The funky offspring of the Galiano Club, the Food Program began in 2008.
The Galiano Community Food Program strives to ensure that Galiano Island is a thriving, livable, food-secure community, where every resident feels included, welcome and empowered to build a deeper connection with their food system. In so doing, the Program improves Galiano’s ecological sustainability and community resilience in the face of climate change and uncertainty. The program seeks to set an example that reaches beyond our local community and spreads across the country.
Food Program Blog
New School Garden Coordinator
We are happy to announce that we’ve hired Tricia Sharpe as our new School Garden Coordintor. Tricia has been facilitating workshops and coordinating programs for youth since 2001.
She majored in Anthropology at SFU, and completed her minor in Education during a 2006 field school in Punjab, India. Her experience growing food and flowers has evolved over the years through many courses and workshops, including a Permaculture Design Certification, Linda Gilkeson’s Year Round Harvest course, and an internship at the Mason Street City Farm. For the last three years, Tricia and her partner have been working on intensive ecological restoration of 4.5 acres on Galiano; establishing fruit tree guilds and organic gardens for a small farm. Tricia says she’s “thrilled to be the new coordinator of the Galiano School Garden; combining her passions of experiential learning with youth and caring for plants, soil and pollinators!” While we’ll miss Patti Pringle and are so grateful she was able to steward the program through the last few months, we know the kids are in good hands with Tricia’s green thumbs.
Tricia Sharpe has been facilitating workshops and coordinating programs for youth since 2001. She majored in Anthropology at SFU, and completed her minor in Education during a 2006 field school in Punjab, India. Her experience growing food and flowers has evolved over the years through many courses and workshops, including a Permaculture Design Certification, […]
COVID-19 Update
In response to the pandemic, the Food Program has adapted our regular programs. It’s clear that when it comes to food security, some people are more affected by the pandemic than others.
We are partnering with St. Margaret’s of Scotland church to run the Galiano Food Bank, which re-opened in February. There are a number of people on the island who rely on the Food Bank and the demand has increased during the pandemic as many community members are facing financial insecurity. We are very grateful for the swell of donations we’ve received from the community, including the CRD, and from the volunteers who have been doing grocery runs to make sure we have enough – thank you very much for your support. And a big thanks also to Daystar, the Corner Store and Galiano Trading for your support making sure we can bring in groceries.
To meet the needs of people who are self-isolating or in quarantine, and who are struggling to afford groceries, we have begun a new service in partnership with the Better at Home program, delivering over a dozen hampers of food each week. This program relies on over a dozen superstar volunteers who have stepped up to help out, cooking, driving, and doing outreach – thank you […]
Foraging
by Alison Colwell
Right now, getting outside could offer some fresh air and needed distraction. Just remember your social distancing!
Foraging wild food is one of our most primal activities, up there with discovering who left those tracks in the sand and learning how to build a fire. And if you can tell the difference between kale and lettuce, you will be able to identify plants and mushrooms in the wild. Foraging can be as simple as picking blackberries at the edge of the road or hiking through Bluffs Park looking for mushrooms. The more we use wild spaces to explore and forage in, the more connections we develop to our foods and the place we call home.
Come spring, stinging nettles are among the first edible plants to burst from the ground in the Galiano, then miner’s lettuce, blackberries in the late summer and chanterelle mushrooms in the fall, foraging oysters from Retreat Cove in the winter. Food surrounds us on our small island, if we know where to look. Once I learned to tap maple trees, boiling down the sap, making enough syrup for one Sunday breakfast.
Not only are foraged plants tasty, free, fresh and a good way to connect you to the place we live, they can also be good for you. Stinging nettles are high in vitamin C and calcium. Food is a necessity and also […]
Galiano Food Bank: Our Most Needed Items
- Canned Protein (Salmon, Tuna, Fish and Meat)
- Canned Fruit/Applesauce
- Canned Soup, Beans, Stew and Chili
- Cooking Oils (Olive and Canola)
- Pasta & Pasta Sauces
- Peanut Butter (or other nut butters)
- Rice (Brown and White)
- Breakfast Cereals & Oats
- Healthy Snacks – Granola Bars/Crackers/Nuts
- Tea and coffee & Skim Milk Powder
- Feminine hygiene products, Toothpaste, Soap
(Please no dented cans or expired food.)
Galiano Food Bank
Did you know that 1 in 3 food bank users in B.C. is a child, and 1 in 8 is a senior? That food banks help reduce hunger with dignity, and help reduce food waste too?
Last year after 20 years of service to the community, Ralph and Hans retired from their work running Galiano’s Food Bank. We met with St. Margaret of Scotland Church to see if there might be a way that the Galiano Community Food Program could support getting the Food Bank up and running again.
We are excited to announce that, as of February, the Galiano Food Bank is open again as a partnership between these two organizations. We are learning a lot as we go, and are keen to figure out what model will work best for the community, but for now, the Food Bank is open every 1st and 3rd Friday of each month from 11am to 1pm in the meeting room of the Church, on Burrill Road. We aim to reduce hunger in an atmosphere of respect and discretion. If you need help meeting your food needs, please come check it out— anyone in need is welcome. There is no fee to use the Food Bank. There will be coffee, tea and treats, and a welcoming face. If there’s something you would like to see on […]
LOCAL FLAVOUR: How choosing food plays into the climate change war
Photo: Chris Heffley
Linda Geggie is the executive director of the Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable. Below is an excerpt from an article she wrote for the Saanich News, published in October.
Young spokespeople like Greta Thunberg and other young leaders across the globe have inspired people to bring more visibility to the growing concerns being raised by climate science. Often overlooked in climate conversations is the role that our food plays. Growing and distributing food globally is estimated to contribute to over one third of human greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) points to agriculture as being responsible for 40 per cent of the Methane released into the atmosphere. This is important because as far as GHG’s go, Methane is a major bad ass gas, being 21 times more impactful than Co2 in its action to absorb energy in the atmosphere and cause temperature rise. We are learning the impacts of the global food system on our resources are vast.
The UN IPCC’s report published in August of this year digs deep into the science of what is happening and provides some important strategies that could be put in place immediately to work to turn things around. The report also determines that “People currently use one […]