One of Wildsight Kimberley Cranbrook’s longest-standing priorities is supporting local food sustainability. Gathering around the table with family and friends for Thanksgiving reminded us that food is much more than a commodity—it’s a foundation of community resilience, local economic development, environmental stewardship, and public health. Nurturing a resilient food system helps ensure that everyone has access to nutritious and affordable food today, and when circumstances change.
We’re proud to report that our food sustainability initiatives—the Apple Capture program, Kimberley Community Garden, Backyard Farmers, and Kimberley Farmers’ Market—worked alongside other local organizations to strengthen our food system and grow an abundance of food to share with the community.
A bountiful apple capture season
It’s been a fruitful year for the Apple Capture program! This season, 154 community volunteers (including 9 organizations) came together for 14 events held throughout the summer. Through our community picks and presses, we enjoyed plenty of opportunities to get outdoors, work shoulder to shoulder, and keep good food out of the waste stream.
Together, we gleaned 2,619 lbs of apples from 25 properties, turning them into 185 litres of juice and an abundance of apple chips. We also diverted 380 kg of apple mash to local farmers. Thanks to the Kimberley Cranbrook Food Network and Healthy Kimberley Food Recovery Depot, free juice and chips made their way back into the community, including 85 bowls of apple chips at the Fall Fair and 20 litres of juice at the final Kimberley Farmers’ Market. Here’s to another successful season reducing food waste and animal attractants in our own backyards!
Growing food and connection at the kimberley community garden
Open and accessible to the community throughout the summer, the Kimberley Community Garden offered a shared space to grow food, exchange knowledge, and enjoy the outdoors. The garden was buzzing with activity this season through events which included Seedy Saturday, a seed bomb workshop with Kimberley Edible Gardens and Greenhouse (KEGG), and a youth tea-making workshop with the Spark Society. In all, the garden hosted 11 unique events where schools, families, childcare groups, and local non-profits came together to learn, share, and get their hands in the soil.
It was a productive growing season too! Thirteen volunteers contributed more than 200 hours to the garden, helping grow over 165 lbs of food for the Food Recovery Depot and Helping Hands Food Bank. Together, we planted new fruiting perennials—including plums, cherries, haskaps, and strawberries—as part of the process of developing an area in the garden we call our ‘food forest’. With new drip-line irrigation in place, we’re making watering more efficient while conserving water too.
The garden has been put to bed for winter, and we are already looking forward to growing more food and hosting more community events next summer.
Steering the Backyard Farmers’ program in new directions
The Backyard Farmers program took a new approach this season, focusing growing efforts at Leap Frog Farm and supporting the Kimberley Helping Hands Food Bank’s garden. Our backyard farmers helped grow more than 685 lbs of food for our community, including over 340 lbs at Leap Frog Farms for the Food Recovery Depot and another 345 lbs at the food bank’s garden for its clients. More than 175 lbs. of that harvest was tomatoes alone!
Nine volunteers contributed over 50 hours to help make it happen. A special shout-out goes to dedicated volunteers from the Food Recovery Depot who came out to lend a hand. We’re also grateful to Dave and Ilona Hale for generously donating market garden space at Leap Frog Farms. With local growing spaces, willing hands, and community partners working together, we’re helping put fresh, locally grown food on the table for those who need it most.
Bringing food to the table
This summer, the Kimberley Farmers’ Market welcomed over 12,150 visitors to shop with 51 unique local vendors. We’re thrilled to see the market growing in exciting new ways, while long-standing initiatives like the BC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Coupon Program continue being accessible for the community. This program helps make fresh, local produce accessible to lower-income residents, seniors, and families while putting dollars spent directly in the hands of local food producers. Participants spent $11,506 with eligible market vendors through the program this summer.
We are grateful for support for these programs from:
BC Association of Farmers’ Markets
City of Kimberley
Columbia Basin Trust
Government of Canada
Province of BC
Kimberley & District Community Foundation