Posts from Our Network (any groups that come to network meetings past or present).

We Need Your Input!

How do you connect with the KFPC?
Why do you connect with the KFPC?
What does the KFPC mean to you?
We want to know! 

 

 

The KFPC is currently undertaking a review of it’s communications. We are examining our strengths, discussing opportunities, outlining our aspirations, and focusing on results!

To find out more about our communications we have created a quick (under 5 minutes) survey to gather input from our Network to gather the various communication needs, wants, and preferences of our community.

Your input is invaluable and helps us create a more connected & engaged KFPC!

All answers will be kept anonymous. A communications presentation will be shared back to our network with a summary of results later this spring!

To show our appreciation, we will be giving away one $50.00 gift card to 5Bean Brewbar & Cafe to a random participant. If you would like to be included in the Gift Card Draw, please input your e-mail address at the end (this is completely optional).

Survey will be open until March 26, 2022

TAKE THE SURVEY TODAY

 

 

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Kamloops Seed Stories

Every Seed Has a Story, and we want to hear yours!
As we all get ready for spring planting, Caitlin Quist – our Farm Community Organizer, is hoping to use stories to reinvigorate the Kamloops Seed Library.
Caitlin is currently collecting stories around seeds in our community. If anyone has a seed they have been growing for several years, we welcome you to share your story with us and possibly offer a small donation of seed!
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The hope with this project is not only to increase Kamloops-wide seed saving and growing, but also to call attention to the rich history of seeds in our community. These stories will be shared with the community through the seed library and Seedy Saturday.
If you are interested in sharing a story, please email Caitlin at caitlin@kamloopsfoodpolicycouncil.com to connect and arrange for seed drop off or pick up.
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KFPC Book Club

The KFPC is starting a Book Club!

 

Our book club seeks to bring those in our community together to discuss and explore topics such as local food systems work, community capacity, Indigenous Food Sovereignty, and more in a deeper and exciting way.

We will be meeting online via zoom once every 2 months (possible transition to in-person in summer) to explore relevant writings.

 

 

The first book of our Book Club will be Dean Spade’s Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (And the Next). 

 

We will be meeting over zoom on March 2, 5:30-7:30 pm. Please note that registration is required.

“Mutual aid work plays an immediate role in helping us get through crises, but it also has the potential to build the skills and capacities we need for an entirely new way of living at a moment when we must transform our society . . . “

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Where to get your book?

We have 20 free copies available as a personal gift from a KFPC network member. Fill out this form to pick up a copy at The Stir. (If you receive a free copy, feel free to share it with a friend once you’ve read it!)

 

We hope you’ll join us in continuing our conversation around Mutual Aid and exploring other topics in this capacity!

 

 

Quick Links:

  • To Register for March 2 Book Club Meeting Click Here
  • To Pick-Up a Free Book on Wednesday, February 9 fill out this form 
  • To Purchase book via Verso, click here
  • Listen to the free audio book on YouTube: Part One & Part Two

 

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MEET OUR FOOD HUB PARTNERS: OPEN DOOR GROUP GARDENGATE 

MEET OUR FOOD HUB PARTNERS: OPEN DOOR GROUP GARDENGATE 

A chat with Rob Wright

We had a brief chat with Rob Wright, a Program Coordinator at Gardengate and a Kamloops Food Policy Council Board Director. Gardengate is a program operated by the Open Door Group created as a space for “healing and recovery for individuals living with mental health conditions and addictions.” 

 

The Gardengate Facility

Gardengate is currently building a new training centre and commercial kitchen facility to replace a 21 year old, 700ft space that hosts their groundbreaking program.  Planning and fundraising for the facility has been in the works for the past 10 years. There have been some delays due to the COVID 19 pandemic but the facility is close to completion. Following all installations, certifications and inspections, the commercial kitchen and training centre will be open to the public. 

“Growing food, growing futures. People always associate the Gardengate program with a garden but we always emphasize that for us, it is always people before product. Gardengate is a program first and the garden is a medium and vehicle to drive people there.” – Rob Wright

 

 

The Intention 

The intention of creating the facility was to open the door to a community asset and expand on community capacity. This facility expansion will provide employment and food sovereignty within our community. The training centre and commercial kitchen will be a place to cook and eat but most importantly, it will provide the opportunity for current Gardengate clients, food entrepreneurs and the community to learn, grow and develop. 

