A new water buffalo ranch in rural Langley will be the latest outpost of a drug rehab treatment chain funded by a B.C. furniture store magnate.
The John Volken Academy Farm kicked off construction July 2 with Langley Township Mayor Jack Froese using a golden digger scoop to turn some soil on the site at 232nd Street and 40th Avenue.
Volken, the founder of the academy project, was on hand for the official groundbreaking.
“We’ve done it, now that I’m almost dead!” Volken joked at the groundbreaking.
Now retired from business, Volken founded United Buy and Sell furniture store chain, which became United Furniture Warehouse.
His stores expanded across Metro Vancouver in the 1980s, selling budget new and used furniture.
In recent years, he has poured his money into charity work, including orphanages in Africa, and more recently the John Volken Academy.
An $80 million drug treatment facility in Newton opened in 2015, just before the epidemic of fentanyl caused lethal overdoses to spike across B.C.
READ MORE: Volken addiction treatment centre in Surrey ‘turns takers into givers’
It was the most recent version of a project that has gone back to 2009, when Volken started building drug rehab centres that focused on life skills training for the addicts.
“When you see people coming in, they’re really, in a way, dilapidated human beings,” Volken told Black Press Media of his Newton centre last year. “They feel bad about themselves, they’re depressed, totally down on themselves and when they graduate they are leaders, they are strong. We don’t change anybody, really, we just take the toxic out of them and they become what they’re meant to do.”
The new Langley site will become a large sustainability-focused farm.
The 108-acre site has been cleared, and is a partnership between the John Volken Academy and Avenue Machinery, a farm equipment company.
“The scale of this project draws attention to agriculture – it’s important to our customers that people are aware of where food comes from,” said Avenue Machinery’s operations manager, Chris Britten.
“As a partner with the farm we can help educate the general public while helping change the lives of those struggling with addictions,” Britten said.
“We’ve been trying to get more therapeutic communities and long-term treatment in British Columbia for a long time,” said Langley East MLA Rich Coleman. “The John Volken Academy has been one of the best models we’ve seen, ever.”
The water buffalo farm is expected to be complete and running in about two years.
Another farm centre operated by the Volken Academy in Surrey uses vertical farming techniques.
