- [Broadcaster] Local
agriculture plays a vital part
in the economy and food
supply of Metro Vancouver.
To help residents
understand and appreciate
the importance of this sector,
Metro Vancouver supports
agricultural awareness
by providing grants to
community organizations.
- So there are several
things that we consider
when we're choosing projects to fund.
One is the uniqueness of
the agricultural activity,
we look at the outreach across the region,
and to diverse audiences,
whether they're reaching urban communities
and school children.
- [Broadcaster] In 2019,
13 local organizations
received grants ranging
from $500 to $6,000.
One of this year's recipients is
the Langley Environmental
Partners Society.
- We are a non-profit
organization that's based
in the Langley area.
We do agricultural stewardship,
habitat restoration,
environmental education and outreach,
and community watershed
stewardship projects.
- [Broadcaster] This year's
grant was used by LEPS
to support their annual
"Langley Eats Local" event.
- So, first off,
we announced that we had
an "Eat Local" challenge.
The "Eat Local" challenge
has been going on
for a few years,
and residents in Langley can
source all of their food items
to make their meals out of
with all of our businesses
and farms here.
A second thing is we
offered a Passport Program
in which they only had
to visit five out of 10
farms or businesses,
and there was a lot more
awareness being brought
to some of the farms.
- [Broadcaster] The
Sharing Farms Society's
annual Garlic Festival is
another grant recipient.
- The Sharing Farm is a
non-profit organization
that's in Terra Nova Park.
It grows food and donates
it to the food bank
and charitable organizations in Richmond.
So we donated 24,000 pounds
of fresh produce last year.
Having the Agricultural Awareness Grant
is really important to The Sharing Farm,
because to put on the Garlic Festival,
it does cost quite a lot
of money to just put on
a big festival like this.
We're expecting 5,000 people.
There seems to be maybe even
more than that here today,
so, having that grant has
really enabled this festival
to be possible.
- Eating locally helps ensure that farmers
can contribute to our food
security over the long term,
and that's good for Metro Vancouver.
- [Sarah] Lots of children
don't know how food is grown,
and where it comes from,
so being actually able
to come out to a farm
is really great,
because it's probably
their first experience
with seeing food grown.
- [Theresa] So if someone's
interested in applying
for an Agricultural Awareness Grant,
we post the applications
on the Metro Vancouver website in January,
and the applications
are due in early March.
