Traditional Territories of the Saik’uz First Nation (Vanderhoof and surrounding rural areas), Nak’azdli Whut’en (Fort St. James), Stellat’en First Nation and Nadleh Whut’en (Fraser Lake).
Led by the Nechako Healthy Community Alliance, this initiative brought together food producers from Vanderhoof, Fort St. James, and Fraser Lake to explore the feasibility of establishing a regional food hub to benefit producers and improve year-round access to locally produced food for surrounding communities. With the Ideas Lab funding, a contractor was hired to guide the process of gathering input from producers on developing a food hub model for the tri-city region, and to establish a Food Hub Advisory Council to continue guiding development.
Story of Impact
The story below was shared by this initiative as their Most Significant Transformation Story, submitted as part of their final report. It reflects the perspectives and experiences of individuals involved in each initiative.
The Ideas Lab Funding allowed our organization to hire a contractor to coordinate our project, Food Hub Concept Development in the Nechako Region, and to investigate, summarize and report back with the findings to our non-profit group, the NVFN. This funding allowed us to take on this project, which would otherwise not have been able to be completed because of our reliance on a small group of volunteers, who simply would not have had the time. We are very grateful for the opportunity to continue to support local food security improvements in the Nechako Region, which this grant facilitated.
After the community meeting with Producers in 3 local towns, as well as an online meeting, we have found that small, low-risk initiatives, such as an online storefront, are better supported by local producers at this time, rather than a large commercial space with significant overhead. We found some moderate interest in volunteers for a Food Hub Advisory Board, but also some hesitation, as Producers tend to be so busy with their farms.
Most significantly, after completing our meetings, we have recently learned that a local well-established business is interested in expanding its physical location and in increasing its selection of local food, which is great news! We will be having further conversations with them on how we might be able to support this, for example, by helping them connect with Producers across the region. However, given the news that a for-profit enterprise is pursuing a similar project, it does not make sense for us to continue seeking to establish a physical location for a Food Hub at this time.
This development leads our group to reflect on a change in focus in our upcoming plans for community projects, as we have repeatedly heard that a lack of cold storage is a barrier to producers scaling up, as well as a challenge for locals who would grow more food but don’t have appropriate storage, and even for the local food bank being able to accept donations at times. Some type of large root cellar that would be passively heated/cooled and therefore have very low overhead would likely be most appropriate. If we can find suitable grant opportunities, this would likely be our next infrastructure choice.
We were fortunate to have a hard-working and professional contractor who provided us with a final presentation that is available for viewing on YouTube.
Project Poster
All posters are downloadable in print format. Original posters were designed at 3ft by 4ft; as such, we advise you to print at a similar ratio to ensure text and images are as accessible as possible.
Nechako Regional Food Hub: This project aims to hear directly from food producers on the suitability and feasibility of establishing a Food…
Interactive Map
Use the interactive map below to see who we funded across the north.
You can filter according to project type: Large-Scale, Ideas Lab, and Rapid Stimulus.
