With a $750,000 grant, a Kootenay pilot program could be the template for similar food security efforts across the province

Food. And security.

In these uncertain times, the two go together like law and order, or maybe more gastronomically, bread and butter.

With BC’s provincial government closely watching, a new Regional Food Hub is being created in the Creston Valley, thanks to $750,000 in funding.

Farmers and food processors from across the Columbia Basin will have access to the food processing facility, beginning August 2021. A full launch will take place in the winter of 2022.

The hub, a major pilot project, if it works, will be used by the province to build similar centres and networks throughout BC.

Tanya Wall is the Vice Chair of the group Fields Forward, and a Regional District Director for a string of agricultural communities throughout the West Kootenay.

She spoke with Kootenay Co-op Radio about safe food supplies, avoidable waste and her favourite locally sourced foods, and yes, beverages too.