Acadia University is one of the first three recipients of funding from the Nova Scotia Lighthouse Project, receiving $320,643 to create a self-sustaining farm-to-school initiative with Northeast Kings Education Centre (NKEC) in Canning.

Grow & Go: Cultivating Health in the Annapolis Valley takes a new approach to adding healthy food and nutrition education into the school curriculum, and it will be big. Students and staff will be building a 42-foot, year-round geodesic greenhouse at the school and a 1,600 sq. ft. storage facility designed to power farm-to-school learning and provide consistent access to fresh, local food.

As well as learning about local sustainable agriculture, NKEC students will have access to mental health supports related to physical activity, healthy eating, and childhood obesity.

“Grow & Go tackles the root causes of childhood obesity, without ever naming it directly. Instead, we focus on upstream, systemic solutions: nourishing food, joyful daily movement, and embedded mental wellness programming that transforms school into a hub of health and resilience,” Professor Tavis Bragg says.

Bragg is Adjunct Professor in the Jodrey School of Computer Science, and a Sociology and Sustainability teacher at Northeast Kings Education Centre, where he serves as the project’s lead proponent.

Digging in from many disciplines

Acadia students from multiple departments, including Community Development, Biology, Psychology, Sociology, Environmental & Sustainability Studies, and Computer Science will be part of the Go & Grow initiative.

“This interdisciplinary approach is core to both the initiative’s impact and its research rigour. Over the full term of the project, more than a dozen students will likely have direct roles in research, curriculum development, farm operations, or community engagement,” Bragg says. Co-op opportunities within Northeast Kings will give high school students real-world experience in food systems education, applied research, and health-focused community engagement as well.

“It’s hands-on, scalable, and designed to shift the way students, and communities, think about health, food, and our future,” he adds.

The project also includes:

• Cooking workshops, farm-based movement programs, and mental health interventions led by Dr. Nathan Corbett (MD, MSc, BSc(Hons), FRCPC, LMCC), a community psychiatrist and an assistant professor at Dalhousie University, and Amy Garland (M.Ed., RCT-C, CCPA), a registered counselling therapist based at NKEC.
• Integration of food security and sustainability content into the curriculum at NKEC.
• Through Acadia University, a longitudinal study to examine student wellness over time, drawing on proven frameworks and powered by AI-informed analysis under Professor Bragg’s leadership, with active contributions from Acadia students.

Grow & Go: Cultivating Health in the Annapolis Valley is a community-powered initiative led by Acadia University in partnership with Northeast Kings Education Centre (NKEC), the Annapolis Valley Regional Centre for Education (AVRCE), and a network of supportive organizations (FarmWorks, Valley Community Learning Association, Clean Annapolis River Project, Jijuktu’kwejk Watershed Alliance).

The Nova Scotia Lighthouse Project is a new partnership between the Province of Nova Scotia and Novo Nordisk Canada Inc. aimed at addressing barriers and challenges to a healthy population, including areas such as childhood obesity, food insecurity, and declining physical activity in young people. There were 97 applicants in this initial funding round, and Acadia is one of only three to receive funding.

Get the Acadia Experience with Professor Bragg

Take COMP 2903, Computers & Society, with Professor Tavis Bragg in fall 2025.