For the Year Ended December 31, 2014

Annual Report

Photo & Cover Photo: Brian Harris

Our Mandate;Farm & City working together to cultivate local, sustainable food systems. For over two decades FarmFolk CityFolk

has supported sustainable agriculture and

celebrated local food with communities across

British Columbia.

We do this by helping farmers, local food

producers and processors; engaging the

public in the celebration of local food; actively

organizing and advocating around local,

timely issues; building alliances with partner

organizations and businesses; and harnessing

the energy of our volunteers.

We believe that strengthening the connection

between farm and city, producer and consumer,

grower and eater helps build more sustainable

communities. Supporting local, sustainable

agriculture helps reduce the environmental

impact caused by industrial farming practices

and transporting food over long distances.

Eating locally year round means fresher, tastier,

and more nutritious food while enriching our

experience of how and where our food is

grown. Eating locally also stimulates our local

economy, ensures our food security, and helps

conserve farmland, through the best way we

know how, by keeping it in production.

FarmFolk CityFolk is a member based society

and registered Canadian charity founded in

British Columbia, Canada in 1993. (Charitable

Tax Number BN 89223 1572 RR0001)

Photo & Cover Photo: Brian Harris

Message from the Executive DirectorFor non-profit organizations the five year mark is a

good time to look back at what you’ve accomplished

and a important time to look forward to where you

want to head. Five years ago this spring I joined

FarmFolk CityFolk as Executive Director. At the time

our annual budget was $450,000 and our projects

focused on promoting local food, strengthening the

connections between small scale producers and

buyers, and helping farmers through our support of

community farms and our work on seed security. Our

Feast of Fields local food celebration and fundraiser

had just expanded to the Okanagan becoming a

new revenue source for the organization and an

important way to connect with one of the provinces

most important agricultural regions.

At that time we also initiated a Financial Management

Review which looked closely at the financial health

of the society, setting goals to become more

accountable to our donors, partners and members,

and laying a solid foundation for the future growth.

Over the past five years we have worked hard to

strengthen and expand our program base, restructure

our program management, meet our financial

management goals, and find new and innovative

ways to expand our fundraising capacity. Since 2010

we have increased our annual budget by 51% to

$680,000 in 2015. This is remarkable growth for

our organization and can be contributed to hard

work, expanded fundraising support and program

expansion.

Since 2010 we have expanded our budget and our

effectiveness by receiving four years of funding to

deliver the USC Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian

Seed Security, partnering with Young Agrarians,

playing a larger role in Institutional Procurement in

partnership with Farm to School Greater Vancouver

and Farm to Cafeteria Canada, growing our

member based newsletter to a widely distributed

magazine, producing a television series on Shaw

and Telus, offering interest rebate loans to local

food producers in partnership with the Island

Chefs’ Collaborative and Vancity, celebrating

our 20th Anniversary, and continuing to

offer programs that promoting local food,

strengthening the connections between

small scale producers and buyers, and

helping farmers.

All this hard work has build a strong

foundation for the future of FarmFolk

CityFolk. And, to provide security for this

important work, we have been able to build

a surplus of $43,000, one of the goals of our

financial review, which will provide security

for years to come.

Looking forward this past year we visited

BC’s big three food growing regions—the

Okanagan, Metro Vancouver and Vancouver

Island, and asked our regional partners,

supporters, and local food thinkers,

champions and business leaders, to give us

insight into what they thought our strengths were and

where we should be heading. This spring will reflect

on this wisdom with our staff and board of directors

and build a vision for the next five years.

Thanks for your support.

Nicholas Scapillati

Executive Director

Report from the Stewardship TeamContinuing to grow a local sustainable food

system in British Columbia has made step change

over the past year. We witnessed a ground swell

of activity that continues to push past traditional

boundaries for consumers, producers, industry,

and government. We are extremely proud that

FarmFolk CityFolk is recognized as being at the

forefront of change through leading collaborative

events and being the first to implement innovative

programming.

Looking back over the past year, we have made

progressive movement in our farm programs

through a widely successful conference, seed

security init iative, and support for young

entrepreneurs. Further, we are excited about

our continued projects in the localization of large

scale food distribution and land protection. Over

the past year, we also have much to celebrate

when it comes to our marquee fundraising events.

We had some of the most successful events ever

and continue to look to new ways to be top-of-

mind with our members, supporters, and ever

growing community. As well, we continued to

push our presence in creating more connections

between local growers and businesses. Moving

into our next year, we are looking forward to

continuing to build upon the momentum of

decades of collaborative projects and engaging

events.

Behind the scenes, the FarmFolk CityFolk team

and organization is stronger than ever. Since

welcoming new staff members and new financial

processes, we have experienced a tremendous

amount of positive change – allowing us to better

deliver on our mandate and objectives. Over

the next year, we expect to achieve a balanced

budget that continues to grow in size as we

expand our programming. Further, we are looking

forward to formal strategic planning as we build

upon the collaborative stakeholder sessions held

this previous year.

