Community Announcement: Food & Farm Heritage Programs Coordinator
October 28, 2021
Pender Islands Community Hall is looking for a Food & Farm Heritage Programs Coordinator! This is a great opportunity for a person interested in food, farming, gardening, heritage, research and activity programming.
Full time until March 31, flexible hours, some virtual hours.
In 2021 the Food Security Connections Video came together as a collaborative project of the Food Literacy Working Group of the Good Food Network and the Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable (CRFAIR). This project was funded by an Island Health, Community Wellness Grant and supported by the Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable (CRFAIR).
The video is meant to spur dialogues and discussions around food insecurity, hear stories from people in our community and from individuals and organizations that are working to alleviate food insecurity through food justice efforts.
Video Production UATE Storied Learning | www.uatestories.com/
Locations in Video The Compost Education Centre www.compost.bc.ca
Victoria Native Friendship Centre www.vnfc.ca/
Saanich Neighbourhood Place www.saanichneighbourhoodplace.com/
Food Rescue Project of the Food Share Network(Capital Region) www.foodsharenetwork.com/-
To learn more about the Food Security Connections Video and it’s complimentary education package please visit www.crfair.ca
What’s all the buzz about bees? Join the Compost Education Centre and the Greater Victoria Public Library to learn about the importance of pollinators and discover little known facts about native bees and the integral role they play in our local ecosystem! We’ll chat about how you can help care for bees, and demonstrate a fun and simple way to make your yard and garden more bee friendly!
Volume 2 of our Biodiversity Zine is now published! This new volume is focused on Indigenous Ecological Stewardship and explores stories of 6 Indigenous folks, and the relationship and connection they have with land. The Biodiversity zine is written and created for youth by CEC staff member Zoe-Blue! It’s a great resource to explore Indigenous Ecological Stewardship with your children, or as a self guided resource for older youth. The current volume looks at invasive and native plants, remediation, Indigenous plant knowledge and how we can better care for the land we are living on. Click here to view the PDF version of the zine. The Zine is also available for pickup at the CEC, or via mail, both by donation. Know of other great resources for child and youth education relating to composting, soil health, or ecology/sustainability more broadly? We would love to hear about them and continue to share these resources. Please feel free to share any resources you encounter with our Child & Youth Education Coordinator Elora at education@compost.bc.ca
This month we are highlighting another great zine made in the community. The “Loving the Land” zine was made by the Youth Food Justice Group this summer and is a great resource for youth, as well as people of any age! The zine is filled to the brim with ideas for interactive activities, reflection exercises, games and more. It’s a great zine to use for guided exploration. It’s available for download here. I encourage everyone to explore it with your children, or take a look through yourself!
Our Schools Program is now taking youth workshop bookings for Winter and Spring 2021! We have 6 different workshops to choose from for students in Preschool to Grade 12, on topics including composting, worm care, soil ecology, organic gardening and sustainable living. We will be offering our programs in-person with COVID safety protocols in place – such as teaching in outdoor spaces, with smaller groups, and maintaining physical distance from students. Online workshops are also available upon request. See below for full descriptions of all our current youth workshop offerings:
*New* Factsheet #19 Bioremediation for Urban Gardeners
September 23, 2020
We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new factsheet: #19Bioremediation for Urban Gardeners, written by soil toxicologist and HCS program creator Danielle Stevenson, as part of our Healing City Soils project!
This factsheet is an introduction to beginner-level phyto (plant) remediation in soils that are contaminated with low-to-moderate levels of heavy metals. By working with native and non-native plants phyto-remediation is a process that slowly extracts heavy metal contaminants from soil. The factsheet is available for free online at our website: https://compost.bc.ca/…/09/19-Bioremediation_no-image.pdf
Bioremediation for Urban Gardeners is the third factsheet in the CEC’s factsheet series all about soil health and best practices if higher-than-normal levels of heavy metals are detected in your soil. If you’re interested in diving in, we recommend that you start with Factsheets #11 and #12, which introduce you to soil contamination and best practices for growing food in urban spaces.
The beautiful image pictured is snip of our ‘Hyperaccumulator’ poster created by local artist Natassia Davies (@ natassiaashley on Instagram), which will soon be available for sale at the CEC- stay tuned!
