A graduate student home for the summer is organizing an event which combines her love of good food with her concern for food security in Powell River.
Kelly Hodgins, who grew up in Powell River, is organizing Farm to Fork, designed to promote local food producers and chefs and provide food security for some low-income seniors in the community.
Diners at the event, which takes place on Hodgins’ parents’ farm on Valley Road, will be seated at tables in the middle of a hay field and served meals made from local ingredients where possible and prepared by Powell River chefs.
Tickets have been selling quickly for the Saturday, August 9, dinner, she said.
The idea is that most of the ingredients are sourced within 50 miles or less directly off a farm.
“It comes from the farm directly to your plate with as little processing and as few middlemen as possible,” she said. “It’s celebrating and highlighting local producers’ bounty in its purest and richest sense.”
Hodgins grew up farming and wanted to celebrate all the hard work that farmers do and give people who had a different upbringing the chance to see where their food comes from.
Farm to fork evenings are an increasingly popular event across Canada, she added.
Some of the funds raised at the event will go toward a food security coupon program for low-income seniors and allow them to purchase $15 per week of fresh vegetables and meat from the Powell River Open Air Farmers’ Market.
“It’s addressing a bit of a wider food security issue in town, where seniors and pensioners are living on minimum income, vulnerable health-wise and need access to fresh local healthy produce but may not have the means to pay for that,” she said.
She wanted the event to have a wider social impact as well. Hodgins is a graduate student in geography at the University of Guelph. She is studying food security and the BC food system.
“I didn’t want this to just be an expensive foodie event where we all eat great food and pay lots of money. I wanted it to have a wider reach.”
Her masters research is looking at how low-income families access healthy and sustainably-grown foods.
“It would have been very hypocritical of me to put on a fancy expensive meal and not recognize those who can’t afford to be at the table and need that fresh and healthy food the most,” she said.
Hodgins is aiming for the event to be waste-free and containers will be available for leftovers, “so guests can take the party home,” she said.
Guests will also enjoy live music and drinks from Townsite Brewing and Courtenay’s Beaufort Vineyard and Estate Winery.
Tickets are $75 per person for the dinner can be purchased at River City Coffee, Townsite Brewing and Breakwater Books.
