Archive for category: Upcoming Events

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Cwelcwelt Kuc “We are well” Garden Work Party

This past Wednesday (May 4) our book club explored the topic of #landback and the Yellowhead Institute Red Paper on Land Back. It was an evening of powerful discussions – and listening.

During the meeting, Dawn Morrison, Founder/Research Curator at the Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty (WGIFS), gave an in-depth presentation on Land Back. She shared with us the Secwepemc Foodland Conservation and Land Based Healing Brochure – providing information on who the WGIFS is, what the WGIFS does, and the Cwelcwelt Kuc “We are Well” Garden.

 

If you’re interested in getting involved, this Saturday May 7th, the WGIFS Cwelcwelt Kuc “We are Well” Garden is having a work party! Happening from 9am to 5 pm, see more details in the poster below:

 

If you are interested in attending the work party and need a ride, please contact bonnie@kamloopsfoodpolicycouncil.com .

We hope to see you there! Thank you again for all who attended this past book club and Dawn Morrison for presenting!

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Food Commons: Local Food Production & a Sharing Economy

Food Commons creates an integrated and amalgamated system for a community based local sharing process. It is a radical shift from the modernized practice of food production and commoditization to a traditional sharing economy approach that caters to farmers, farming communities, those that operate in the food system, and members of the community. It creates a grassroots network that connects people and addresses food insecurity within households and communities.

Food Sharing or Collaborative Consumption is not only exclusive to the service industry but is very integral to food security in our community especially following this pandemic. The sharing economy breeds a strong sense of trust within the community and helps those in need by addressing huge issues such as production, administration, funding, research, information, and distribution.

At the Kamloops Food Policy Council, we have several venues to promote the sharing economy – Common Gardens & Shared Kitchen. This encourages local food production, variety, equal distribution of food resources, and reduces food waste. 

 

In 25 years, we want people to recognize food sharing and local food production as solutions to the current economic landscape.

 

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3 Days to Go! 

Today, we focus on one of our core values, which is promoting indigenous food sovereignty by decolonizing relations and restoring ecological food systems. Food should not be seen as a commodity to be bought and sold but a sacred gift that should be accessible to all. 

We embrace traditional practices and cultural harvesting strategies and respect the interconnectedness of food people and nature. 

We ensure access to traditional land by returning it or creating indigenous protected areas and promote policies to ensure the sustainability of indigenous food systems for future generations 

We recognize indigenous legal orders, systems, and laws and work to minimize our impact on unceded lands, educate ourselves, and support an indigenous-led decolonization movement. 

 

 

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4 Days to Go! – Until the Release of our 25th Anniversary Promotional Video

Are you still with us? Today we want to celebrate another one of our core values at the KFPC: Economic Vitality and Support for Local Food Providers

At the Kamloops Food Policy Council, we believe in Local Economic Vitality through the Support for Regional Food Providers. We embrace solidarity over competition and profits. We believe we must protect our gatekeepers, farmers, producers, and workers who toil to feed us by ensuring safe and equitable labor conditions. By supporting the food and agricultural sectors, we can promote economic vitality and cater to the needs of residents, chefs, and institutions. 

In 25 years, we hope to see a community that supports food producers, processors, and distributors and enables them to expand to meet increasing demand. We hope to eliminate barriers for new entrants and provide the infrastructure needed to succeed and we hope to promote and advocate for policies and regulations that protect and promote as opposed to prevent. 

 

 

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5 Days to Go! – Until the Release of our 25th Anniversary Promotional Video

Today we want to celebrate one of our core values at the KFPC: Poverty Alleviation and Equitable Access to Food 

At the Kamloops Food Policy Council, we hope to alleviate poverty in our community through equitable access to health and culturally appropriate food. We hope to generate a food system in our community that is inclusive and diverse,  meets the needs of people from all walks of life, caters to people from different cultural heritage backgrounds, including those experiencing homelessness. We do this by working with urban farms in our community and gleaning from areas that are abundant to share with the community. This enables us to avoid food waste and address barriers to accessibility. 

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The Countdown Begins! 6 Days to Go!

Our 25th Anniversary Promotional Video is scheduled to be premiered on Youtube on Sunday, August 23, 2020, and the countdown starts today!

At the Kamloops Food Policy Council, we believe in a resilient and adaptive food system that promotes biodiversity, soil health, and food security in the face of changing political and economic climate.

To derive this, we promote traditional harvesting methods that protect animals, land, water, and a system that properly compensates human labor.

We promote a resilient food system by advocating for policy changes, creating initiatives such as the Gleaning Abundance Program, and working collaboratively with farmers in the community.

Stay Connected on our other social media platforms to count and celebrate with us and tune into our Youtube Channel!

 

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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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Kamloops Chamber 2020 Business Excellence Award Nomination

We are excited and honoured to have been nominated for a Kamloops Chamber Business Excellence Award for Not For Profit of the Year! 2020 just happens to mark our 25th Anniversary, which makes the nomination even more meaningful.

Over the last year the KFPC has really demonstrated its strength as a community organizer.

We spearheaded a regional Policy Implementation Project which brought together Indigenous communities, local governments and community partners such as food and agriculture-related non-profits, researchers, and educational agencies to identify where mutual objectives existed in relation to food and create action plans to collaborate on accomplishing them. One result of this project was a Food Processing and Innovation Hub feasibility study and a related pilot project where five local food processors were given business mentorship and workshops to help them grow and thrive. Another working group focused on developing local agricultural training initiatives.

In March 2019, the KFPC hosted Nourish, a community-wide dialogue on the root causes of household food insecurity. This event was planned in partnership with Interior Health, the Kamloops Aboriginal Friendship Centre, Interior Community Services, the Lived Experience Committee, and the Kamloops Food Bank. We brought in speakers who focused on two themes – Indigenous Food Sovereignty and Poverty as the root cause of household food insecurity. Over 80 people attended this event.

More recently, the KFPC took on the task of facilitating regular online Cross Agency meetings with local emergency food providers to establish a collaborative approach to the short-term food security crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Attendees represent social service agencies, food organizations, businesses, Interior Health, local government, Indigenous communities, volunteer groups like Rotary, TRU, and organizers of mutual aid support groups like the Neighbour to Neighbour (N2N) online platform.

Also in response to Covid 19, the KFPC launched the Resiliency Gardening Campaign, which included offering free online gardening classes, promoting yard-sharing and gleaning, sharing seeds from our seed library, and creating the Butler Urban Farm, a cooperative farming venture intended to engage the community in growing and sharing food.

We would like to thank the Kamloops Chamber for recognizing our efforts, and acknowledge our fellow nominees in the Not For Profit of the Year category – Big Little Science Centre, and the Kamloops Symphony.

 

 

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Spring Events

It’s that time again! Seedy Saturday is this Saturday, March 14. Come on down to the OLPH Parish Centre between 10am and 2pm to get into the planting mood! There are lots of vendors and some great workshops planned.

The KFPC will be there with our Seed Library collection, and a seed swap table. Bring any seeds you have to trade, or sign up as a library member and take out seeds for free (returns welcome, but not required) 


AND – We are once again offering our spring fruit-tree pruning workshop, but with the added component of an introduction to espalier. Greg Houghton will guide participants through the basics of when, why, and how to prune, and then focus on how to train trees to grow into specific shapes and forms.

Participants will then have the chance to practice on some espaliers in progress under his expert guidance!

For more information and tickets, go to Eventbrite.

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Sponsors

We could not do the important work we do without the support of our generous sponsors:

We acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia