The Healthy Saanich advisory committee will host an event next weekend to help promote locally grown food.
“It’s an opportunity to showcase local food and local food producers. There will also be opportunities for people to learn more about growing their own food in their own yard or garden,” said Coun. Dean Murdock, who chairs the committee.
The free, family-friendly Sustainable Saanich Food Fest will include displays, lessons and presentations – on gardening and cooking – from Haliburton Farm, Gorge Tillicum Urban Farmers, Lifecycles, Donald Street Farm and Saanich Organics.
“Healthy Saanich is keenly interested in local food and promoting local food, supporting our local growers, and we thought this was a great way to walk the talk,” Murdock said.
“I think it’s really important for people to get exposure about growing food and preparing local food, and knowing what’s available locally as part of the lower Island harvest.”
Kids will have an opportunity to learn some cooking skills, through Thrifty Foods’ Young Chef program.
The Saanich food festival happens Sunday, Sept. 30, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., where Darwin Avenue meets the Lochside Trail, behind the Saanich municipal hall.
Murdock says the location is a demonstration site for future trail-side pocket markets.
Last October, Saanich council discussed offering more opportunities to local growers to sell their goods, and the Lochside Trail off municipal hall was suggested as a prime spot for a makeshift market.
“I think (the Sustainable Saanich Food Fest) is a great way to open the door to having pocket markets at the municipal hall, which is really the community’s gathering place,” Murdock said.
kslavin@saanichnews.com