<\/p>\n Loni Taylor and her dog, Xusum, in her garden. Photo credit: Vicky Kelman<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Loni Taylor is a member of the\u00a0CCEDA \u2013 the Cortes Community Development Association<\/a>. CCEDA is working on initiatives to improve local food security. They are informed by a recent\u00a0survey<\/a>, which addressed community needs and desires. Respondents were eager to grow more food, but identified a need for permanent growing space.<\/p>\n \u201c[Many] people that have the knowledge and the desire to grow their own food don\u2019t have sustainable year round housing on\u00a0Cortes<\/a>, and they\u2019re\u00a0usually displaced sometime in the spring.<\/a>\u201d Loni says.<\/p>\n CCEDA\u2019s food security initiatives aim to fill this gap by providing solid ground for all islanders to grow food in. CCEDA is entrusted with 2.7 acres of commercial land in downtown Manson\u2019s Landing, adjacent to the Community Housing project, that they hope to develop into a vibrant green hub that meets islanders needs. CCEDA also hopes to generate produce and revenue for the\u00a0Food Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n Loni shares her own dreams for a community food preservation and storage facility.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the main issues that we\u2019ve found in our outreach is that despite the fact that there\u2019s several commercial kitchens on Cortes, there\u2019s very little opportunity for restaurant food industry entrepreneurs to start up any kind of food business wth those commercial kitchens because there\u2019s no place for them to store an inventory. And it\u2019s just it\u2019s a huge struggle. I think it\u2019s really key that we create an infrastructure with extensive and pragmatic facilities for cold storage.\u201d<\/p>\n She says we can grow a lot of produce on the island, \u201cbut we can\u2019t store it. We can\u2019t make it last because we\u2019re lacking the facilities or the space or even just the knowledge of, of creative ways to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Some of the stalls selling local products, from seafood to greens, in the Gibsons\u2019 Public Market. Photo credit: Flickr \u2013 Rebecca Bollwitt<\/p><\/div>\n She tells me she\u2019s inspired by projects like the\u00a0Gibsons Public Market<\/a>, that houses local cheesemongers, fish-sellers, and farmers, and cafes, as well as a community events space. She is also looking to community greenhouses, like the\u00a0Inuvik Community Greenhouse\u00a0<\/a>in Nunavut, for examples of how projects can be adapted to specific community needs.<\/p>\n Loni says the CCEDA\u2019s initiatives will be guided by ongoing community input and the leadership of Cortes\u2019s expert gardeners and food producers. \u201cThere\u2019s also a lot of knowledge on the island,\u201d she tells me.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s very specialized individuals that have the background to lead us in some of those endeavors and be educators and in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n The Inuvik Community Greenhouse produces abundant food in the arctic ecosystem. Photo credit: Phillipe Morin<\/p><\/div> To get involved with CCEDA\u2019s Initiatives, you can contact them at\u00a0info@cceda.ca<\/a><\/p>\n What feeds us in the time of COVID-19? Are you a local farmer, fermenter or food enthusiast? I\u2019d like to speak to you about local food systems! If you are interested in being interviewed on an episode of Nourish, contact me at\u00a0tara.w.721@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Tara Warkentin \u201cTo me, food security is about being able to relive the individual and community from stress and anxiety around how they\u2019re going to feed themselves and their family,\u201d\u00a0Loni Taylor\u00a0says. \u201cTaking that weight off allows our community to fulfill all the other roles that they want to or were meant to fill. And…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":6064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[544],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6062"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6062"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=6062"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=6062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Food](\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/20190719_190418-scaled-e1595783128582.jpg\")
<\/a>A Vibrant Green Hub<\/h2>\n
![\"food](\"https:\/\/cortescurrents.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-24-at-4.26.20-PM.png\")
Inspirations<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
![\"Food](\"https:\/\/cortescurrents.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Screen-Shot-2020-04-24-at-4.26.34-PM.png\")
Contacts<\/h2>\n