Okanagan College
ER-T2-5: Sustainable Enterprise

With a high cost of land and increased pressure on pricing, farmers are having greater difficulty sustaining themselves in this competitive international market. By importing produce, money is leaving our communities and creating unnecessary pollution from increased transportation. Enactus Okanagan College recognized this need and looked for a solution. We partnered with a company called Little Green Book, a local organization trying to achieve the same goal. We have worked with our local farmers to help market and distribute their produce during the off season by creating an intensive promotional campaign and reaching out to our community, raising awareness for our amazing, local and year round, agricultural opportunities while delivering a much higher profit to our farmers. Once a month, people come and pick up their pre-ordered 20lb bags of local food from a farmers market style layout. Through this program we raise money for the farmers involved and our other Enactus programs, while always taking the opportunity to educate the Okanagan on options for local food sustainability. By creating an economically sustainable model for distributing local produce, we are increasing the standard of living for our farmers and helping to sustain our agricultural economy while promoting local healthy options to increase our region’s quality of life. With great success showing already in this program we are working to refine and expand this local food model for farmers in our region and hopefully nationally.