Food and Drink

From the farmers' market to the college market

Okanagan College launches initiative to serve locally produced food.

Okanagan College has said goodbye to cafeteria lunch trays and welcomed locally produced foods and goods into their lunchroom.

Chair of Culinary and Pastry Arts, Geoffrey Couper, has been helping facilitate this initiative, bringing culinary students out to source local ingredients to prepare for students.

“It goes without saying, I think things that are prepared freshly, that aren’t sitting on a shelf in some warehouse for months at a time are going to be naturally better for your health all the way around,” Couper told Kelowna10. “More and more people want to know where does the food come from, who’s involved, who’s behind the package, if you will. And that’s what we’re addressing.”

He says the initiative benefits not only the students who get fresh food, but the culinary students as well, who are making dishes from produce they have sourced straight from the farm that grows it.

Couper said it’s important to have this connection to where the food comes from, especially as a cook, to understand the tremendous effort it takes to make great food.

“It doesn’t always just show up in a box,” he explained. “There’s a lot of effort, time, money that goes into that.”

In addition to food produced by the culinary and pastry students, the college has also partnered with local producers such as Cruze Co, the Vegetarian Butcher, Stoke Juice, and Chaibaba, to provide locally produced meals, snacks, and beverages.

Couper hopes that by providing students with local food during their time at the college, they will continue to buy local and eat healthy long after they’ve left campus.

“So, the idea is really to plant the seed with the local students… this might be the start of their journey. ‘Let’s go to the farmer’s market, let’s start cooking at home with local products.’ That’s the idea,” he said.

The college’s restaurant ‘Infusions’ has also been opened for dinner services, allowing the culinary students to further hone their craft under Chef Jim Armstrong. Like the cafeteria, ‘Infusions’ will be serving local food straight from the Okanagan.

Published 2022-09-13 by Robin Liva

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