The stewardship team sends an immense thank

you to the staff, sponsors, and volunteers who

continue to live and breathe FarmFolk CityFolk.

It is truly an amazing network and family of

passionate people whose spirit continues to

push our mission forward.

We look forward to another ground breaking

year!

Michael Dary

Stewardship Team Chair

Photo: Michael Marrapese

Stewardship TeamMichael Dary – Chair: Research Lead -

Retail Utilities, Accenture plc.,

North Vancouver, BC

Shelly Milstein – Manager of Philanthropy,

Spinal Cord Injury, Vancouver, BC

Alison Melville – Treasurer:

Senior Accounting Officer, VGH & UBC

Hospital Foundation, Vancouver, BC

Candice Gartry, CGA:

Director, Finance & Accounting,

VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation

Jodie Lightfoot – Brand and

Communications Strategist,

Lightfooted Strategies-Vancouver, BC

and Tokyo, Japan

Paula Panek – Retired IT Professional

Cory Pelan – Owner, The Whole Beast

Artisan Salumeria, Victoria, BC

Outgoing Team MembersMolly Thurston – Co-owner and Operator

of Claremont Ranch Organics,

Okanagan Lake Country, BC

StaffNicholas Scapillati, Executive Director

Amber Cowie, Manager of Strategic Relationships

Kelly Farrell, Manager of Events and Outreach

Michael Marrapese, Manager,

IT & Communications

Erin Nichols, Project Manager,

Food System Optimization

Heather Pritchard, Farm Program Manager

Tallulah Winkelman, Office Manager

Contract & Seasonal StaffRupert Adams, Co-coordinator, Bauta Family

Initiative on Canadian Seed Security, BC

Region

Sara Dent, Young Agrarians Coordinator

Jennifer Freeman, Vancouver Island Feast of

Fields Coordinator

Alison Love, Feast of Fields Okanagan Coordinator

Jennifer Vincent, Meet Your Maker Okanagan

Our Work

Our Farm Program

Community Farms Shared Farming on Shared Land

In 2014, we completed our “Helping Farmers”

project—funded by Vancity Envirofund. After

working with over 20 groups, customizing our

support to meet the needs of farms and agriculture/

food communities, we identified the most critical

need for community farms as on-farm housing.

Outside the Community Farms program, the highest

need for new entrants into Agriculture, is access

to affordable long-term tenure on land.

In response to the high cost of land, the wave of

young people seeking land and the number of

aging farmers needing to sell, we secured funding

to develop a made In BC Farmland Trust.

Photo: Michael Marrapese

Foodland Trust

In partnership with CR FAIR, we received funding

from Vancity and the Real Estate Foundation, to

explore trust models and select one that would

work for BC.

When we presented our Farmland Trust Proposal at

the BC Food Systems Network Gathering in June,

2014, we heard our Indigineous partners say that

our definition of farmland excluded the Indigenous

Food System, based on hunting, gathering and

fishing.

A simple shift from Farmland to Foodland recognizes

the diversity of food harvesting systems, the

colonial history of agricultural land policies, and

open a dialogue between farmland protection and

access initiatives and Indigenous land rights.

BC Seeds – Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security

FarmFolk CityFolk completed the second of four

years of the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian

Seed Security. Aiming to increase the quality,

quantity and diversity of the seed grown in the

BC Region, we provide on-line and off-line support:

training, on-farm research, resources and extension

services.

We support variety trials, seed libraries and banks

and fund growers to do variety seed trials.

The highlight year was the launch of the BC Eco

Seed Cooperative at the BC Seeds Gathering in

November. Friday night featured our “Knowledge

Keepers” – a panel

of exper ienced

s e e d g r o w e r s

telling their stories

a b o u t g ro w i n g

seed. One hundred

participants met,

learned, shared

and helped direct

our seed work for

the next 2 years.

Young Agrarians

FarmFolk CityFolk continues to partner with

Young Agrarians (YA), a vibrant on-line and off-line

community. In 2014 we took the user friendly Access

to Farmland Guide on the road, conducting a series

of Land Link mixers across BC. We are working

with 20 new farmers on a mentoring project that

connects them to an experienced mentor.

Building Networks

FarmFolk CityFolk’s farm program continues

to build alliances, in local communities, our

designated regions (Lower Mainland, Okanagan

and Vancouver Island) and other communities

throughout the province. The BCSeeds Network

and Community Farms Network is connected

to individuals and groups through a series of

interconnecting networks. We participate actively

in the Certified Organic Association of BC and the

BC Food Systems Network.

