Media Release: Land to Table Continues to Steward United Way BC Regional Community Food Hub Initiative

Media Release: Land to Table Continues to Steward United Way BC Regional Community Food Hub Initiative

L2T Updates, News
NORTH OKANAGAN-SHUSWAP, JUNE 13, 2022 – We are pleased to announce that Land to Table will be continuing on as a steward for United Way British Columbia’s (UWBC) Regional Community Food Hub in the North Okanagan.  Over the past year, in collaboration with UWBC, Land to Table has been fulfilling this role by working collaboratively with our partners at the Okanagan Indian Band, The Good Food Box and the White Valley Resource Centre to address challenges and opportunities within the local emergency food sector, to increase organizational capacity and impact. Together, we have delivered over 3,200 hampers and meals, filled with local eggs, meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables, to seniors, young families and those impacted by the wildfires of 2021. In all program delivery, there is a focus to include…
Read More
Experts on Tap: Tips and Tricks for Exhibiting and Selling New Products

Experts on Tap: Tips and Tricks for Exhibiting and Selling New Products

Event Recap, Events, Featured News
Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 - We held a live, online discussion with industry experts to help producers elevate their businesses and gain new listings and retail opportunities. The panel offered tips and tricks for exhibiting and preparing for upcoming events, including the Local Food & Buyers Mixer (March 18th, 2022) and the 9th Annual Cheese! It's a Natural Festival (March 19th, 2022) in Armstrong. 2024 Update: Check out the (rebranded) 2024 The Big Cheese! event featuring industry-only Food and Buyer Expo and Experts on Tap workshops on Friday, April 5th, 2024 and Local Food Festival open to the general public on Saturday, April 6th, 2024. Learn more at https://www.aschamber.com/thebigcheese.html If you missed this event or want to listen to the experts one more time, check out the highlights and the…
Read More
OKIB Meat Drive Update

OKIB Meat Drive Update

L2T Updates, News
The staff of OKIB, L2T, and SPARC BC would like to celebrate the success of the Fire & Flood Recovery Meat Drive.  With incredible support from our network we were able to exceed our goal of $5000, raising an outstanding total of $8070.  We are now working with 5 local farmers who were impacted by the rising cost of feed and highway closures to secure chicken, pork and beef for the OKIB community. As far as traditional food, your generosity has helped us to support a local OKIB hunter in bringing in deer meat for the community. On top of this we are working with an OKIB community member to revitalize traditional Indigenous trade routes and bring in salmon and halibut from the coast.  Despite their own struggles, many of…
Read More
Ending the Year: L2T Reflects

Ending the Year: L2T Reflects

L2T Updates, News
Hello L2T Family,  Though the extremes in weather have made this an exceptionally difficult year for many in our food network, it has been encouraging to see our community come together to face these challenges head on.  While there is still a great deal of work to be done, we would like to take a moment to highlight and acknowledge some of our exciting projects that you/our network have helped make a reality.  Over the past year, we have had the opportunity to work alongside farmers/farms like Enderberry Farm and Curlew Orchard and members of the UBC Okanagan campus to pilot an innovative model for local food procurement. At each step of the project, we have sought to understand the gaps in our local food system and develop solutions that…
Read More
Okanagan Indian Band Meat Drive: Fire & Flood Recovery

Okanagan Indian Band Meat Drive: Fire & Flood Recovery

L2T Updates, News, Regional News
UPDATE: Thanks to your incredible support we have passed our original goal of $5000! Initially, we thought this would be a tough goal to meet but clearly we underestimated your generosity. However, there are still many fire recovery and food security initiatives underway at OKIB, all in need of support, including the OKIB Fire Recovery fund. With this in mind, the OKIB food security coordinator, Nikki Lorentz, will be making decisions about allocating the surplus funds between this meat drive and other important recovery and food security initiatives such as OKIB's collaboration with the Good Food Box OKIB community garden. This will be reported back transparently to all donors through this site. We welcome your continued support. Members of the Okanagan Indian Band (OKIB) are recovering from the devastating wildfire…
Read More
Meet Kelly: L2T’s New Food Access Coordinator

Meet Kelly: L2T’s New Food Access Coordinator

News
We would like to introduce you to the newest member of the L2T team, Kelly Panchyshyn! Kelly will be taking on a new role as Food Access Coordinator. As part of L2T work on the Regional Community Food Hub project, she will strive to connect and support community organizations working to make food more accessible to those living in the North Okanagan. In line with this goal, Kelly will work diligently to assess the needs of local community food programs, collaborating with members of the charitable food sector and the L2T network to identify opportunities for partnership to increase access to local food through existing and new initiatives.  In 2017, Kelly received a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Studies with a minor in Indigenous Studies, from the University of British…
Read More
Media Release: Land to Table Stewards United Way BC Regional Community Food Hub Initiative

Media Release: Land to Table Stewards United Way BC Regional Community Food Hub Initiative

L2T Updates, News
Download as a PDF NORTH OKANAGAN-SHUSWAP, September 27, 2021 - Land to Table has taken on the role of steward for United Way British Columbia’s Regional Community Food Hub in the North Okanagan. In this role, we aim to connect and support community organizations working to make food more accessible. Our new Food Access Coordinator, Kelly Panchyshyn, will be partnering with the Okanagan Indian Band, The Good Food Box and the White Valley Resource Centre to assess need, secure additional resources, launch new programs, and strengthen their volunteer networks. Together, we aim to secure more equitable access to sustainable, healthy, local, and culturally connected food for those living in the North Okanagan.  As part of this initiative, Land to Table will also be hosting a series of meetings designed to…
Read More
Okanagan Indian Band – A Food Security Journey

Okanagan Indian Band – A Food Security Journey

News, Regional News
Sometimes it just so happens that you meet the right person at the right time and synergies and projects line up as if they were meant to. Through the Regional Community Food Hub funding initiative, in partnership with the United Way, Land to Table (L2T) has the opportunity to partner with organizations like the Okanagan Indian Band (OKIB), to work together to increase access to local food. That is how Nikki Lorentz, OKIB Food Security and Garden Coordinator, and I officially began to work together, and came to write this spotlight feature together. After many Zoom meetings we finally met at the OKIB Komasket Community Garden on the north west tip of Okanagan Lake on July 15th. This is one of six OKIB reserve locations around the lake that is…
Read More
Our Farms – Hammered by Heat and Drought

Our Farms – Hammered by Heat and Drought

News, Regional News
Climate change has been a part of the L2T conversation since the start of the food system network. Conversations have taken a tone that is future tense, asking: how will farmers in our regions be affected by climate change? And certainly water access goes hand-in-hand with climate change, and you can’t talk about our water and watersheds without also talking about the salmon—it really is all connected. For myself (I won’t speak for others here), my sense is that this summer’s heat/drought has brought us across a threshold, from “how will farmers be affected” to “how are farmers being affected.” That “heat dome” was damn scary and super destructive! In a media release shared far and wide, the National Farmers Union (NFU) explains, through accounts from three Western Canadian farmers,…
Read More