Community Food Security
What is a Regional Community Food Hub?
As a United Way Regional Community Food Hub (RCFH) Steward organization, Land to Table connects and supports community organizations who are working to secure more equitable access to local, sustainable, healthy, and culturally connected food for those living in the North Okanagan and Columbia-Shuswap Regions.
Land to Table supports a vision to build a thriving, healthy, just, and resilient regional food system. As a ‘hub steward’, L2T works in collaboration with project partners to build greater community food security, which includes ensuring more local food, grown by our local farmers, is available to those who need it most.
A lot has changed over five years as a result of disruptions, like the pandemic, extreme climate events, ongoing rising food costs, and the housing crisis. L2T supports two groups, or “hubs”, of local organizations – through funding and coordination time. Our goal is to increase their capacity, so that together we can more effectively address food security needs across our neighboring regions.
North Okanagan Regional Community Food Hub
Columbia-Shuswap Food Collaborative
Regional Community Food Hub Goals
(2025 – 2026)
As a steward of the Columbia-Shuswap Food Collaborative (CSFC) and North Okanagan Regional Community Food Hub (RCFH), Land to Table will continue to play a convening role, strengthening food security efforts across the regions. Our key actions for the next fiscal year include:
Hosting a Food Security Forum Event to engage food security partners and build relationships between the regions. (Fall 2025)
Leading facilitated meetings to discuss collective governance, assess the groups’ progress, and continue to learn and share together.
Providing ongoing capacity support to all spokes, and food security partners, ensuring they have the necessary coordination and resources to execute and expand food security programming.
Introducing The Food Shed adapting systems and services to meet the needs of our spokes and partner organizations.
Enhancing collaboration through Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) and Indigenous Food Sovereignty learning and engagement.
Spoke Projects
Annual funding to spoke organizations support capacity building in organizations to be able to grow and sustain food security programs. This year’s hub funding will support:
North Okanagan Regional Community Food Hub
- Onboarding a new program coordinator
- Promoting the GFB program and fundraising campaigns with communication support
- Continuing to contract local producers to grow for the program
- Materials for youth and Elders weekly food security programming
- 13 all-day food workshops delivered by an Indigenous Red Seal Chef
- Additional hours for the Nexus Senior Food Security Coordinator
- Volunteer delivery drivers fuel reimbursement
Columbia-Shuswap Food Collaborative
Executive director time for stabilization of organizations systems and to develop a plan to fundraise/recruit a full-time ED.
- Additional hours for food bank management and inventory control
- Additional hours for meal production for food bank & Seniors Meals at Home Program
- Food Program Workshop Materials for Early Years and Meals at Home
- Additional hours for the Food Security Coordinator
- Materials for Cooking with Families Program
- Additional hours and materials needed to design and pilot a winter nutrition coupon program that will have a cost recovery element to be used at the LFI winter farmers market in collaboration with the Revelstoke Community Connections Food Bank.
- A Farmer gathering to design a local land matching program in collaboration with Young Agrarians to offer the community various ways to access garden boxes, market garden space, or farm plots with LFI staff maintenance and coordination support.
- 6 Food Sovereignty Workshops
Sammy Blair - Food Security Manager
The Land to Table Food Security Manager role is partially funded through the United Way Food Security Initiative. Our Manager, Sammy Blair, helps to identify and access food security opportunities and resources for local partners and assists with coordinating and executing annually funded capacity-building projects.
To learn more about Land to Table or to reach out for support, contact Sammy at sammy@landtotablenetwork.com