Photo: Sara Dent

Our Events

Meet Your Maker

In 2014, we held our 7th Meet Your Maker Metro

Vancouver, our 3rd in the Okanagan and introduced

our 2nd Meet Your Maker event on Vancouver

Island. This event, held at the Saanich Fairgrounds,

took the same format as the other two regions

and was well received with producers and buyers

alike. Vancity stepped up to sponsor the Vancouver

Island event, along with Metro Vancouver, and

the day provided great networking opportunities,

valuable workshops and the perfect platform for

folks to connect and do business.

Feast of Fields

As always, summer would not be complete without

our three delicious fundraising events throughout

BC. We held our 6th Okanagan Feast of Fields on

August 17th at Okanagan Lavender & Herb Farm

in Kelowna on, of course, a beautiful Okanagan

Photo: Sara Dent

Photo: Michael Marrapese

summer day. As always, it was great to see so

many old friends out at the event. The chefs this

year were even more inventive with their creations

than in the past, and guests remarked that it was

difficult to make room in their bellies to try all of the

amazing creations. As always, We look forward to

many more years of celebrating in the region.

On September 7th, we celebrated our 20th annual

Metro Vancouver Feast of Fields at Wellbrook

Winery (home of Bremner’s berries & juices) in

Delta, BC. This was our second time holding the

Feast at Terry Bremner’s farm, and it’s easy to

see why. Welcoming many new chefs this year,

the amount of delicious food to taste was a feat in

itself. Thankfully there were many amazing spots

throughout the farm property where guest could

relax in the late summer sun and re-group before

heading back out for another round of tasting.

One week later on Vancouver Island, the 16th

Annual Vancouver Island Feast of Fields was held at

Kildara Farm, in BC. This farm was instrumental in

helping shape the organic movement on Vancouver

Island and we were so thankful to host our event

Photo: Michael Marrapese

at such a lovely spot. The day was filled with a

number of local musicians and once again, the

chef’s outdid themselves.

Many thanks to all of our Feast hosts, chefs, farmers,

volunteers, musicians and guests. A very special

thank you to our key sponsors, Choices Markets,

Vancity, Nature’s Fare, Okanagan Culinary College,

Bernardin and Organic Grocer.

Win Our Windfall RaffleLast year was our 2nd year holding our Win Our

Windfall Raffle. We had created this fundraiser to

support our 20th Anniversary celebration and it

was a bit of an experiment seeing how successful

we could be without that event as our main

motivator. The answer was almost $4,000 net profit

successful! We were met with tremendous support

from both our partners who donated amazing prizes

and our friends and supporters who purchased

our tickets. Win our Windfall had over $10,000 in

grand foodie prizes and tickets were $10 each or

3 for $25. We came just shy of selling all of our

1500 tickets. It was a windfall indeed. Not only

did we manage to raise the funds that we had

hoped to, we found that there were all sorts of extra

benefits that came from our raffle. Selling tickets

at our Feast of Fields events and at local Farmers

Markets gave us a way to connect directly with

our members, Feast attendees and the general

local food-loving population. Promoting our raffle

through our website and social media gave us a

way to highlight all the great work that our partners

do. So the experiment worked! Get ready for the

3nd annual Win Our Windfall raffle. Hope you are

feeling lucky!

CommunicationOur main website gets an average of 3800 visitors

a month; 75% of them are new users. We’ve added

a lot of new resources to many areas of the site. In

particular our Community Supported Agriculture

(CSA) listings, which generate 15% of the traffic to

our site, have grown considerably, coinciding with

growing public interest in these programs.

Last summer we launched our new Feast of Fields

website which will provide more visibility and

recognition for our participants and give us a solid

platform for year-round promotion of the Feast of

Fields events.

We’ve steadily expanded our social network through

Facebook and Twitter. Currently we have more than

5500 page likes on Facebook and 6400 followers

on Twitter.

O u r e - b u l l e t i n

continues to be a

valuable tool for

c o m m u n i c a t i n g

with our members

and constituency.

C omp l y ing w i t h

the new anti-spam

legislation meant

cleaning up our lists

and refining ways to

manage them. Since then our subscriber list has

steadily increased to 1272 subscribers.

Our subscriber list for our Feast On-line Newsletter

and our electronic magazine distribution continues

to expand and we continue to look for new ways

to connect to broader audiences.

The FarmFolk CityFolk magazine is still the mainstay

of our public communication featuring great articles

on the food we eat, the people who produce it

and the issues that affect our food system. We

produced 4000 copies which were distributed

to members, supporters and our guests at the

Feast of Fields, the BC Seed Gathering, Young

Agrarian events, 5% day at Whole Foods and other

public outreach events. We sincerely appreciate

the support of our core advertisers who help keep

our magazine afloat.

