News Archive

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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18Jul 2024 by admin
Jul 24th, 2024 | Community Farm Working Group

Jul 24th, 2024 | Community Farm Working Group

Events, Past Event
Community Farm Working Group July 24th, 2024 | 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. PDT Zoom Online Gathering Register Now Are you interested in the idea of developing a community farm in our area? Do you have ideas of what this should look like? Who this should include? or how it should operate. Join the L2T Community Farm Working Group, and help us develop recommendations to put forward to the Regional District of the North Okanagan for the creation of a community farm at the BX Ranchlands. We will be choosing an August meeting date during this meeting. If folks cannot attend but wish to join the working group, please contact Sammy at hello@landtotablenetwork.com for updates and future invitations to meetings. .
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09Jul 2024 by admin
Recap: Rural Food Banks Webinar

Recap: Rural Food Banks Webinar

Event Recap
https://youtu.be/cNcQEl2KypI?feature=shared Recap: Rural Food Banks Study Webinar On June 26, 2024, Land to Table hosted a webinar to highlight the significant results and recommendations of the Rural Food Banks Study. This study was conducted in partnership with KPU’s Institute for Sustainable Food Systems (ISFS) and Community Connections (Revelstoke) Society, involving four rural food banks in the Interior: Golden, Invermere, Revelstoke, and Sicamous. The study aimed to address the unique challenges faced in rural food access programs.  Access our Rural Food Banks Study (PDF) Twenty-one people attended the webinar from across the province, including food bank representatives from Armstrong, Merrit, Pemberton, Agassiz-Harrison, Kimberley, Lake Cowichan, Penticton, Chemainus, and Gabriola.  Purpose of the Webinar The purpose of the webinar was to: Present an Overview of the Study Purpose and FindingsLand to Table…
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13May 2024 by admin
Jun 26th, 2024 | Rural Food Banks Study Webinar

Jun 26th, 2024 | Rural Food Banks Study Webinar

Events, Past Event
Rural Food Banks Study Webinar June 26th, 2024 | 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. PDT   Zoom Online Webinar Register Now Land to Table is proud to share results from a Rural Food Banks Study completed in collaboration with Community Connections (Revelstoke) Society, and four rural food banks in the Interior. The study was undertaken to help understand and co-develop solutions to the unique challenge of feeding people in rural communities in British Columbia in the face of increasing demand for food bank services. Register for the upcoming Rural Food Banks Webinar and join us as we facilitate a conversation with the four participating food banks on Zoom on June 26 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. PDT. The purpose of this session  We are excited to to co-host a discussion sharing…
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26Apr 2024 by admin
Equitable Access, Nutritious Choices: Dietitians’ Guide to Food Bank Purchasing

Equitable Access, Nutritious Choices: Dietitians’ Guide to Food Bank Purchasing

Featured News, L2T Updates, News
Equitable Access, Nutritious Choices: Dietitians' Guide to Food Bank Purchasing We extend our gratitude to Seamus Damstrom and Linda Boyd, Public Health Dietitians with Interior Health's Healthy Eating and Food Security Program, whose expertise enriches this discussion. - During our Rural Food Banks Study project, it became apparent that food banks and food security organizations are having to purchase more food than ever before to keep up with program demands. Typically, food banks rely on food donations as the bulk of the food they distribute. As purchasing budgets increase and food organizations are forced to make food procurement decisions regularly, food banks and programs are finding themselves in a position of choosing what food is offered to their food insecure clients. Since most of these programs have historically relied on donated…
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26Apr 2024 by admin
Rural Food Banks Study

Rural Food Banks Study

Featured News, L2T Updates, News
Rural Food Banks Study Over the last year, Land to Table (L2T) with Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Institute for Sustainable Food Systems (ISFS) conducted a Rural Food Banks Study in collaboration with Community Connections (Revelstoke) Society, and 4 rural food banks, to help understand and co-develop solutions to the unique challenge of feeding people in rural communities in British Columbia, in the face of increasing demand for food bank services. As the demand for emergency food services increases country-wide, during a time when  public and private monetary and food donations have been at an all time low, these rural food banks decided that working together was the best way to address shared challenges including:over-stretched budgets and staff coupled with ever changing circumstances amid ever increasing demand. Funded by a generous, anonymous…
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26Apr 2024 by admin
Spring Reflections from a Local Farmer

Spring Reflections from a Local Farmer

Featured News, News
Spring Reflections from a Local Farmer Contributed by Kat Saxton, Farmer at Pilgrims' Produce Learn more at www.pilgrimsproduce.com - Somewhere between laying the farm to rest in late fall and launching into a bustling new spring, amongst snow flurries and deep darkness, we farmers get a unique chance to reflect during a quieter season. Lately I’ve been thinking about how fortified and fabulous our local farm scene is. We live in a beautifully abundant area where options for farm fresh foods are plentiful: from seasonal, organic veggies and fruits, to grass-fed meats, milk, cheeses and free-range eggs, from bee-foraged honey and artisan preserves, to freshly roasted coffee and baked bread. Not only are there plenty of food choices at the ready, but the ways in which consumers can access this…
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22Mar 2024 by admin
Recap: 2024 Community Food Security Planning Session

Recap: 2024 Community Food Security Planning Session

Event Recap
Recap: 2024 Community Food Security Planning Session Land to Table hosted its second annual in-person Community Food Security Planning Session on March 6, 2024. A gathering of 27 individuals from 21 different organizations and institutions who work on building community food security throughout the North Okanagan and neighboring Shuswap region. Who was there? Food Security Orgs and Institutions in the region. The day was filled with networking, sharing, learning, and creative brainstorming of what the future of food security could look like in our community through collaborative efforts. To start, attendees participated in a networking activity to get to know each other. “Land to Table is a network and look what’s been created, it’s a true network and it’s creating those connections” Linda BoydPublic Health Dietician As a group, we…
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26Feb 2024 by admin
Mar 6th, 2024 | In-Person Community Food Security Session

Mar 6th, 2024 | In-Person Community Food Security Session

Past Event
In Person Community Food Security Session March 6th, 2024 | 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. PST   Schubert Centre, 3505 30th Ave, Vernon, BC V1T 2E6 RSVP by Feb 28: Hello@landtotablenetwork.com As a valued member of the community addressing needs through food (including growing food and in some cases donating food), Land to Table (L2T) would like to invite you to the in-person 2024 Community Food Security Session on March 6th from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. PST at the Schubert Centre in Vernon. Lunch, coffee/tea, and snacks will be provided. The purpose of this session  This Community Food Security Session is designed to offer an opportunity to reconnect in order to better understand the nuanced challenges and increased community need across the food security sector in the North Okanagan. At this…
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