News Archive

15Feb 2022 by admin
OKIB Meat Drive Update

OKIB Meat Drive Update

L2T Updates, News
The staff of OKIB, L2T, and SPARC BC would like to celebrate the success of the Fire & Flood Recovery Meat Drive.  With incredible support from our network we were able to exceed our goal of $5000, raising an outstanding total of $8070.  We are now working with 5 local farmers who were impacted by the rising cost of feed and highway closures to secure chicken, pork and beef for the OKIB community. As far as traditional food, your generosity has helped us to support a local OKIB hunter in bringing in deer meat for the community. On top of this we are working with an OKIB community member to revitalize traditional Indigenous trade routes and bring in salmon and halibut from the coast.  Despite their own struggles, many of…
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07Dec 2021 by admin
Ending the Year: L2T Reflects

Ending the Year: L2T Reflects

L2T Updates, News
Hello L2T Family,  Though the extremes in weather have made this an exceptionally difficult year for many in our food network, it has been encouraging to see our community come together to face these challenges head on.  While there is still a great deal of work to be done, we would like to take a moment to highlight and acknowledge some of our exciting projects that you/our network have helped make a reality.  Over the past year, we have had the opportunity to work alongside farmers/farms like Enderberry Farm and Curlew Orchard and members of the UBC Okanagan campus to pilot an innovative model for local food procurement. At each step of the project, we have sought to understand the gaps in our local food system and develop solutions that…
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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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25Oct 2021 by admin
Meet Kelly: L2T’s New Food Access Coordinator

Meet Kelly: L2T’s New Food Access Coordinator

News
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…
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27Sep 2021 by admin
Media Release: Land to Table Stewards United Way BC Regional Community Food Hub Initiative

Media Release: Land to Table Stewards United Way BC Regional Community Food Hub Initiative

L2T Updates, News
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…
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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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21Sep 2021 by admin
Eat Think Vote 2021: North Okanagan-Shuswap Online Food Forum

Eat Think Vote 2021: North Okanagan-Shuswap Online Food Forum

Event Recap, Events
On Sept. 17th, we hosted the 2021 Eat Think Vote: North Okanagan Online Food Forum. The event featured four out of five federal candidates, as well as panelists representing agriculture, Indigenous and food insecurity perspectives.We had a great turnout, with 42 participants (including candidates and panelists). And, we made history as being the very first online Eat Think Vote event! All in all, it was a great opportunity to hear from a number of different people, from different sectors in our community, about the significant (and long lasting) impacts that COVID and this last summer of heat and fires has had on our communities, farmers, s upply chains and food insecurity. In case you missed the event, or want to hear the perspectives one more time, you can view the…
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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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