As Local Food Matters shifts into darker and quieter days, we wanted to take a moment to share some reflections from our busy summer season, as well as some of the things that are inspiring us at the moment. And we have a lot of gratitude to share for all the individuals and organizations that supported our projects and growth in 2024!
Golden Farmer’s Market Summer Season
Our first year as operators of the Golden Farmer’s Market felt both like a steep learning curve as well as a big success. In addition to the new website and new logo, we replaced Market signage all around town, including a new banner that spans the entrance to Spirit Square next to Higher Ground. We saw new produce vendors reflecting an increase in the amount of local food available, and an increase in vendors overall from years previous.
We also launched the Power of Produce Kids Club which ran for 9 weeks during the summer months. 240 kids participated in this program – doing fun activities with veggies, taking a Two Bite Taste of each week’s featured veg and earning $3 POP Tokens with which to purchase produce from our local vendors.
Immense gratitude to the sponsors that made this program possible this summer and a special thanks to Dan from Dirtbag Corp for hosting the kids at the POP Tent all summer.
And a big thank-you to Kicking Horse Culture who stepped in to sponsor the musician tent all season long, supporting local musicians as well as the ambiance at the Farmers Market.
Glean Golden – Community Fruit Picking Service
We were delighted to see our community fruit-picking project grow this year with support from the Columbia Basin Trust ReDi grant. The Fruit Tree Registry is now listing 52 neighbourhood trees! 2500 lbs of fruit was picked this season by 32 volunteer fruit pickers and distributed for free to volunteers and community members.
In an exciting collaboration with our local school division, gleaned apples were brought to the Foods Class at Golden Secondary School where they were dehydrated into Apple Chips and distributed as a healthy (and delicious!) school snack. We look forward to expanding this partnership to include more apples and more schools in the future. Big thanks to Rhys Badenoch, Foods Teacher at Golden Secondary for enthusiastically taking on this project with us!
In another exciting collaboration, the Golden Food Bank has generously invited us into a shared use agreement for their new electric cargo van making it available for use by this program – and more local food initiatives. Thanks GFB!
With support from the Golden and District Community Foundation this season we offered a Consignment Stall at the farmers market this summer supporting new and micro-scale growers in accessing the community marketplace. As a farmer incubator program, the Growers Collective also developed an online collection of resources for growers specific to our climate and geography that are available to local growers. As we explore the various ways that our organization can further support local food producers we are turning our gaze towards the need for cold storage infrastructure and local food distribution in the winter.
Inspiring Regional Food Initiatives
In October, we attended the Basin Food and Buyer Forum in Nakusp to connect with regional food leaders and discovered a number of inspiring initiatives taking shape that offer a promising glimpse into the future of local food in our region.
We heard from developers at the Central Kootenay Food Policy Council about an exciting software platform being tested called Grow & Connect Interior that will provide solutions to overcome distribution challenges that our food producers and processors face moving products around in our mountainous geography. The project, led by CKFPC’s Damon Chouinard and Rebecca Richards, is now centred on building a communication and logistics platform informed by the original Food Supply Chain Map. Through engaging with truckers, retailers, producers, and warehousing operators, they’re uncovering a wealth of opportunities to create a more efficient food transportation network
We also heard from researchers diving into the evolution of community food hubs across the province, sharing details of their models, successes and challenges to date. This project is a partnership of CKFPC, the University of Guelph, Selkirk College, and UBC Okanagan titled “Resilience and Alternative Food Networks: Network Mapping and Case Study of the BC Food Hub Network.” It offers a wealth of information to inform any local process of the numerous competing tensions that shape the developmental journey of food hubs toward sustainability.
Finally, we heard about exciting Value Chain development projects unfolding in the North Okanagan that are exploring the potential for warehousing and distribution partnerships with a cross-regional scope. These projects have the potential to expand our community’s access to regional food – including from the Okanagan. We are excited to stay connected to this promising new project.
