Category Archives: Organizations

Organizations related to or supportive of local food

Fruit for Those in Need

For the 10th year, Greater Victoria residents can have their fruit trees picked by volunteers and donate a portion of the harvest to community groups, thanks to the LifeCycles Project Society.

The Fruit Tree Project links people who have surplus produce in their yards with others who have the willingness and ability to harvest it, and then supplies that fruit to people and community groups without access to fresh produce. Volunteers harvest fruit from private trees that would otherwise go to waste.

Fresh cherries, plums, apples, pears and other fruit (or sometimes vegetables) are then distributed through Community Centers and Food Banks, and shared among volunteer pickers, tree owners and the Fruit Tree Project. Produce is generally picked from July through October.

To schedule your tree for harvesting, simply fill in the online form.

Have questions? Contact Danielle Stevenson, Project Coordinator

Have you participated in the Fruit Tree Project? Leave a comment.

Food Co-operative Helps Build Food System

NOW BC Co-opI view access to a variety of local and “more local” food sources as an important part of building and strengthening our food systems at a grass roots level. (Like any product, if you don’t know it exists or where to get it, you can’t buy it. That means you can’t support the farmer, who may have to stop producing it, so now your only option is to get it from far away places… It’s a downward spiral.)

When my fellow community gardener Daryl told me about NOW BC, a member-owned food co-operative that operates within Metro Vancouver, BC, I asked him how he got involved.

“My initial reason for joining NOW BC was that I know the guy who started it. But besides that, there are several other strong reasons:

  1. It’s a co-op where members have a say in how it’s run and share in its success. This means that profit isn’t a primary motive like other businesses.
  2. Delivery ‘clubs’ allow fellow members within neighbourhoods to meet and form ‘community’ around the important topic of local and organic food. Individual delivery can’t do this. One club has started a ‘two-block diet’ network where they all grow food in their yards to share with each other.
  3. And, prices are cheaper than other organic delivery services.

Plus, I think it’s important to support local organic farmers so they can continue to make a good living.”

If you want to be a part of the NOW BC network, find a delivery depot in your neighbourhood or start your own.

Partners in Gardening

If you don’t have the time, patience or sense of adventure to grow a garden in your spacious yard but hate seeing all that real estate go to waste, how about having someone come in, work your garden for you, and leave payment in the form of a regular supply of fresh, organic produce?

There are a variety of creative gardening partnership options to choose from, including sharing or leasing.

Check out City Farm Boy, Kitsilano Farms and Sharing Backyards for more information.

Harvest to Spare? Share!

VancouverFruitTree LogoIt kills me to see trees and gardens laden with fruit and produce going to rot. It’s such a waste!

A friend of mine was walking in Kerrisdale a few weeks back and came across a tree laden with beautiful Bing cherries that were ripe and as yet untouched by birds — a most unusual sight. There were a few branches overhanging the alley, so she and her partner sampled a handful — not only did they look good, they tasted amazing. A few days later, the cherries were still there, beckoning, with no harvesting efforts in evidence.

Being a good citizen, she curbed temptation and instead wrote a witty note offering to share the bounty if the home owners would allow her to harvest any fruit they didn’t want. She waited by the phone for days, but to no avail. A week later, the cherries were decimated, and the note she’d left under a rock on the porch was still there. Sadly, the home owners were clearly not in residence.

If you have a bounty of fruit or produce, or if your elderly neighbours are no longer able to harvest theirs, The Fruit Tree Project is just what you need.

It’s a basic, common sense idea: connect people who have excess fruit from their backyard fruit trees with those who have the time and energy to harvest it, all for a good cause.

Most of the harvested fruit is donated to community organizations and individuals in need. The Fruit Tree Project also partners with Community Kitchens and other local organizations that use the fruit in educational programs, such as the importance of fresh produce in a healthy diet, canning workshops, and other food security activities.

Skip the unnecessary guilt and bad karma — get on their list quick, before your fruit all rots on the ground!

Organic, Local Food Delivery

NOW BC Co-opOne of the biggest challenges to eating more locally is sourcing the food. I’m not a rabid locavore — I love a good latte and savour chocolate on a regular basis, and those habits are not likely to change anytime soon.

I do, however, want the option to eat food from sources closer than farther.

I want to be able to choose the nearer farmer, which might mean a neighbouring province over another continent, rather than limiting my food choices to a strictly limited radius. (Given the state of our food systems, a 100 mile diet a great goal to aim toward, but not attainable at the moment.)