 

The Partnership 

The Kamloops Food Policy Council is partnering with Gardengate by investing in necessary equipment and upgrades needed to build the facility to offer clients, food entrepreneurs and the community the opportunity to co-locate. KFPC and Gardengate will be sharing revenue from renting kitchen space, processing equipment and storage space. 

 

 

The Opportunities for Gardengate

Partnering with the KFPC provides social interaction and activation for current Gardengate clients. It provides the opportunity for those enrolled in the Gardengate program to learn and observe from food entrepreneurs. Part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Gardengate is that any person or food entrepreneur that makes use of the facility will get sensitized on the Gardengate program. There may be the opportunity for clients in the Gardengate program to receive a form of paid employment through the food entrepreneurs. It is a good place for clients to have normal working relationships in a learning environment.

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Seed Cleaning Extravaganza

When the FarmFolk CityFolk mobile seed cleaner recently rolled through town, a couple of us from the KFPC were lucky enough to take part in their seed cleaning session at SSOL Gardens. The mobile seed cleaner is currently being toured around the province to promote commercial seed production and support farmers who are already producing seed for sale. This well-equipped trailer can be a game-changer for farmers thinking about growing for seed as the equipment it brings can produce commercial-grade seed in a fraction of the time it would take to clean it manually.

Seed sovereignty is an integral part of food sovereignty. In order to have a resilient local or regional food system, we need to be producing our own seed so that we are less reliant on large commercial seed companies and able to develop plant varieties adapted to changing local and regional climates.

Seed cleaning can be monotonous and labour-intensive work, but it can also be very relaxing and meditative. When you see that bucket of clean seeds – the finished product of your labor, it’s also immensely satisfying. And sharing the work with a friendly crew of helpers makes for a fun day on the farm!

The seed cleaning unit itself is a trailer that houses several interesting gadgets used in the seed-cleaning process including an air-separator, which uses suction to pull the lighter chaff away from the seeds. David Catzel, who built most of the equipment in the trailer, was on hand for our session at SSOL and was able to finely-tune the airflow for each type of seed, producing a very clean finished product.

There is quite a bit of manual preparation to be done before the plant material is ready to go through the separator. This is where the teamwork comes in. The more plant material that can be removed from the seed beforehand, the more effective the final cleaning will be. The mobile seed trailer is equipped with a sizeable collection of hand screens, which make the process easier.

On the day we were there, we helped clean two varieties of beans, six of carrots, ten lettuce varieties, and two onions. Daniela from SSOL Gardens figured the session saved her a week to 10 days of work and was way more fun than doing it alone!

David also facilitated a seed saving workshop for us while he was in town, which, unfortunately, we had to restrict to seven people because of social distancing restrictions. For those of us who got to attend, it was very informative and inspiring. One important takeaway was that although seed saving can be very scientific and particular with tons to learn about plant varieties, cross-pollination, and isolation distances, it can also be very simple. Many of our common vegetables, such as tomatoes, lettuce, beans, and peas are mostly self-pollinating and can easily be saved from one year to the next. And sometimes unintended cross-pollination can result in something new and different!

Thanks to David Catzel and Steph Benoit for organizing and facilitating the event and to FarmFolk CityFolk for making it possible!

 

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Grand Opening: Kweseltken Farmers and Artisan Market

The Kweseltken Farmer’s & Artisan Market had its grand opening on Sunday, August 9, 2020. The celebration opened with Sage Hills Drummers and a special welcome song by Rosanne Casimir, following a welcome address from Elder Leona Thomas.

The event featured several guest speakers including Shaw Bonnough from the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association, Dieter Dudy, the owner of Thistle Farms and a representative from the Kamloops City Council and George Casimir, the owner of Farm and Stuff and the Manager of Community Futures Development Corporation of Central Interior First Nations (CFDC of CIFN).

The project was created to support first nations communities and tourism in the region and will run every Sunday from 8 AM to 2 PM until the end of September 2020 at the Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc Powwow Grounds at 345 Powwow Trail.

