Each year, the City of Kamloops issues a call for proposals for registered charities and non-profit agencies in our community to apply for Social and Community Development Grants, which are intended to fund special projects, operational costs, and/or capital expenditures that address specific current social problems and/or issues related to the City’s Social Plan or the Livability pillar of the Council Strategic Plan.
The Kamloops Food Policy Council received a $28,129 Social and Community Development Grant in 2022. This is how the grant was used:
Submitted by the Kamloops Food Policy Council
The Butler Urban Farm, located at 127 Clapperton Road, is a community farm that grows food for the community, with the community. Located on Kamloops’ North Shore, Butler Urban Farm is an unfenced 1 ac. urban farm that grows food intended to be accessible to all. We invite community members to harvest the food they need from the farm during our drop-in hours, and our larger harvests go out to our partner organizations, which turn this produce into community meals. We also run a community composting program wherein volunteers and neighborhood residents are welcome to bring their compost to the farm. The project is volunteer led and community driven, and we strive to continually shape ourselves in the vision of the community, and to its needs.
The grant funds allowed us to expand our programming by increasing our growing space and volunteer base as well as our educational opportunities. This year, we hosted a number of workshops on topics that included container gardening, homegrown mushrooms, integrated pest management, culinary herbs, and seed saving. We have welcomed several classes from the elementary school to university levels, and we love being able to provide a hands-on learning experience for students. We are in the process of installing interpretive signage so visitors can have a self-guided learning experience. We greatly appreciate the City of Kamloops’s support in allowing this project to grow.
The Butler Urban Farm has been an active food production space since 2015, when it was started by JUMP Kamloops. Since 2020, it has been managed by the Kamloops Food Policy Council. We continue to build its production capacity while connecting the space to our broader mission of community network building and public education. We are a space for food access and for learning, connecting, and meeting your neighbours. We are a learning farm, and through experimenting and sharing knowledge, we work towards a food system that respects the people and the planet it involves. We hope the farm can act as a hub where community and ideas thrive.
We also provide public green space for the community. A place where people can walk through the towering sunflowers and view the wide array of birds and insects that visit the farm. The site, generously loaned to the farm by Butler Auto and RV, has been transformed from a vacant lot into a flourishing ecosystem. We aim to regenerate the soil life on the site, support pollinator habitat, plant native plants, and demonstrate a circular waste stream for organic waste (compost). Butler Urban Farm is also working to build a seed bank of locally adapted seeds that are resistant to drought and extreme temperatures. We hope others join us in doing so through our seed education workshops and community seed library.
We welcome visitors year-round by request. Please send inquiries to caitlin@kamloopsfoodpolicycouncil.com or follow the Butler Urban Farm Facebook page for updates.
“As a retired senior, I find the Butler Urban Farm a great place to volunteer. It keeps me in contact with the natural and social world. It is a place for me to contribute to food security through physical work. But also, a place where my education and past employment in the fields of horticulture and social work may be put to use. The staff at The Butler Urban Farm are warm and welcoming community builders." - Hamish Plommer
To learn more about this grant, visit Kamloops.ca/Grants. To view stories on how other groups used their Social and Community Development Grants, visit Kamloops.ca/CityStory.
