History

Lush Valley Food Action Society

An early Lush initiative was the Good Food Box (1999-2003), a monthly bulk-buying program for fresh produce, locally grown when available, organic when affordable. Next was the highly successful Fruit Tree Project (2002-ongoing), a harvest sharing partnership between fruit tree owners, volunteer pickers and local food distribution agencies such as food banks and soup kitchens. The area now harvested covers Fanny Bay to Black Creek, and the result is a cornucopia of cherries, plums, apples, pears, kiwis, figs, hazelnuts, walnuts, quince and grapes to be shared by all. Everyone benefits – tree owners by receiving a portion of the fruit collected, rather than see it wasted as windfall, and those in need who receive a bounty of fresh or preserved, nutritious local produce.

The Lush motto is: “Less about charity, more about self-reliance”.

A recent initiative, Planning for Plenty, has seen Lush Valley partner with the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) under the Community Food Action Initiative, a program designed to increase awareness about food security, access local healthy food and increase the community’s capacity to achieve food self-sufficiency. A sustainable food system improves the health of the community, its individuals, and the environment by enhancing our ability to feed ourselves.

Our Mission Statement and Goals

Planning for Plenty

The following two documents outline our Planning for Plenty Strageties.

Plan_for_Plenty_Report (pdf file)

Planning for Plenty II - Full Final Report (pdf file)

Harvesting and Food Recovery

We believe that it is not a lack of nutritional food that is the problem but one of distribution. We have three projects that address the problem of cost effective food distribution and reduction of food waste.
 
To support our ideals regarding food distribution we have the following projects

The Fruit Tree Project

The Fruit Tree Project in an annual harvest-sharing partnership with producers, volunteer pickers and emergency food programs. Since 2002 over 6,000 pounds per year of otherwise wasted fruit, nuts and other perishables has been distributed through the community. The program includes harvesting, pruning, canning and preservation workshops for individuals.

The area now harvested covers Fanny Bay to Black Creek, and the result is a cornucopia of cherries, plums, apples, pears, kiwis, figs, hazelnuts, walnuts, quince and grapes to be shared by all. Everyone benefits – tree owners by receiving a portion of the fruit collected, rather than see it wasted as windfall, and those in need who receive a bounty of fresh or preserved, nutritious local produce.

How you can help:

Volunteer as a picker - you will receive 1/3 of what you pick

Donate - call us to come and pick your unused fruit, vegetables or nuts and you get to keep 1/3 of the harvest

Donate—crates, ladders, buckets and bins, jars, canning supplies

Identify Harvesting Sites – if you know of trees not being harvested in your neighbourhood email or call us the contact information and we’ll call them to have volunteers help

Pick up and Deliver volunteers and harvest—gas allowance provided

All you need to do is:
Fill out our Volunteer and Membership application [link to form from VOLUNTEER page] and complete a release form and return it to us [link to form]

All you need to do is:
Fill out our Volunteer and Membership application and complete a release form and return it to us.

Food Rescue

The Food Rescue program will launch May 1, 2009 with support from the Hamber Foundation. This program is modeled on that of Quest Outreach Society in Vancouver combined with a Food Runner Program similar to the Community Angel Food Runners program of the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society, in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island. The program will be situated in LUSH Valley Food Action Society’s HUB Food Security Centre. This grant will support the purchase of a suitable refrigerated vehicle as well as equipment and supplies necessary to launch the Program.

Food rescue involves intercepting food from every sector of the food industry before it goes to landfills. The food is sorted, processed, and redistributed to organizations and people who need it most. All food waste products are turned into animal feed or compost.

Food Runners is a prepared and perishable food recovery program. Through Food Runners, quality food is donated from restaurants, hotels, cafeterias and schools and then delivered to meal providing agencies.

This program will be new and unique to the Comox Valley. It will be operated on a cost-recovery basis whereby recipient agencies pay a nominal storage and delivery fee to cover operational costs. We will divert food from the landfill, re-package and distribute it safely to local food agencies, or partner with livestock farmers to deliver animal food to them in exchange for meat when they butcher, or compost what is not usable. This final step will create soil amendment for the vegetable gardens at the HUB.

The purposes of the Program will be to:
Decrease waste going to the landfill
Increase the amount and quality of food available to non-profit food agencies and programs which allows them more budget flexibility
Increase partnerships between farmers and the non-profit food community
Facilitate community composting education and implementation in the HUB’s neighbourhood.

Supporting Ourselves

LUSH Valley is now striving to increase and diversify the donor and revenue base through the development of a social enterprise with value-added product sales. Money raised through the social enterprise will allow LUSH Valley Food Action Society to rely less of government grants and private foundation dollars.

As an extension of a nine-year old fruit tree project, LUSH Valley Food Action Society will create the social enterprise by creating value-added specialty food products in a commercial kitchen setting for sale to the general public. Utilizing excess community harvest and volunteer labour LUSH Valley will create products beginning with fruit sauces such as apple, pear and plum. Quality jams and jellies, fruit spreads, salad dressing, and baked goods will follow.

Sales of these products will take place through the LUSH Valley administration office (known as the Hub) and the Comox Valley Farmers Market for the first year. The market will expand in year two with the product being sold to local independent retailers and by year three, to high end specialty shops as gift items as well as to local restaurants.

The social enterprise of value-added product sales fits with LUSH Valley’s mission to focus on using local resources to meet local food system needs. The social enterprise also fits with the vision of LUSH Valley in utilizing local skills to teach community members food sustainability in their own homes and for the community in the creation of the product.

A staple for the LUSH Valley value-added product will be applesauce as apples are the most abundant excess crop. The Comox Valley market place currently has no locally grown or produced offerings of applesauce This is a detail that will add more value to the consumer as it is a unique product although a basic household staple with multiple uses.

In the current global community there is a strong push to purchase locally grown and produced foods. The 100 Mile diet is a familiar phrase used to address this concept. Lush Valley can offer the consumer complete traceability of the product from tree to table. By purchasing LUSH Valley produced foods the consumer knows that the product they take home came wholly from the Comox Valley. In addition those purchasing LUSH Valley product have the added benefit of feeling good in that they are supporting a local non-profit, which according to an in-house survey, rates very high in importance for local consumers. Utilizing excess harvest increases the consumer value of LUSH Valley products.