30May 2025 by admin
Recap: Ntamtqen Community Garden Work Party

Recap: Ntamtqen Community Garden Work Party

Event Recap, L2T Updates
Recap: Ntamtqen Community Garden Work Party As part of our Community Foundation’s Community Prosperity Fund project, Land to Table is continuing to build the cross-regional network, and bring together food champions to learn and share food knowledge and experiences, strengthen relationships across our food system, and support local Indigenous food sovereignty and food security projects.  On May 23 and 24, 2025, Land to Table coordinated a networking and work party with the Ntamtqen Community Garden & Food Hub located on 7.5 acres of Smelqmix (Similkameen) community land. The project is driven by Dixon Terbasket’s vision and experience farming the land, supported by a dedicated Ntamtqen team of staff and volunteers, and hosted by the Lower Similkameen Indian Band (LSIB).  The purpose of the space is to promote food security and Indigenous…
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14May 2025 by admin
Sep 20-21, 2025 | BX Farm Tour

Sep 20-21, 2025 | BX Farm Tour

Events, Featured News, L2T Updates, News, Upcoming Event
5th Annual BX Farm Tour A tour of the food, farms, and sights of Vernon’s BX region. Save the Date! On September 20th and 21st, 2025, you’re invited to “Know Your Farmer, Explore the BX”—to connect with local food, to better know your farmers and how they are farming, and to explore all the BX has to offer. The BX is a rich agricultural region with lots of walking and hiking trails and is the perfect place to get out and explore your own backyard. The BX Farm Tour is hosted by the farmers of the BX, with support from the North Okanagan Land to Table Network, Tourism Vernon and other local partners. Learn more
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22Apr 2025 by Land to Table
Eat Think Vote 2025

Eat Think Vote 2025

Featured News, News, Regional News
  Eat Think Vote 2025 With the provincial election just around the corner on April 28, the Land to Table Network Society, in partnership with Shuswap Food Action Society, the Central Kootenay Food Policy Council, and the Revelstoke Local Food Initiative, is bringing food and agriculture to the forefront of political conversation. As part of the Eat. Think. Vote campaign, we reached out to candidates in Kamloops–Shuswap–Central Rockies and Vernon–Lake Country–Monashee—two ridings spanning our diverse and interconnected foodsheds. Due to a short election timeline and fully booked candidate schedules, we shifted from a public forum to a written Eat. Think. Vote Questionnaire (shared below). This flexible format gave candidates the opportunity to respond to four key questions rooted in the realities of our food system and the priorities of our…
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15Apr 2025 by admin
Introducing the Food Shed

Introducing the Food Shed

Featured News, L2T Updates, News
You may have heard our very exciting announcement with the Ministry on March 17. Allow us to share a bit more, and in doing so start from the beginning… On my first day in my new role with Land to Table in May 2018, I met with a group of folks at the Rancho Vignola warehouse in Armstrong, including the owners. We spoke about the potential for their building to house a community kitchen and how to support a farmers co-op. Not long after, during meetings with local food stakeholders, as follow up to a 2018 forum that L2T hosted (on Growing the Local Food Economy), I heard many times over that the North Okanagan region needed a food hub - a place and dedicated staff to oversee aggregation, marketing…
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27Feb 2025 by admin
Recap: School Food Supplier Workshop

Recap: School Food Supplier Workshop

Event Recap, News
Recap: School Food Supplier Workshop On January 22, 2025, Land to Table Network hosted a School Food Supplier Workshop in Vernon, sponsored by FeedBC. This full-day event aimed to connect local food suppliers with school food purchasers from districts across the Okanagan and Columbia/Shuswap regions. We were fortunate to have ‘all the players’ in the room - from School District administration and school meal coordinators, government, non-profits (i.e. meal program providers), food suppliers/distributors, chefs, caterers, and farmers! The day consisted of group brainstorming using a World Café model to gather feedback across sectors on key concerns related to procuring and supplying school food - creating a clear picture of the landscape we are all operating within.  A school food coordinator panel featured representatives from school districts 67, 22, 83, 19,…
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24Feb 2025 by admin
Recap: Wholesale-Ready Workshop Series

