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Who are we?

We’re a team who is passionate about local food production, with almost a decade of award-winning experience in modular urban farming.

Chris Hildreth,
Founder and CEO

AgriKit was founded by Chris Hildreth, an award-winning urban farmer, social entrepreneur and community builder. Chris has spent the past decade working alongside community partners to convert underutilized spaces into productive farms with his innovative farming model.

Chris has a natural ability to inspire passion and enthusiasm when it comes to the benefits of local food production. His knack for bringing people from diverse disciplines and specialities together is a pillar of his success.

Chris founded his first urban farming business, TOPSOIL, in 2015 which quickly grew from a 400 square foot pilot project supplying a single restaurant to a thriving 20,000 square foot urban agriculture business which supplies over 30 restaurants and hundreds of community members on a weekly basis.

Alongside successfully operating and growing TOPSOIL, Chris and his team have been diligently streamlining, verifying and proving the transferability of their farming model and systems. With a proven model and years of experience, Chris created AgriKit so that anyone, anywhere can seamlessly start a successful modular farm of their own.

A pioneer of urban agriculture, Chris is breaking new ground to help other communities and organizations build thriving modular urban farms.

“From day one, the idea was to create a modular farm that could be replicated into other communities. After nine years’ developing and successfully operating TOPSOIL, we’ve created AgriKit to support the growth of local food production across Canada. We are passionate about environmentally and socially sustainable farming models which increase and promote local food production.”

Chris Hildreth, Founder, AgriKit

Ashley Whelan,
Director of Operations

Ashley is originally from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where she completed her undergraduate degree in urban and regional planning. Her passion for making cities more sustainable led her to further her education in ecology and plant science at Royal Roads University, where she became an organic master gardener. Ashley believes that growing food within cities is a simple way of alleviating problems associated with food insecurity, waste and health, while providing a number of functional, aesthetic and nutritional benefits to everyone involved.

Alistair Howes,
Assistant Manager

Alistair is a recent graduate of philosophy from University of Victoria who strives to connect our urban spaces to nature through local food production. The most recent addition to the team, Alistair was drawn by AgriKit’s commitment to practical climate solutions. Alistair is driven by his passion to help support and inspire more young urban farmers in order to strengthen communities in the face of the climate crisis.

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