It is open to all indigenous and non-indigenous vendors. For more information, click here

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A Bee Named BOB – Virtual Book Reading

Author/illustrator Elaine Sedgman will be sharing her book A Bee Named BOB – the life story of a little mason bee, this Friday afternoon. You might think BOB was a fly because she is so small and hairy! This story is based on science, but is easily accessible to children from 6 years and up as well as parents, grandparents, teachers and gardeners.

Elaine is extremely enthusiastic and knowledgeable about native bees and pollinators in general. The reading will take place from 2:00 -2:30 pm, Friday August 7th.

This Zoom presentation is open to everyone – you don’t need to be a resident of the Okanagan or even Canada! But you do need to pre-register.

https://orl.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?eventid=49224&fbclid=IwAR0pwRopdptdHMA1GJTJ-ippYSK2A-AMkOwpN0IZ4YKq0d7h5M5l8pC5PgE

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Snap Up Real Estate Adds Their Support

 

We are happy to add Dave Zirnhelt of Snap Up Real Estate and Rate-My-Agent.com to our list of supporters. Dave is on a mission to create a long lasting, meaningful impact by giving back to worthy causes in our local community, and the Kamloops Food Policy Council is one of the organizations he reached out to!

Dave came out to the Butler Urban Farm to have a first-hand look at the work we’re doing and hear about some of our other initiatives aimed at building a more resilient local food system. We really appreciate the support of community-minded businesses like Snap Up Real Estate!

 

Kamloops Neighbourhoods and Condos

Kamloops Realtor, Mortgage, & Insurance Agent Reviews

 

 

 

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Resiliency Gardening

The Covid 19 Pandemic has created a lot of stress and uncertainty for everyone, but has triggered a renewed interest in growing food and cultivating a regenerative food system.

The KFPC is launching a “Resiliency Gardening” Campaign to get behind this movement. It’s all about encouraging people to share and work together to grow more food locally. It’s also meant to be fun and full of healing for body and spirit in these stressful times. Some of the initiatives we’re working on are:

1) Butler Urban Farm – A community farm on Clapperton Road across from the food bank. The KFPC has hired a garden manager and applied for funding through Canada Summer Jobs to hire one or more assistants. We want to grow as much food there as we can and we’re looking for people who are interested either in helping out in exchange for a share of the produce, or taking over a small section to work on their own. Contact sandra@kamloopsfoodpolicycouncil.com if you’re interested in either of those options.

2) Online Gardening Classes – These classes are sponsored by the Kamloops Naturalist Club’s Next Generation program and will be offered first to Butler Urban Farm volunteers. If space is available they will be open to any KFPC members as well as the general public. to find out more contact Jesse Ritcey at jesse@naturekamloops.ca .

3) Garden Sharing – The Young Agrarians have launched a free online gardensharing platform. It’s easy to use and already has one Kamloops listing. If you have garden space to share or you’re looking for garden space, check it out here.

4) Revamped GAP – Mariana Guerra is back again this year as our Gleaning Abundance Program Coordinator, and will be exploring ways to revise the GAP model to adhere to evolving social distancing requirements and at the same time, make it more neighbourhood-based and less reliant on coordinator time. To register a tree or garden, or join our gleaning crews, go to our GAP webpage.

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Together We’re Better – Kamloops Rises to the Challenge

The Kamloops community has demonstrated an amazing upswell of caring responses to ensure food security for all our residents during this time of pandemic.

Together with other organizations and community members, KFPC has compiled a list of food supports available during this time of COVID-19 social distancing. These support services have been changing frequently as the situation evolves, so we are doing our best to keep the information up to date. If you are aware of a food support that has changed or that isn’t on the list yet, please send us an email at info@kamloopsfoodpolicycouncil.com.

So many people in our community are contributing generously to ensure everyone has access to food during this time. If you are in a position to contribute, our food supports resource also includes a section on how to help, compiling organizations’ requests for volunteers, needed items and links where financial donations are being accepted.

Thank-you to all those agencies and individuals who are rising to the challenge to see that everyone in our community has enough to eat.

 

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