Gulf Islands Food Co-op

* March, 2022: Roz Kempe and Ben Dunsmuir of the Co-op in cooperation with key stakeholders completed a lengthy SGI Food System Assets and Priority Actions REPORT (funded by the CRD’s Southern Gulf Islands Community Economic Sustainability Commission)

* January to March, 2022: We were so grateful to receive Vancity Community Partnership funding for a new Healthy Soils & Regenerative Agriculture Course.  This involved 63 registrants from all 4 islands, participating in Farmer2Farmer zoom learning sessions plus 4 island Field Days (to support Food Producers sustainably increasing food production and soil carbon sequestration), with an Instructor from Kwantlen Polytechnical University

* March, 2022: Co-op continued funding and in-person support for the Galiano Conservancy and Coast Salish Peoples of Galiano on the creation of the Se Lelum Sar Augh Ta Naogh native plant restoration garden (more info and photos here)

* March 26 to May 2, 2022: Co-op cooperated with Ptarmigan Arts and Pender Island Seed Library on “Food is Everything” Art Show, to celebrate island food creation and seed saving

* April, 2022 onwards: Co-op confirmed CRD (Capital Regional District) funding, to continue our support for Pender, Galiano and Mayne Seed Libraries (plus fall workshop below)

* May to November, 2022:  Thanks also to our 2022 CRD funding, the Co-op completed another super season of our Co-op Tables for Joint Selling at Pender, Mayne and Galiano Saturday Markets

* Fall, 2022:  Co-op supported Saturna Island Food Bag Program, where food is purchased from local sources and then shared with folks in need

* October 4-6, 2022: Co-op offered an extended repeat of our previous  Seed Cleaning & Seed Saving Workshop Days , for community learning and sharing of seed cleaning equipment

* Fall, 2022 onwards: Co-op offered its big food dehydrators and pressure canners for borrowing by island folks, as part of our Food Preservation Equipment Program

* Ongoing: See our Food Registry of 66 wonderful commercial Food Producers and 12 Island Food Groups!  Just fill out this easy ONLINE FORM to then be found in this Registry (searchable by food type and/or island).  And as usual, we are currently submitting applications to fund next year’s proposed projects to support Southern Gulf Islands Food Producers, Eaters, and island food security!

To support non-profit Co-op activities like the above, you can easily MAKE A DONATION, and/or BECOME A CO-OP MEMBER ONLINE, inviting Southern Gulf Islands food producers of any type, plus keen Co-op supporters. Then you can have input into FUTURE LOCAL FOOD PROJECTS that we’re developing for 2023.