Opening/Chair: Tom Savary was the chair for today’s meeting. Alana led us in the singing of O’Canada and that was followed by a moment of personal reflection.
Visitors/Guests: There were no visiting Rotarians or guests, other than our speaker, Jeff McKinnon
Speaker: Our Speaker today was Jeff McKinnon. Jeff was born and raised in Halifax and has over 15 years of senior leadership experience. Jeff completed his MBA and the Certified Management Accountant Program. He is currently a CPA. Jeff has extensive experience in strategy, finance, and operations. He works as the CFO for TruLeaf Sustainable Agriculture, a start-up phase company in the indoor agriculture technology space.
GoodLeaf, a wholly owned subsidiary of TruLeaf, is a world leading, controlled environment advanced manufacturing food production company. GoodLeaf’s first facility is right here in Truro, which is now a dedicated research and development facility for the company. GoodLeaf’s second location is in Guelph, Ontario. This facility is scheduled to be fully operational in late summer 2019. It will be providing a stable, sustainable and consistent supply of high-quality food to its distribution partners, mainly Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro, Fresh Start, J.E. Russell and GFS.
TruLeaf has developed proprietary indoor vertical farming technology to grow fresh and nutritious leafy greens of high quality and flavour, in an environmentally sustainable way, 365 days per year. Since its inception in 2011, the Company has assembled a strong team of leading experts to develop and advance these proprietary growing systems, that can be located anywhere, from the heart of an urban centre to remote communities with harsh climates. TruLeaf currently sells its produce in Atlantic Canada under the GoodLeaf brand, in retail and food service channels.
Jeff was excited to share that McCain foods signed on as a strategic investor in 2018 and that the partnership will help grow and develop the next phase of their vision. They hope to have seven more farms across Canada in the next five years. Within that vision, is a newly designed farm in the Truro-Bible Hill area that would be supported by the provincial government.
Jeff’s presentation was highly informative and very interesting. It’s exciting to think about the future of farming, especially with a world-class facility right here in Colchester.
Laurie thanked our speaker Jeff. Laurie has been lucky enough to taste some of the delicious GoofLeaf microgreens, and shared that they are as good as Jeff says they are!
Member Health: No Report
Announcements and Reports:
- Yearbook Committee:
Yearbook Update:
Agreed: 105
Declined: 52
Pending: 49
Not Contacted: 408
We are only about ½ way to our goal of 205-210 ads for the Yearbook. Any Rotarians who have yet to contact their assigned businesses, please try and do so ASAP. If you have any questions please get in touch with Matt.
- Alana reminded everyone of the Pride Parade this Saturday from 2-3. Rotary will be joining DAL AC. You can sign up through Clubrunner, or just show up. Would be great to have lots of Rotarians out for the Parade!
President's Report:
- Lech gave a rundown of the recent board meeting. Minutes for that meeting are available on Clubrunner.
- He shared that we currently have 30 committees, and directors and committee chairs will be looking for new members to get involved.
- The board reviewed and approved the budget for the upcoming year. It's also available on Club Runner.
- There will be no August Directors meeting. The next Directors meeting will be held on Sept 3.
- A reminder to all Directors from last year to submit their report.
Happy Mug: Despite the sunny weather, there was no special happy news from Rotarians.
50/50: No 50/50 this week
Closing: Meeting Adjourned at 1:20 p.m.
Get your copy of the 2019-20 Rotary Club of Truro budget from the website by
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