October’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Lucia Eyzaguirre and the Parkdale Food Centre to support the Growing Futures program, which uses hydroponic growing systems to teach primary school children about food and financial literacy, as well as to give them a taste of entrepreneurship.

“Growing Futures' goal,” explains Lucia, “is to foster a more physically and financially resilient next generation, leaving food insecurity in the past.” The program now has more than 40 hydroponic systems in schools, community centres, and community houses — each partnered with a local business owner.

The award from Awesome Ottawa will be spent on a new blender bike. “This past summer,” Lucia continues, “one of our volunteers rigged up a blender bike so we could make use of frozen greens the kids had grown and couldn't sell. We created green smoothies and sold them at the NCC Sunday Bike Days. Our bike is falling apart, so we would love to get a new one and keep having wonderful conversations with the people that buy our green smoothies, spreading awareness of what Growing Futures does and the kind of impact we have had and hope to have.”

Lucia is a recent graduate of the Entrepreneurship Acceleration program at Algonquin College, and the administrative assistant for Growing Futures.