Tahsis residents will no longer be receiving Good Food boxes after the Tahsis council voted to stop the program during a July 8 meeting.
The council joined the program in 2023, when food security was a council strategic priority. The village partnered with Greenways Land Trust and Gold River's Village Veggies, paying a biweekly freight cost and transporting Good Food boxes to Tahsis based on the cost of the return trip at a rate of $80.80.
Greenways Land Trust started the Good Food Box program in late 2020 in Gold River. It then expanded to Tahsis, Kyuquot, Zeballos, Campbell River and Sayward.
"I guess the issue here is that there currently is very little uptake on it?" asked Mayor Martin Davis.
Coun. Sarah Fowler, who forwarded the resolution to start the program in 2023, said she has done 49 bi-weekly deliveries since then.
"It would have been great to do 50, you know," she said. "There's been a lot of greenhouse gas reductions, and there's been a lot of food security and health choices. I've made two presentations. All that is in my council report, but it doesn't really matter because I'm tired and I'm okay with this not being a council priority. We have bigger fish to fry, so to speak."
She also mentioned that the travel expense rate has gone up since 2023 due to the cost of gas.
Fowler also mentioned that eight volunteers were making the trip to Gold River to get the boxes.
"We used to have 30 people buying boxes, and now it's much less," she said. "As different organizations, and not municipal ones that are nonprofit, have gotten grants for growing more food locally and doing honorariums for gardeners, and so maybe that's what critical infrastructure/food security looks like in the future. I don't know."
Fowler said she recognized the writing on the wall and moved to rescind the resolution from 2023. The council voted in favour.
"It was great while it lasted," said Davis.
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