Community OutreachFarmFolk CityFolk provides educational and

resourceful information to the public via our

Knowledge Pantry webpage and our community

outreach info tables at events.

FarmFolk CityFolk Staff sit on many boards and

advisory groups throughout BC including the

Vancity Community Advisory Committee, the

Minister of Agriculture Advisory Committee

(sub-committee: Land Access), the Real Estate

Foundation Advisory Committee, the BC Food

Systems Network, Slow Food Canada, the

Vancouver Food Policy Council , Richmond

Sharing Farm Society, Farm to School Greater

Vancouver, Farm to Cafeteria Canada, McConnell

Foundation Institutional Procurement Team, Slow

Food Ark of Taste and the Vancity EnviroFund.

Hellos...

Shelly Milstein

Originally from North Vancouver, Shelley has a

bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from

the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC)

and a certificate in food security from Ryerson

University in Toronto. She has had the privilege of

working with many non-profit organizations across

the province and volunteered at Feast of Fields

for four years.

She is currently the Manager of Philanthropy for

Spinal Cord Injury BC and the Events Manager

for EatWild. Shelley is also a passionate salsa

dancer, hunter and cyclist. Her dream is to one

day run a bed and breakfast somewhere in rural

British Columbia. Prospective business partners,

handymen, farmers or hunters are welcome to

apply.

Alison Melville

On our Board on Directors we say both hello and

goodbye to our treasurer Alison Melville. Alison

answered the call of a recruiting process we held in

2013 to find a certified accountant to join our Board.

Alison is a Certified Management Accountant the

VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation and was a big

help during our challenging financial management

transition in 2014. After a short term on the Board

Alison has decided to leave the Board as she and

her partner move to Victoria. We wish Alison the

best of luck on her new path and thank her for

all her hard work during an important time in our

organizations history.

and Good Byes

Erin Nichols

For the last several years, Erin worked with

FarmFolk CityFolk on a number of innovative

projects including Shared Harvest and the early

stages of Foodprint, both projects centred around

food systems and waste reduction.

From her experience as Marketing and Sales

Contractor for COWPOWER, the Coordinator for the

Trout Lake Cedar Cottage Food Security Network,

the Event Coordinator for Agriculture in the City and

Promotions Supervisor for SPUD she is well versed

in the food distribution system. She has moved on

to the Vancouver Food Bank and is still working in

food recovery and waste prevention.

Photo: Michael Marrapese

Funder AcknowledgementFarmFolk CityFolk thanks all of our members, donors,

supporters and funders!

Funders The Bauta Family Foundation

BC Ministry of Agriculture, Agri-Food Management

BC Ministry of Agriculture, Investment Agriculture Foundation

Central Kootenay Regional District

Central Okanagan Foundation

Certified Organic Association of BC (COABC)-Organic Sector Development Program

City of Vancouver

Columbia Basin Trust

Enterprising Non-Profits

Greater Vancouver Regional District

Jack Johnson (All at Once, CAF America and the Ohana Charitable Foundation)

J.W. McConnell Foundation

McKesson Foundation

Radcliffe Foundation

Real Estate Foundation

Richmond Community Foundation

TD Friends of the Environment

Tides Canada

The United Way

Vancity

Vancity Community Foundation: Community Farms Endowment

Vancity enviroFund

Vancouver Foundation

Major Sponsors, $1000+Allegra Printing

Avalon Rentals

Bernardin: Jarden Home Brands

Big White

Bremner’s Farm

Canadian Linen & Uniforms

Choices Markets

Coast Environmental

Cook Culture

EAT Magazine

Edible Canada

Edible Vancouver Magazine

Granville Island Brewing

International Stage Lines

Left Coast Naturals

Little Green Book

Kelowna Instaprint

Kildara Farms

Kootenay Co-op

Lonsdale Event Rentals

Monday Magazine

National Farmers Union

Nature’s Fare Markets

Niche Media

Nita Lake Lodge

Okanagan College

Okanagan Herb and Lavender Farm

Organic Grocer

Overwaitea Food Group

Play It Forward

Pedersen’s Rentals

Public Design

Salt Spring Coffee

Salt Spring Seed Sanctuary Society

SPUD

Summerhill Winery

Sysco-Kelowna

Terra Breads

Thrifty Foods

Tourism Penticton

University of Manitoba

Whole Foods Market

Wickaninnish Inn

West Coast Seeds

Photo: Brian Harris

Financial Statements

Expenses

January 1 to December 31, 2014

Revenue

January 1 to December 31, 2014

Suite 203—1661 Duranleau Street 2nd Floor, Net Loft, Granville Island Vancouver, BC V6H 3S3

Telephone 604-730-0450 Toll-free in BC: 1-888-730-0452

info@farmfolkcityfolk.cawww.farmfolkcityfolk.ca

Photo: Brian Harris