Kamloops Food Policy Council is excited to be launching Food & the City, a blog post series to explore a number of deeper civic discussions leading up to the municipal election. Based on the idea that food is a lever for transformative change, we are planning to include topics such as affordable housing, disaster readiness, regional agriculture, transportation, disability justice, mental health, defunding/detasking the police, mutual aid and more. Our first post, on housing development and urban sprawl is available here: Growth and Sustainability for a Food Secure Kamloops.

Interested in getting involved?
You are receiving this email because we’re excited about the ideas and expertise you have about Kamloops, and we would love to invite you to help shape this process! We’re spreading our invitation broadly – any Kamloops community member is welcome to join. We just ask that you be familiar with KFPC’s value statements and comfortable discussing policy ideas aligned with those values.
 
How can you help?
We’ll be holding a series of ad hoc policy development meetings between now and October, and you are invited to participate at any level of engagement that works for you. This could be:
  • attending one or more meetings to contribute to brainstorming and discussion (you do not need to commit to attending all meetings)
  • volunteering to research or co-research a specific municipal policy area
  • writing, co-writing or reviewing/editing a blog post and policy position statement for the KFPC website
  • helping to spread the news by sharing our posts on social media or through your personal networks
Join our first Food & the City policy development meeting!
When: June 16, 2:00-3:30
Where: We’ll meet on Zoom for our first meeting. Please register here (you can add the meeting to your calendar once you register). This will be an interactive discussion (with options for audio/video or text chat participation).
Questions? Suggestions?
If you can’t attend the first meeting but would still like to be involved, please reply to lindsay@tapestryevaluation.com to be added to the list for future meeting announcements. If you have any questions or suggestions for us please feel free to share your ideas!

We are hiring a Pruner/Tree Trimmer to support our GAP this summer!

 

This temporary 8-week position (~30 hours/week) will work closely with our Gleaning Abundance Coordinator to help with harvests, pruning, and tree care/maintenance! 

 

The Gleaning Abundance Program (GAP) brings people together to help harvest our local abundance of fruit and vegetables and share it with the greater community. Produce that might have gone to waste becomes a welcome source of fresh food for many who might otherwise go without. The GAP runs through the summer and fall, organizing volunteers to harvest fruit from local trees and distributing it to community organizations like the Boys & Girls Club, Family Tree Center, and Salvation Army.

 

To apply, please submit a cover letter and resume to: info@kamloopsfoodpolicycouncil.com. Please combine both cover letter and resume into one PDF document labelled: Last Name, First Name

Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM, Friday June 17, 2022.

 

CLICK HERE for the full job posting!

Leaning Into Uncertainty: Preparedness and Hope

On Wednesday June 1st we gathered for our second in person potluck since March 2020. As we get used to coming together again, we live in a place of both hope and uncertainty. As the spring arrives, the rivers rise and potential heat waves are upon us. We know we don’t know what this summer will bring, but what we do know is we can lean on each other and find creative ways to be more prepared together. 

To start off our meeting and get us thinking about emergency preparedness, we paired off and shared our hopes and fears for the season ahead. We then came back for what truly brings us together, food! A time to share our craft, make connections and fill our bellies with food made with love. After dinner, Emily Pletsch presented on the KFPC’s work in Emergency Response. As a community convener and source for sharing information, the KFPC has and continues to play an emergency response role in Kamloops. We learned about Green Social Work, the intertwined practice of environmental and social justice. The group discussed different types of food insecurity during an emergency: availability, accessibility, affordability and displacement. We shared challenges we have seen with hoarding policies as a barrier to food access for many groups and limited access to cooking for people displaced living in hotels. 

Emily presented on equity within emergency response and the importance of providing the appropriate support for unique individual needs. She then shared about work happening in our community related to emergency response and increasing equity through social sector response development. 

As a final activity we engaged in an open space activity where members put forward ideas to discuss in small groups. The three groups included: 

  • Shelf stable food in emergencies: skill development, storage, access and sharing
  • Grab and go bag event: co-creating emergency to go bags
  • Climate grief: sharing experiences and feelings of climate change 

Each discussion went past the 7:30pm mark, ideas and emotions flowing for how we arrive and exist in the times we are living. Exploring what it means to be more prepared and how we do this work together.  

It was a wonderful evening and we are so grateful for all those who shared spaced with us!

 

 

If you are interested in getting involved in these conversations and future events, we would love to see you at our next network potluck on August 3rd! Be sure to join the KFPC mailing list to hear the details about our potlucks and other opportunities.