Coast Capital Savings $100,000 grant fuels sustainable food initiatives at KPU
The university’s Institute for Sustainable Food Systems will put the grant towards its farm schools
KPU students doing hands-on work at the Richmond farm school. (Kwantlen Polytechnic University/Flickr)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Institute for Sustainable Food Systems (ISFS) received a $100,000 grant from Coast Capital Savings to go towards its farm school programs, and help further its work in building resilient sustainable local food systems.
The ISFS was invited to pursue it by Coast Capital Savings, says Kent Mullinix, director of the ISFS.
“The institute, much like Coast Capital, is about building the economic and social vitality of a community,” Mullinix says.
“So our larger objectives are aligned, and they’ve been interested in our work to prepare people to lead the building of an alternate food system, transform the food system, and they’ve been particularly supportive and interested in our work to engage Indigenous communities and advance their food sovereignty.”
The ISFS runs a multitude of programs all over B.C. and is actively collaborating and building partnerships with several Indigenous nations. It also helps operate farm school programs, working with the Sik-e-Dakh First Nation and the City of Richmond for its farm schools.
“Our goal essentially with this gift [from Coast Capital] is to keep building our program and diversify our programming so that we can generate sufficient revenue to keep the programs going,” Mullinix says. “The minute we don’t have enough money to run the programs, they shut down.”
Liza Moser is currently operating the Richmond farm school where students received seven months of hands-on agricultural education for $5,500, she says.
“[The program] caters really well to folks who want to start their own market garden or small organic farm,” Moser says. “But that’s not everyone’s goal. Some people just want to be more connected to their community and food systems.”
After the seven-month program comes to an end, students are invited to apply for incubator plots at the Gilbert Road farm location.
“It offers access to the land to run a market garden,” Moser says. “There’s a tractor there, … tools, mentorship, all of that, and it’s for $3,000 a year. The idea is that it removes barriers to starting your own farm.”
In 2014, the ISFS started to help operate the Tsawwassen farm school. The institute worked alongside the Tsawwassen First Nation to provide its members with agricultural knowledge and assistance in building a sustainable food production system.
After eight years, the ISFS’s work with Tsawwassen First Nation members eventually concluded when they decided they were no longer in need of the ISFS’s help, Mullinix says.