I was very interested to learn of NOW BC from a fellow community gardener. NOW BC is an organic, member-owned food co-operative whose mission is “to build a sustainable local food system by connecting local farms and processors with consumers and building community around sustainable food choices.”

In search of other than the usual fruit and vegetables, browsing the NOW BC product catalogue I find unbleached flour from Chilliwack, lentils from Saskatchewan (and you thought they only produced wheat), hazelnuts from BC, and whole wheat macaroni from Alberta.

You can make a purchase without a membership, food is organic wherever possible, and your purchase is delivered to a depot in your neighbourhood for pick up, keeping costs more reasonable and sustainable. Think of it as an expanded farmers market — those SK lentils might not make it to the Kits Farmers Market on Sunday, but you’ll still be supporting farmers and strengthening our ability to trace where our food has come from.

Now wouldn’t it be even more cool if the bakery at the weekly market made their bread with flour from Chilliwack?

Growing Food 101: How To Include Bees In Your Garden

The Richmond Food Security Society is offering gardeners a look into Beescaping, the sustainable art and science of integrating bees into the living landscape.

Bee conservation is widely recognized now as crucial to a sustainable future (hello, we need bees to pollinate!). This class is an introduction to beescaping, that looks at aspects of forage and nesting needed for both native bees and honeybees with an emphasis on bee health.

Creating a variety of nesting material for native bees, the basics of keeping honeybees in an urban setting, bee wrangling and other hands-on activities will be offered. This class is suitable for horticulturalists, landscape designers, farmers and home gardeners alike.

Saturday, July 18th
9am – 12 pm
Barn, Terra Nova Rural Park, 2631 Westminster Hwy
Cost: $30

For more information or to register for any of these classes, please contact Arzeena Hamir at foodsecurity@richmondprc.org or call (778) 297-2202

Are you planning to attend? Let us know how it goes — leave a comment…

Feed the Hungry With the Edible Garden Project

Have a couple of hours this Saturday and want to get down and dirty? How about volunteering to help maintain gardens for the Edible Garden Project.

The mission of the project is to create a network of communities where locally grown food is collected and distributed to organizations that provide food to low income families and individuals. The Edible Garden Project connects homeowners with gardens who want to donate a portion of their harvest, people who have under or unused garden space and would like to cultivate this land for growing food, and volunteers who want to contribute to the growing, sharing, and learning around locally produced food.

Saturday, June 27
10:00 am to Noon
North Shore (Vancouver, BC)
For location details, contact: coordinator@ediblegardenproject.com

Meet up with other gardeners, get great garden advice, and help the community.

UBC Farm 2009 Season Kick-Off Event

The Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm and the 100-Mile Diet Society are celebrating the Farm’s first market of the year and the official launch of the Vancouver 100-Mile Diet Foodshed Map.

Saturday, June 13
9:00 am – 1:00 pm
UBC Farm, 6182 South Campus Road Map

Mark Bomford, UBC Farm Program Coordinator and Kelly Kuryk, Foodshed Project Coordinator will be speaking about the unique collaboration between the 100-Mile Diet Society and the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm, synthesizing action, research and education.

As the only working farmland within the city of Vancouver, the UBC Farm is an urban agrarian gem, featuring a landscape of unique beauty and productivity. Currently, it is highlighting how sustainable agricultural techniques can reduce the negative impact of the food system on climate change and the environment.

Everyone welcome! Fun for the entire family, including farm tours, live music, a 100-mile pancake breakfast cooked by local chefs, fresh, local produce, garden tool sharpening (bring your tools!), bike tune-ups, local artisans, baked goods, children’s activities, and more.

Gardening That Feeds a Community

The Edible Garden Project is a brilliant initiative of the North Shore Neighbourhood House. The simple aim of the Project is to ensure that the community’s low-income citizens have local fruits and vegetables to eat, by collecting donated food from home gardeners and running community gardens that then supply produce to organizations, such as the Harvest Project, which in turn distribute food to those in need.

The Project also offers workshops and information on how to grow, preserve, and store your produce. Check out their events calendar for details on upcoming sessions such as Composting in Bear Country and Invasive Plants, Identifying and Replacing the Bad Guys.

You Can Get Involved
The Edible Garden Project is always sourcing new land for growing food. Do you have an unused backyard space that could be cultivated by the Project’s volunteer team? Or, if you are already gardening, how about donating some of your excess harvest? Take a look at the drop off schedule for details and locations.