BC Gov News

Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District

The “What’s On Your Fork?” project will increase horticultural knowledge and food production within the regional district by offering Alberni Valley residents and students garden tours, consultation sessions, and hands-on learning opportunities at the Canadian Mental Health Association's Healthy Harvest Farm and elsewhere. The project will have outreach programs in Tofino, Ucluelet, Bamfield and offshore First Nations communities, as well as region-wide radio and social media-based tips and tools.

Groundbreakers Agriculture Association and the Bulkley Valley School District

The “Learning Gardens” project received $24,530 to expand the “Kids Dig Food: Know it, Sow it, Grow it, Eat it” program from 300 to 600 students. The program involves kindergarten to Grade 7 students in local food supply security projects, and introduces and teaches them about growing food in the Bulkley Valley.

The LifeCycles Project Society

The “Cultivating Communities” project will engage Capital Regional District locals in up to 150 workshops and work parties as well as one-on-one mentorships for gardeners and orchardists throughout the Capital Region. Workshops will be delivered at schools, in conjunction with libraries at the Rex Welland Legacy Community Orchard and with BC Housing residents in community gardens.

The Central Okanagan Community Farms Society

The project intends to grow 25,000 pounds of produce per year, for two years, for the social service agencies of the Central Okanagan through a community farm, and the training of five to 12 farmers of small-lot incubator farms. Participants who work in the gardens will be educated through hands-on instruction at community farms, through field days and seminars, participation at fairs and public events, and through social media.

The Lillooet Agriculture and Food Society

The “Growing Healthy Communities” project will deliver tailored events, workshops and seminars in the District of Lillooet, Area B of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District and each of the northern St’át’imc communities, on growing and harvesting activities both in and out of season. Participants will learn about soil preparation; seed selections; crop care; harvesting, processing and storing produce; crop diversification; natural pest management solutions and winter crops.

The City of Terrace and the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine

The “Grow Local Training and Engagement Initiative” includes workshops focused on backyard food production with the aim of attracting and developing new residential gardens and gardeners. The hands-on workshops focus on topics that have been identified as areas of interest in the community through the 2013 Agricultural Area Plan, such as extending the growing season.

The Coombs Farmers’ Institute

Coombs Farmers’ Institute has partnered with the Parksville Museum, the Arrowsmith Agricultural Association and the Town of Qualicum Beach, to secure high profile education centres in all three communities to teach people how to grow their own food. The “Here We Grow” project will engage locals in workshops that will teach how to grow food, food preparation and preservation techniques focusing on good nutrition, with some workshops targeting school teachers to encourage on-going teaching of food literacy. Some other project components include the development of educational resources, engaging seniors as mentors, the formation of 4-H Here We Grow Garden Clubs, and the creation of mentor-led, house-call consultations for gardeners.

The Prince George Public Interest Research Group Society (PG PIRG)

The “Grow North” Initiative aims to increase Local Food Production in Prince George through a series of workshops, crash-courses and demonstrations that outline how to optimize garden yields, reduce input requirements, store food across seasons, and produce fresh greens over the winter. The PG PIRG’s Grow North project also involves other organizations supportive of involving Prince George residents in food production including the UNBC Green Centre, the David Douglas Botanical Society, the Growing Community Garden, and the Prince George Good Food Box Program.

The Village Vancouver Transition Society

The “Building Community Food Security and Resilience” project received $25,000 and includes over 50 learning opportunities, including 12 workshops each year on sowing, growing and harvesting food, as well as hands-on learning-by-doing gardening, demonstrations, and one-on-one mentoring from February to November, with 750 to 1000 residents expected to directly participants. Village Vancouver maintains several learning oriented collaborative and community garden projects and seed libraries, provides food growing workshops and other learning experiences, and conducts research around what a sustainable food system in the Lower Mainland might look like. As Vancouver's Permaculture Oriented Transition Town Hub, it encourages more locally based agriculture as a means of building a more resilient food system and lowering the region's collective ecological footprint.

Wildsight Elk Valley

The two-year Keeping Food Real initiative aims to support the citizens and communities of the Elk Valley in growing their own food by providing online cold climate educational resources and hands-on practical workshops that support both novice and intermediate gardeners. The Wildsight Elk Valley Branch will be working with the College of the Rockies, Spruce Spring Stream Farms, District of Sparwood, Elkford Community Garden and the City of Fernie in the project and to increase food production in the Elk Valley.