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New Kamloops Farm to School Hub!

Exciting news, Kamloops has been chosen as one of the three provincial Farm to School Regional Hub! This means that more local food will be working its way into eight of our local schools! To do that, we are looking to hire a part-time Community Animator in the Kamloops region to develop a Farm to School Regional Hub, including the formation of a Steering Committee and eight new Farm to School programs. Spread the word far and wide, the deadline to apply is December 16, 2015!

Job Description: Kamloops Farm to School Regional Hub Community Animator

BACKGROUND

Established in 2007, Farm to School BC (F2SBC) is a diverse and expanding provincial network that promotes, supports, and links F2S activity, policy and programs across the province.

Farm to School (F2S) programs bring healthy, local food into schools, and provide students with hands-on learning opportunities that foster food literacy, all while strengthening the local food system and enhancing school and community connectedness. F2S empowers students and school communities to make informed food choices while contributing to vibrant, sustainable regional food systems that support the health of people, place and planet.

At this time F2SBC is preparing to grow the number of Farm to School programs across the province and develop F2S Regional Hubs in three urban centres. The development of the three Regional Hubs will help foster collaboration and collective impact at the regional level.

The Regional Hub Community Animator will enable and facilitate the development of a Farm to School Regional Hub in the Kamloops Region. The role of the Animator will be to build capacity and resilience within the community around Farm to School, unleashing the creativity of the community and schools in the region to sow the seeds for long term Farm to School success.

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Draft Strategic Plan for the Kamloops Food Policy Council – Your input is requested!

To further strengthen the governance of the Kamloops Food Policy Council, a strategic plan is being developed.  This plan articulates who we are as an organization, what we wish to accomplish, and how we wish to undertake our tasks.  This document will provide a general guide to our organization for the next 5 years.  In addition, it will provide the context for more detailed annual plans which will guide our activities on a year to year basis.

The KFPC board has drafted a Vision, Mission and Strategic Goals for our organization.  Now we need to hear from KFPC members.  Are we on the right track?  Did we leave something important out?

Please review this document kfpc_strategic_plan_nov14_draft and provide comments by email to dave.whiting@shaw.ca by November 28.  It is the intent of the board to bring a strategic plan to the membership for approval at a general meeting in 2015.

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Tournament Capital Input

The Food Policy Council encourages our members to complete the short, online survey that can be found here.

It’s important that KFPC members help shape the future of this sizeable public land mass that has considerable agricultural potential. For background information visit here.

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Kamloops Tournament Ranch

What do you think about the expansion plans for the Tournament Capital Ranch? Since some of the land is part of the ALR, there are ideas about supporting sustainable farming on the ranch, including incubator farm for new farmers and an agriculture trade show and events center. We like those ideas!

Talk to the city at the farmers’ market booths on August 6 and 9, at an open house on August 14, or through their online survey. Go to the city’s website for more information.

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Kamloops Foundation Grant!

Kamloops Food Policy2

We were successful in receiving a $2500 grant from the Kamloops Foundation back at the end of June. The grant continues to promote Urban Agriculture with a major emphasis on Social Enterprise.  We will be partnering with GAP (Gleaning Abundance Program) and Gardengate, as participants will be exploring what social enterprise can come from the gleaned fruit. (In the photo: Mike Simpson (far left) is Senior Regional Manager with the Fraser Basin Council here in Kamloops.  Dave Whiting (second from left) represents the Fraser Basin Council at the KFPC.  Mike and Dave received the cheque on behalf of the KFPC.)

What’s ‘social enterprise’? KFPC’s Social Enterprise in Urban Agriculture (SEUA) will receive excess harvests from gleaning, public produce, backyard sharing, farmers markets, local farmers, and the food bank and food share and transforms the fresh produce into healthy, and often organic, by-products in the form of baked goods, dried and canned goods as well as prepared soups and meals.

These new products are prepared and cooked by newly trained employees, who before had difficulty finding and keeping meaningful employment. The SEUA both supports urban and local farmer/growers as well as the efforts of citizens to capitalize on urban agriculture opportunities that will benefit those most in need of assistance for affordable, fresh local produce and other food products – the working poor, single parent households and those on fixed and limited incomes including seniors. The SEUA is a marriage of social action and the promotion of healthy lifestyles while at the same time creating good paying sustainable jobs in the not for profit sector.

Partners involved in the plan: First Nations, City of Kamloops, Food Bank and Food Share, Kamloops Farmers Markets, Interior Health Authority, Interior Community Services (community kitchens and community gardens), and the Kamloops Food Policy Council member organizations (like the Gleaning Abundance Program).

Total project budget? $25,000. We are on our way ladies and gentlemen!

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GAP on CBC!

Check out the link below to hear this morning’s interview with Sandra (the new coordinator) about the Gleaning Abundance Program (GAP)!

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Local+Shows/British+Columbia/ID/2473593897/

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Laura Kalina receives national award!

Laura_Kalina

Laura Kalina, the current president of the Kamloops Food Policy Council has received a national innovation award from the Dieticians of Canada.

Congratulations Laura!  Your leadership and innovation has long been recognized in Kamloops and region.  Nice to see you being recognized at the National Level by your professional organization.

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Workshop on Water Harvesting for Home and Farm Use on July 6

Water harvesting Kamloops 2014-1Shelaigh Garson is delivering a workshop on water harvesting on July 6.  See attached poster for further information.  Water Harvesting Workshop Kamloops 2014

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Farm2Chef to be recognized for Public Produce support on June 25 at MacDonald Park

farm2chefMeet Farm2Chefs Collaborative member and Terra Restaurant chef/owner David Tombs and Master Gardener Elaine Sedgman at MacDonald Park Public Produce Garden on Wednesday June 25th at 11:00 am.  Try some currant & bergamot tea prepared from the garden & nosh on some muffins & strawberries.

Elaine will present David with the newly printed Public Produce, Growing Food in Public Spaces: A Start Up Guide that the Collaborative funded.  David & Elaine will then take you for a tour around the garden to talk about the possibilities and potential of Public Produce within city landscapes.

Elaine Sedgman conducted two years of research for the Kamloops Food Policy Council to write the eighty page guide on how to grow Public Produce (edible landscaping on public land).   Darrin Nordahl, author of Public Produce (2009), whose visit to Kamloops in 2011 inspired Kamloops to try growing food on public land, considers this start up guide as definitive.

The guide includes a brief history of Public Produce in the City of Kamloops, a plan on how to develop and maintain a Public Produce project and a detailed guide for preventative integrated pest management. It incorporates many of Elaine’s own photographs and graphic drawings. The appendix includes resources, a bibliography, planting plans for city snack stops and a comprehensive recommended plant matrix for public produce in the southern interior. The guide is also available on this website in the KFPC documents under the resources link.

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