members, from joy to pride in the product they’re helping to produce. It just gave us some really positive signals that this could really be transformed into something new.”

When the program first began, production amounts were kept to low, sustainable goals. Part of the reason for keeping operations at more of a small batch level was due to staff capacity.

“We’ve been doing the best we can to run this as a monthly preserve-, making opportunity for community and rolling that out has been very smooth.”

At this time last year, the team at The North Grove was in the process of filling a new role, one focused on supporting the volunteer program and of course, Primrose Preserves.

“[Increasing staff capacity] wouldn’t be possible without this grant…Ideally the vision for this would be to involve every part of our community and for all of them to feel their impact. For each group in our community, no matter their age, no matter their background, [we want them] to have a part in supporting The North Grove and our programs and making that possible”.

A year later, Catherine says Primrose Preserves has had a big year, with youth volunteer leaders playing a significant role in the growing social enterprise. They’ve led regular sales of the preserves at Alderney Market, prototyped and tested a new product, shared Primrose Preserves at events with Halifax Harbour Bridges and the Halifax Chamber of Commerce and more.

“At the North Grove, we believe that everybody has the right to access nourishing, affordable, and culturally relevant food in an environment that provides a dignified and joyful experience. We’re trying to provide that experience while building a thriving community.”

We’re grateful to be able to help play a role in supporting this essential work. Thank you, North Grove, for everything that you do!