27Sep 2023 by admin No Comments
Join the Good Food Box Board of Directors

Join the Good Food Box Board of Directors

Featured News, News, Regional News
The Good Food Box Society of the North Okanagan is looking for new members to join the Board of Directors. The program is based in Vernon but is looking for people located in the North Okanagan who are interested in the areas of social media, writing and accounting. Positions will require between 4-8 hours per month.  Open Board of Director Positions: Director at large: Oversee a long-term project and chair the subcommittee (2-4 hours monthly) Treasurer: Report to the Board on monthly finances and prepare monthly and annual financial statements. (The new website will do most of the information gathering)  (4-6 hours a month)  Secretary: Write meeting minutes and manage correspondence for the Board (4-6 hours monthly)  All Board Members will be expected to attend one monthly zoom meeting (~2…
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31May 2023 by admin
Update: Food Costing in BC 2022 report released

Update: Food Costing in BC 2022 report released

News, Regional News
The Food Costing in BC 2022: Assessing the affordability of healthy eating report has been released. The report highlights the challenges of affording a nutritious diet for people and households who live on low incomes, especially for those who live on income and disability assistance. When incomes are low, households are especially sensitive to the rising costs of living (food, rent, etc.). The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control collaborates with the five regional health authorities and the Ministry of Health to oversee the monitoring of the cost and accessibility of a nutritious diet in BC. The purpose of the report is to highlight that inadequate incomes are the root cause of household food insecurity. In May 2022, the average cost of a nutritious diet for a family of four…
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24Oct 2022 by admin
Food as a Lever

Food as a Lever

Regional News
In preparation for the fall 2022 elections, the Kamloops Food Policy Council created a blog series titled Food and the City - exploring deeper civic issues that relate to “food [as] a lever” for civic engagement, connection, policy change and action. The articles include a list of recommended policy options to support action for each topic - transportation, healthy ecosystems, common land-use opportunities, safer communities, decolonization, and food security. These are thoughtful, thought provoking, action-oriented, and perhaps most importantly, useful for election now newly elected officials. We highly recommend that all candidates (and those interested in food systems and policy) have a read. The KFPC blog posts have us thinking about: how we are doing in the North Okanagan, the ways in which food systems and food security provide opportunities…
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03Dec 2021 by admin
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…
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27Sep 2021 by admin
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…
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28Jul 2021 by admin
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,…
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30Jun 2021 by admin
L2T Network Spotlight – Okanagan Mobile Juicing

L2T Network Spotlight – Okanagan Mobile Juicing

News, Regional News
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…
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27May 2021 by admin
L2T Network Spotlight – Wise Woman Seeds

L2T Network Spotlight – Wise Woman Seeds

News, Regional News
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…
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22Apr 2021 by admin
L2T Network Spotlight – Curlew Orchard

L2T Network Spotlight – Curlew Orchard

News, Regional News
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…
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24Mar 2021 by admin
A Personal Experience of the Recent “Buttergate” Fiasco

A Personal Experience of the Recent “Buttergate” Fiasco

News, Regional News
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…
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