After five years of providing 325 food boxes monthly to families through the Comox Valley school district, LUSH Valley's Good Food Box program was cancelled in January, despite a contract running through the 2024/2025 school year.
LUSH Valley partnered with School District 71 for its Indigenous Education Healthy Student Meal Program, which provides fresh produce to Indigenous support workers or teachers to prepare healthy food, such as soups, for the students. This program currently requires $60,000 to run per year; $30,000 comes from LUSH Valley鈥檚 B.C. gaming grant, $10,000 comes from Indigenous Education and other funds are provided in-kind through LUSH Valley.
鈥淲hen LUSH Valley thinks about solutions to people that are dealing with food insecurity, we really do take a system鈥檚 approach and we work with 30 farmers in the Comox Valley for our Good Food Boxes,鈥� said Maurita Prato LUSH Valley executive director.
鈥淲e are able to provide a consistent market to those farmers and purchase at a fair market value. We鈥檙e bringing all that together in our warehouse and then we鈥檙e distributing it out to our community partners.鈥�
鈥淭he Good Food Boxes program started in 2019. In 2020, when COVID hit, we were able to pivot very quickly and had a food distribution hub out of the curling club and that鈥檚 where we partnered with the school district. About a third of the boxes we were doing were going to school district families,鈥� said Prato.
While LUSH Valley continues a relationship with SD71 through the Healthy Student Meal program, the cancellation of the Good Food Box program has far-reaching effects on the local farming economy, explains Prato.
鈥淭he majority of the funds that the district was giving us was going directly to our farm partners.鈥�
Arzeena Hamir of Amara Farms in the Comox Valley is one of the affected farmers. She has garnered part of her farm鈥檚 income for the last three years through being part of the Good Food Box program.
鈥淚 would estimate that we sold on average $8,000 to $10,000 worth of produce through the box. It鈥檚 significant and really unfortunate that it was cut off so suddenly without any kind of discussion,鈥� she said.
While Hamir isn鈥檛 completely reliant on the program鈥檚 income to sustain her farm, she worries about other farmers who are.
鈥淭he bigger impact was to the egg producer who had to quickly figure out what to do with 300 dozen eggs. She鈥檚 put her chickens into moult, but that鈥檚 a huge financial loss to her,鈥� shared Hamir.
Hamir questions what the school district plans to pivot to, given the lack of discussion surrounding the program's cancellation.
鈥淸I鈥檓] curious what the SD is going to do now. Be hit with 25 per cent tariffs on their cheaper food? Continue to buy U.S. when the rest of us are madly reading product labels and staying away from U.S. products? Seems an odd use of public dollars to support a country trying to attack us.鈥�
Craig Sorochan, Communications manager for Comox Valley Schools said in an emailed statement that Comox Valley Schools are dedicated to providing students with access to nutritious meals in a way that is 鈥渟ustainable, inclusive, and maximizes available resources.鈥�
The use of the Good Food Boxes was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic and now that students are back in classrooms, the focus has shifted away from sending food to homes and instead feeding students within the schools.
They have pivoted to programs such as breakfast, lunch, and snack options available in school.
鈥淎 strong example is Arden Elementary鈥檚 universal, pay-what-you-can lunch program, which provides every student with a meal regardless of their family鈥檚 ability to pay,鈥� stated Sorochan.
Prato noted one of the goals of LUSH is to create that stable market for farmers and growers so that they can do their work and have a sales channel that is consistent.
鈥淲e hope that this leads to a more resilient local food system for everyone,鈥� she added.
Good Food Boxes are available through LUSH for $30/month and contain a minimum of 80 per cent local produce.
