Help us Process & Preserve Local Food at The Stir

Registered Name: Kamloops Food Policy Council

Business No: 867490567RR0001

The Stir's new Processing, Innovation & Distribution Centre helps local food entrepreneurs expand and market their food business.

Our Food Hub allows KFPC partnerships and programs to process, preserve, and share locally grown food to our community. But to continue our impact, we need support from our community to grow and thrive.

Background

Local food matters. The recent highway closures and food supply chain disruptions showed our province how food insecure the BC interior region is. But among bare fridges and empty shelves, local products stood out as a symbol of hope. Strengthening our local food system can help meet our regional demands regardless of global interruptions or environmental crises. And that is exactly what The Stir does!

The Stir is the Food Hub for the Kamloops region. We provide kitchen facility rentals, business mentorship, and community support to help local process and market local food year-round and help food businesses reach a wider market than they would otherwise be able to break into. The Stir is a project of the Kamloops Food Policy Council and member of the BC Food Hub Network.

Located at 185 Royal Avenue in the heart of Kamloops' North Shore, The Stir works collaboratively with various local and Indigenous partnerships to connect and strengthen our local food system. Your dollars support these ventures and go towards our new commercial kitchen used by local businesses to feed our community. Help us support local food businesses and programs in Kamloops.

Our Partnerships

The Stir is incubating the next generation of BC Interior's food entrepreneurs through our network of community partners & shared facilities.

What are the ingredients of our region's food hub?

We enrich Indigenous food sovereignty with the Kweseltken Kitchen Mobile Food Processing Trailer;
We grow & distribute local food with the Butler Urban Farm;
We offer food education & commercial kitchen rentals with our partnership at Open Door Group Gardengate Training Centre;
We partner with local food champions at TRU Culinary Arts;
We will market local food at the Stirfront; and
We will provide shared local food processing equipment at The Stir's Food Processing & Innovation Centre.

Our Impact

By supporting The Stir, your donation will work towards a more equitable, sustainable, and healthier Kamloops. The Stir is so much more than a building. Its network of shared food hub facilities, support, and resources works towards:

Providing the support, shared equipment and infrastructure needed to be able to feed ourselves from our own backyard!;
Strengthening local food and Kamloops’ agri-business sector to ensure no one in our city goes hungry in the face of current and upcoming global food supply chain disruptions;
A more environmentally friendly Kamloops by decreasing our city’s food miles;
Increasing the biodiversity of our region;
Enriching Indigenous food sovereignty with our local partnerships;
A stronger local economy by helping food entrepreneurs expand their business, adding new jobs to the food industry, and providing a retail storefront to sell local products;
Helping small farms thrive through the distribution of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) grocery boxes;
Fostering community connections in our indoor & outdoor community gathering spaces;
Increasing food literacy by hosting workshops and events related to food and healthy diet.

Our Funding Request

Contributions to The Stir help us build a better food system for Kamloops. There are currently no dedicated shared food processing facilities in our city. The Stir fills this need. It also increases access to local food in the community, adds jobs to the food sector, helps small businesses, works toward Indigenous food sovereignty, encourages community development, and creates a more sustainable Kamloops.

THANK YOU for supporting local food, by local people.

Find out more about our work

Our webpage: https://www.thestir.kitchen

The Stir Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thestir.kitchen

The Stir Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thestir.kitchen

Media Articles on The Stir: Connector Article & Infotel News