At its annual planning session in 2023, our Board of Directors made food security the impact focus of the Community Foundation’s three year strategic plan. This decision was made in response to our recognition of food insecurity as an entrenched and ever-growing challenge in our region.

Since that time, we’ve engaged in efforts to enhance food security and help create a more resilient, sustainable and equitable food system in the South Okanagan Similkameen. This has included our investment in the Okanagan Food & Innovation Hub (the first investment of its kind by a community foundation in Canada), and the publication of our 2025 Vital Signs Spotlight on Food Security report.

On February 27, 2026, we hosted our 2nd Food Security Summit, with more than 60 participants coming together to continue the conversation about building a more food-secure region. See our story on the summit here. We’ll publish a summary of that event in Spring 2026.

The February summit built upon a similar event, which was held in September 2024. That day’s discussion and reflection was gathered into the following report: