News Archive – Page 3 – Land to Table Network Society

26Apr 2024 by admin

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

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…

26Apr 2024 by admin

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…

26Apr 2024 by admin

Spring Reflections from a Local Farmer

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…

26Feb 2024 by admin

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 Event Recap 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 gathering, we will…

31Jan 2024 by admin

2023 Reflections

Featured News, L2T Updates, News

Another year has come and gone, and the learning and growing we experience at Land to Table persistently keep us on our toes. We remain genuinely grateful, interested, and engaged in local food systems work. In last year's reflection blog post, I used the phrase 'settling in' to describe Land to Table in 2022. During that year, we further clarified our role as a network through capacity building and fostering connections across many different organizations and sectors. We worked to ensure that more of the food grown here reaches the people who live here. We have always emphasized that without local farmers and their ability to grow farm businesses, our food security is limited. For that reason we will continue to draw links between the local food economy and community…

31Jan 2024 by admin

Recap: Growing for Community

Event Recap

Food Security Session: Growing for Community This month, 14 participants representing various farms and food access agencies gathered for another Food Security Session focused on growing food for the community. Participants were encouraged to Connect through a roundtable introduction; Learn, as Land to Table shared examples of growing agreements and the context for why we are focused on growing agreements right now; and to Participate, through discussion regarding their reactions, sense of barriers, and expectations based on examples shared and what to work on locally. Ultimately, the goal for this session was to inform further thinking about how to develop growing agreements in our region (e.g. format, approach, considerations for success). Connect In a roundtable style, 14 participants shared their food system/work affiliations and what they wanted to learn about…

05Jan 2024 by admin

Jan 10th, 2024 | Growing for Community

Past Event

Community Food Security Session: Growing for Community January 10th, 2024 | 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. PST (online) Event Recap What is this event? This session is designed for institutions, organizations, and programs interested in purchasing local food for the upcoming growing season and local farmers. The focus will be on creating growing agreements between farmers and local food organizations and schools, aiming to secure reliable end markets for farmers while providing fresh, local, and affordable supply for local organizations and institutions. Why should you come? Your attendance at this event will offer networking opportunities to connect with end-markets and farmers. Your voice will play a crucial role in shaping how these agreements are written and managed, including mutually beneficial price expectations. There will be opportunities for in-person/zoom follow-up meetings to…

04Dec 2023 by admin

Feel-Good Stories from 2023

Featured News, L2T Updates, News

Perhaps you’ve heard (cause we’ve shared a few times now)… New this year, Land to Table has been collecting an inventory of the fresh food needs of local social service agencies and food banks across the North Okanagan. This work is a result of the “value chain development” we have been doing in conjunction with UBCO - to connect organizations who care about using purchasing dollars toward ethical/sustainable food, to the farmers who produce said food! Through strong leadership values, advocating for more local food and clear food purchasing goals at Turning Points in Vernon, we were able to connect a local farmer to Turning Points Food Service Manager. Read to hear the farmers experience of that connection: As soon as we completed our first delivery to Turning Point in…

30Nov 2023 by admin

Sowing the Future: Land to Table’s Ongoing Commitment to the BX Ranchlands

Featured News, L2T Updates, News

As we approach the end of 2023, it's time to shine a spotlight on one of our favourite projects. The BX Ranchlands (BXR) represents the opportunity for community-led growing and infrastructure development for greater food security and resilience, all wrapped up in a beautiful 135 acre parcel of land! Land to Table (L2T) Network has been deeply rooted in the plans for this site since our inception in 2018 - mostly in supporting the visionaries (i.e. the BX/Swan Lake Residents Association and RDNO Electoral Area Directors for areas B and C) and advocating for it to remain in public hands. As the year draws to a close, it's heartening to see our collective efforts continue to sprout opportunity, and step-by-step progressions toward a vision for community resilience through farming. Nurturing a…