We think of our work as twofold: building a connected and coordinated network, through different events, workshops/training and consistent communications, while taking action through time bound, specific projects that have network/community support and energy behind them.
Some of our core activities include:
Below are some of our completed, ongoing and planned food security activities. Want to know more about our upcoming events? Sign up for our newsletter to receive the latest information.
Supporting small scale local growers is at the centre of what we do because we know that doing so can lead to systems level change but also because we know that they face many challenges. Work with this group includes:
Work with processors has included:
These are our local food cheerleaders who want to support local food businesses and eat healthier, more sustainable food that comes from the place where they live.
Our work with consumers has included:
In terms of working with institutions, we have met with the Culinary Manager of Interior Health to better understand some of their challenges around local food procurement and how we might support work in that area. More specifically, we are looking to find or create a regional institutional champion to lead the way in local food procurement.
This has led to receiving a grant (July 2020) through UBC Okanagan – to collaborate with a local agrologist and the Executive Chef from UBCO to look at opportunities and barriers for local food procurement from local small-medium scale farms.
As far as the network goes we are convening network wide conversations around the opportunities to build a more resilient food system (in light of COVID).
Our first call was held in May 2020 with great participation and productive conversation. An October 2020, network-wide (online) call will include diving deeper into the opportunities for local food marketing and strengthening local food/agri-tourism, again given the impacts of COVID.
Since the beginning of the Land to Table Network we have been working in conjunction with the Regional District to support Regional Agriculture Plan priority actions, identified each year (2018 to 2020).
We work closely with the Ministry of Agriculture locally to offer relevant training to local farmers and food processors.
More recently we have been providing updates to local governments, like the City of Vernon on the economic impacts of Covid that we are hearing from the small-medium agriculture sector. Also, we are working to support the Village of Lumby in exploring how to re-engage the community regarding important food security goals and a vision for Village owned ALR land.
In October 2020 we will host our first Local Government Roundtable event to gather information and engage in conversation about what is on the radar for government here in terms of food system and food security development and planning; and how L2T can support these efforts/ideas.