Land to Table on CBC Daybreak South
On Nov. 25th, our Network Director, Liz Blakeway, spoke with CBC Daybreak South about L2T, our projects, and the role organizations like ours play in relocalizing our food system. Listen to the interview here!
Meet Kelly: L2T’s New Food Access Coordinator
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…
Media Release: Land to Table Stewards United Way BC Regional Community Food Hub Initiative
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…
Okanagan Indian Band – A Food Security Journey
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…
Our Farms – Hammered by Heat and Drought
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,…
L2T Network Spotlight – Okanagan Mobile Juicing
For Kristen Trovato of Okanagan Mobile Juicing, “every apple counts.” Mobile Juicing began in 2012 when Kristen (then landscaper who wanted to start her own business) and partner Remo saw mobile juicing as a win-win-win for local producers, retailers and herself as a new business in service to the agri-sector. In a nutshell, Kristen and her team take raw fruit and turn it into a tasty, pasteurized, packaged juice ready for store shelves. They press, de-stone, puree, pasteurize and/or package. “I grew up in the Okanagan and knew we have good fruit and a lot of it.” Kristen didn’t know a lot about the apple industry then—how the influence of a global food system has left local apple producers competing with subsidized Washington growers (whose crops have access to endless…
L2T Network Spotlight – Wise Woman Seeds
Sarah Bradshaw - Wise Woman Seeds “If you want to control something, control its food!” For Sarah Bradshaw of Wise Woman Seeds, this perspective coincides with a strong sense of justice she has held since childhood. Saving, swapping and now growing and selling seeds grew from the environmental justice and stewardship work that Sarah was a part of from an early age. Wise Woman Seeds is a small independent seed company that takes pride in the old and interesting varieties of vegetables and fruits they have saved and grown through a network of dedicated gardeners over the years. This includes Styrian pumpkin (a rather ugly superfood with very nutritious seeds), sweet potato squash (commercially bypassed because of looks—bigger, longer, weird looking—but one of the best squashes on the market for…
L2T Network Spotlight – Curlew Orchard
Patrick Ling-Allen - Curlew Orchard in the BX area of Vernon My background is stewardship and environmental engagement. When we moved back to Vernon with kids I decided it was time to get hands off the computer and in the dirt to manage a piece of our own land. From the start we pursued organic status, added a permaculture grove to our orchard, built onsite cold storage, and implemented regenerative practises to build soil and rehabilitate the natural environment on and around the farm. Soon some of our friends’ farm animals were arriving to retire here. I’m proud of our CSA with members who have been with us for five years. We want our CSA members to feel involved and know they are a part of supporting local food— partnering…
Did You Know That Land to Table is Three Years Old?
Well, actually that’s not entirely correct. The founders of L2T first met in 2015 and held the first forum in 2018. But L2T has had a paid Coordinator (me — Liz) for three years. That’s no small thing for a new network. When I started in April 2018 I was very new to the concept of a network (as an organizational structure) and pretty new to food systems work. The Vermont Farm to Plate model was the shining example of what was possible, and relationships (built on trust) put at the centre of everything we do. We have come a long way since April 2018. Today I am proud to share what that looks like in 2021–2022. Part natural evolution, part funding necessity, 2021 will focus largely on projects. This…
A Personal Experience of the Recent “Buttergate” Fiasco
By Andrea Gunner Good quality croissants, warm from the oven, flaky and crisp on the outside, stretchy and elastic on the inside, are one of my favourite treats. Living in rural BC, this treat was not very accessible, certainly not to Paris boulangerie standards, until I learned to make them myself. I usually make a batch of croissants and pains au chocolat a few times a year, to share with family, friends and neighbours. I import special “batons” of Valrhona chocolate for the filling. On my infrequent trips to France, I buy butter at the cheese shops since they package it in labelled “fromage” paper, making it much easier to smuggle into Canada. Oh yes, one of the realities of a supply managed Canadian dairy industry is import restrictions on dairy products. Why…