Durham College’s Whitby campus receives $900,000 investment from Weston Foundation for compost facility

Durham College will receive almost a million dollars from the Weston Family Foundation to build a Centre for Organic Regeneration facility at it’s Whitby Campus Centre for Food to, “complete the field-to-fork (and now back-to-field) loop.”

The new facility will process food waste into compost for the fields surrounding the Whitby campus where the college grows crops.

Durham College says this new system will reduce food waste on campus by 90 per cent and will serve to teach students in applicable fields about sustainable farming.

Durham College president Don Lovisa said, “Sustainability in urban farming has always guided the development of the Weston Centre. The new organic regeneration facility is one more way we can continue to lead the way in best practices for food and farming.”

The Weston Family Foundation has long supported the Centre for Food, which was founded in 2013. Over 900 students can attend the centre in any given semester to study culinary arts, hospitality, tourism, horticulture and agriculture.

The Whitby campus also features Bistro ’67, a fully functional restaurant where students gain on the job experience preparing a serving meals from food grown on campus. Bistro ’67 is open Thursday to Saturday from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

“We are pleased to help bring this world-class facility to life at Durham College,” said Emma Adamo, chair of the Weston Family Foundation. “We hope the Centre for Organic Regeneration will not only significantly reduce food waste on campus, but also provide a model for other like-minded institutions to emulate moving forward.”

The Weston Family Foundation is a charitable organization founded in the 1950’s by W. Garfield Weston. Weston was the son baker George Weston, who operated the largest bread factory in the country.

The business would continue to expand under W. Garfield Weston and now operates over 200 businesses including Loblaws, the largest grocery chain in Canada. Members of the family live in Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

The Sunday Times ranked the family among the most charitable, with donation exceeding $2.7 billion, converted from British Pounds, over a 20 year period.

Their donations have contributed to vertical and hydroponic facilities, expanded greenhouses, scholarships and bursaries for students.

Lovisa concluded, “We are extremely grateful to the Weston Family Foundation for their support of the work we do each and every day to drive positive change and innovation in food and farming education.”