Getting locally grown food from farms to schools, food banks and community meal programs is not always as simple as it sounds.
That’s the problem the Central Kootenay Food Policy Council hopes to solve through its Kootenay Food Procurement Social Enterprise Initiative, which is exploring new ways to help organizations collectively buy, store and distribute food across the region.
The initiative is being supported by a $65,000 provincial grant through B.C.’s Rural Economic Diversification and Infrastructure Program.
According to Central Kootenay Food Policy Council executive director Damon Chouinard, the project builds on the Kootenay-Boundary Food Procurement Network- a regional food procurement pilot launched last September.
That pilot brought together food producers, retailers, school districts, food banks, food hubs and local governments to identify gaps in the region’s food system and test opportunities for collaboration.
“We have a number of local producers in the region, but we have challenging geography,” Chouinard said.
He said moving food between communities can be costly and inefficient when schools, retailers and community organizations place orders independently.
“At the heart of our problem is quite often it’s harder to get food from Creston into the Slocan Valley or Kaslo or communities like that, especially if a store is trying to order on their own,” he said.
In some cases, Chouinard said locally produced food is shipped to Vancouver before being distributed back to the Kootenays because of existing supply chains.
He said the food procurement social enterprise initiative is examining whether organizations can combine purchasing, transportation and storage to lower costs, create new markets for producers and improve access to local food throughout the region.
The initiative is also exploring ways to recover surplus food that might otherwise go to waste.
“We have a lot of food here, but a lot of it goes to waste and the other side of it. So that may happen at the grocery retail level, but it also happens at the agriculture level as well,” Chouinard said.
“That food is still very edible. Sometimes it just needs a little bit of processing, some extra storage. And getting that food into communities that need it isn’t as easy as it sounds sometimes.”
He said the work has become increasingly important as food banks and other community organizations continue to face rising costs and growing demand following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The provincial funding will not be used to purchase food directly.
Instead, Chouinard said the grant will fund business planning, consultant work and interviews with producers, retailers, school districts, food hubs and community organizations. The work will help the food council determine what a sustainable regional procurement model could look like.
“This level of funding through REDIP is really focused on business planning, business development, engagement, outreach,” Chouinard said. “That’s the major piece here is really just setting us up for the next stage of identifying what the next step is, specifically having that plan put in place and then getting ready for that next stage.”
He said consultants will also visit food hubs, producers and distribution facilities throughout the region to better understand existing infrastructure and identify opportunities to improve how food moves between communities.
Success at this stage will be measured by developing a strong business plan and securing support from stakeholders willing to move the project into its next phase, Chouinard said.
He added the initiative also aligns with the federal government’s recently released national food security strategy, which calls for stronger domestic food supply chains, improved regional food distribution and expanded local food procurement.
The federal government said the strategy also proposes investing in food hubs and regional distribution systems to help institutions source more food from local producers while lowering transportation costs.
“I think this project is just setting us up very nicely to continue moving forward in alignment with these new federal objectives as well,” Chouinard said.
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