LUSH VALLEY FOOD ACTION SOCIETY

The Fruit Tree and Farm Gleaning Program utilizes volunteers to harvest and redistribute thousands of pounds of fresh fruit and produce from homes farms and orchards that would otherwise go to waste and re-distributes the produce back to the community. Our Community Garden provides opportunities for education mentorship and community connection while improving food security for our local population. The Share the Harvest Community Garden is located in downtown Courtenay and hosts a combination of allotment and communal plots for gardeners. The Vanier Garden produces fresh fruits and vegetables for our Good Food Box and Hot Meal Programs. In addition this Garden hosts the LUSH Valley Seed Library a place for collecting and distributing a variety of seeds with aims to protect genetic diversity in our food system and promote public access to seeds. Healthy Student Meal Program - This program feeds 800+ students in the Comox Valley School District each week during the school year. Fresh local produce and other soup-making ingredients are sorted and bagged for delivery to about 12 to 16 schools each week. The Soup Program provides a healthy alternative to prepackaged lunches and provides an opportunity for Indigenous Education support workers to spend quality time with different students each week preparing soup for their classmates. Healthy Foods Cooking Workshops - We have several different facilitators each with their own areas of expertise who share their skills and knowledge in our online and hands-on cooking classes. While classes are typically designed for adults youth age 10+ are welcome to attend in-person or online classes if accompanied by an adult. At Young Cooks youth aged 6-14 learn to cook meals for themselves and their families while building local food system knowledge developing a positive relationship to healthy food and learning to read and create recipes in a safe supported environment. The Food Share Program was introduced as a response to the growing need for healthy food access and delivery as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020. It comprised of the Good Food Box and Hot Meal Programs. Our Hot Meal Program provides hot (and frozen) lunches to individuals delivered through our partner organizations. The Good Food Box is a large grocery bag of fresh fruit vegetables and eggs.