Recap: Wholesale-Ready Workshop Series

Event Recap, News
Recap: Wholesale Ready Workshop Series Land to Table’s first Wholesale-Ready Workshop Series was held on January 30 and February 20, 2025, in Vernon at Community Futures North Okanagan (CFNO) with generous funding support from CFNO, the Regional District of the North Okanagan, and Feed BC. The workshops were designed to support small and medium-sized farmers in exploring wholesale market opportunities and developing “Action Plans” to grow and sell their products to wholesale markets. The series facilitated networking amongst farmers in the region and provided tools and insights into growing for and selling to wholesale markets, including distributors, institutions, processors, restaurants, caterers, and schools. This initiative sought to help existing farmers expand their operations and market reach, while equipping new farmers with the knowledge to integrate wholesale readiness into their business…
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11Dec 2024 by admin
Recap: Indigenous Food Sovereignty Workshop

Recap: Indigenous Food Sovereignty Workshop

Event Recap, L2T Updates, News
Recap: Indigenous Food Sovereignty Workshop In November, Land to Table co-hosted an Indigenous Food Sovereignty workshop on the "From the Ground Up: Toolkit for Indigenous Food Sovereignty Planning" in Revelstoke with the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty (WGIFS), the Indigenous Friendship Society of Revelstoke (IFSR) and the Revelstoke Local Food Initiative. The toolkit is a comprehensive guide developed by WGIFS, who brought three staff to facilitate the three-day workshop. The event gathered Indigenous food champions for facilitated discussions and activities and built shared understanding within a network of organizations and people leading Indigenous food projects. Participants included staff from Interior Health, School District 22, The Lower Samilkameen’s Ntamtqen Community Garden & Food Hub, Xeni Gwet'in Climate Readiness Initiative, Colville Tribes Language Program, Indigenous Rise Up Wellness, the Cwelcwelt Kuc…
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02Dec 2024 by admin
Community Conversations: Vernon Seniors Share Ideas to Improve Food Security

Community Conversations: Vernon Seniors Share Ideas to Improve Food Security

Event Recap, News
On October 30, 2024, NexusBC Community Resource Centre and Land to Table Network Society hosted a lunch session at the Schubert Centre with 22 local seniors to discuss food security.  The purpose of the event was for seniors to share their experiences, perspectives, and feedback to help both hosting organizations to advocate for, plan, and deliver programming that supports seniors’ food security.  During registration for the event, of the 36 people who registered, only 30% of seniors indicated that they were familiar with the term “food security,” and when asked why they attended the event, nearly half of the participants stated it was because they wanted to learn and share ideas about food security.  The session provided both an overview of what food security is and how Land to Table…
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17Oct 2024 by admin
​​Community Food Security – An Election Highlight and Hopes for Shuswap MLA!

​​Community Food Security – An Election Highlight and Hopes for Shuswap MLA!

Featured News, News, Regional News
Electoral districts (or ridings) don’t align with the regional government boundaries that often guide our food systems work. This has been the case for Land to Table (L2T) and Shuswap Food Action Society (SFAS), whose work spans two regions and four electoral ridings. This year, we are expanding L2T’s project boundaries across our shared food shed with the Shuswap and experimenting with a shared Executive Director for both organizations. In this article, Liz Blakeway, Executive Director for L2T and SFAS, shares her thoughts on how food security and agriculture are discussed in this election. The issue of food security is front and center for a lot of folks in 2024, including our Shuswap provincial election candidates. In fact, a 2023 BC study shows the responsibility for food systems is shifting…
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28Aug 2024 by admin
Support for Okanagan Tree Fruit Growers

Support for Okanagan Tree Fruit Growers

Featured News, News, Regional News
In light of the recent BC Tree Fruits Cooperative closure, we want to extend our heartfelt sympathy and support to our local Okanagan tree fruit growers. We have gathered some resources from our network partners to help you or any orchardists you may know through this challenging time. Below, you will find information on employment, gleaning, storage, and distribution opportunities. Please don't hesitate to reach out to these organizations for assistance. We’re here for you too! Let us know if you have any questions or ideas for how we can help during this time. Also please share these resources with anyone who might benefit.For those interested in learning more about the recent BC Tree Fruits closure and updates here are some articles: Penticton Western News - July 26, 2024 Castanet - Jul 31, 2024…
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