New Roots

The New Roots project provides New Canadians with supports, training, mentorship, and connections to farmers—and connections to access land. New Roots looks to assist newcomers—many of whom have strong agrarian backgrounds— to move toward regional farm livelihoods, both self-employment and supporting existing farms as farm labour.

- Farmer Training supports New Canadians in multiple languages, including courses in Arabic and French in 2026, with Mandarin to come.
- New Roots Farm Match Program for new farmers to be connected with established farmers in the region. More information below.
  - - - Just Food will support matching New Canadians who have farming skills and/or farming dreams with existing regional farmers who are producing the crops and/or raising the animals they are interested in.
      - The mentorship arrangements are customized based on what knowledge a farmer can share, on the work needed by the farmer, the interests of the new farmer, and what is available re. hours, transportation, etc.
- Participation for First and Second Generation New Canadians offered at no cost, thanks to the financial support of the City of Ottawa Economic Development Department.

Contact farm@justfood.ca to find out more about New Roots.

Click here for current Farmer Training Schedule

Please note: Training in French and Arabic is scheduled to start in Winter 2026.
English was offered Fall 2025; stay tuned for 2026 dates to come.

Special thanks to City of Ottawa Economic Development for funding New Roots

Farm Match Program

The Just Food New Roots Program is accepting applications for both experienced farmers currently operating a farm in the Ottawa region (Mentors) and new Canadians who are interested in finding a mentor in the Canadian agricultural sector (Mentees).

If you are interested in building a new relationship centred on agriculture in the Ottawa region, this could be the opportunity for you!

Eligibility: Just Food does not require any specific immigration status for participation in the New Roots Farm Match Program. If you self identify as a First or Second Generation New Canadian, you are welcome to apply.

The New Roots program is aimed to make Just Food’s existing new farmer programming more accessible to New Canadians. We strongly encourage folks interested in the Farm Match Program to also sign up for our Farmer Training Series, offered for free to First and Second generation New Canadians in French, Arabic and English; however this is not a requirement for participating in the Farm Match Program.

Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec local farmers are valuable partners to build this mentorship program in a way that is mutually beneficial.

The program is free of charge for New Canadians as it is currently supported by the City of Ottawa Economic Development Department

For experienced Farmers:

Click here to sign up as a Mentor

Interested in learning more about being a Mentor?
Check out our Mentor Guide here

For New Farmers:

Click here to sign up as a Mentee

Interested in learning more about being a Mentee?
Check out our Mentee Guide here

Background

In 2017, following the welcomed arrival of Syrian refugees into the Ottawa region, the Gloucester Emergency Food Cupboard and Just Food began a small program to make access to land more readily available to the large number of New Canadians with agrarian background, who were accessing the food bank but wanted to grow their own food.

By 2019, after feedback on the difficulties of adapting to food production in our climate, and ESL learning, this had developed into a commitment to work to translate more materials, provide access to more training, and develop a land-sharing template that included a funding mechanism that allowed ⅓ of the land-sharers to access land without paying fees.

In 2022, the ESL Online Farmer Training Series was offered to New Canadians.

In 2023, the Start-up Farm program provided land access to graduates of the 2022 training series.

New Canadians have greater barriers to entry into the agriculture workforce as labourers, including language and economic barriers, which prevents access to training opportunities, adequate equipment and information about employment opportunities.

Consultations with partner organizations and research directed our focus on Newcomer Ottawans of South Asian, Middle Eastern, and African origins with agrarian backgrounds who have arrived in Canada more than two years ago as a key demographic of interest, in addition to first generation youth from these families.

The New Roots project takes a sustainable systems approach to the challenges of agricultural employment among New Canadian farmers by producing training modules, materials and a team of trainers and partner agencies committed to continuing to work together and benefit those seeking employment for years to come.

New Roots trains and connects people to farms in the Ottawa region based on the skills and transportation required for employment opportunities, determined from a survey of farms in the Savour Ottawa farmer network.

New Roots is developing into a sustainable, inclusive program to provide interested youth and adult New Canadians in Ottawa training and employment opportunities in food production and business planning, aimed for employment on farms and/or entry in entrepreneurship.

This program has been redesigned to support New Canadians with agrarian backgrounds and existing skills to adapt to Canadian reality, being prepared for both farm employment, farm management and/or for their own production.

The program focuses on building long-lasting peer-to-peer support for ongoing success among New Canadian farmers, and highlights the skills and knowledge of New Canadian farmers to be shared with Canadian-born new and existing farmers.

If you would like more information about how to take part in the New Roots program, please contact us directly at farm@justfood.ca