Happy Chinese/Lunar New Year! We are so fortunate to have Anna (Wei), who moved to Salmon Arm from Beijing, first as a dedicated volunteer for our Souper Meal program at Zest, and now as a co-worker. She is an incredibly hard worker who always has a smile on her face. We asked Anna, who moved to the community from Beijing, to share a little about the Chinese New Year/spring festival. “Spring festival is the most important festival of the year for Chinese people. It is a time for family reunions. Wishing you all the best, happiness and good fortune.”
This week for our Souper Meal entree, Anna (Wei) and her husband EJ created a wonderful Chinese meal of covered rice with beef and vegetables. These meals were sent to the lucky students of A.L. Fortune Secondary School in Enderby, Pleasant Valley Secondary School in Armstrong, Okanagan College and a community group in Salmon Arm called Lunch with Friends.
With all our programs, we try to source as many local ingredients as possible, not only for their incredible flavour and increased nutrient values for those we nourish, but to build and strengthen our local food economy. Thank you to the farms that grew/raised these ingredients for us: beef from Alpine meats, potatoes from Song Hollow Farm, onions and carrots from Mara Valley Produce, garlic and carrots from Hoisington Organic Farm.
In celebration of Chinese New Year, we want to showcase just two of the amazing things that our Chinese community members have done or are doing in our local area.
Did you know that Armstrong was once nicknamed “Celery City” due to the abundant crops of celery that were grown in the area by hundreds of Chinese farmers? They faced incredible obstacles in their farming, not only with the land they were not allowed to own, and the challenging crops they grew, but also with the prohibitive and restrictive immigration laws they faced at that time. “Despite these obstacles, Chinese workers were an integral part of Armstrong’s history and helped it become what was once the “Celery Capital of Canada” (BC Labour Heritage Centre, 2024). A plaque commemorating the Chinese community’s contribution to Armstrong’s heritage is hung at Huculak Park.
To learn more about the historical successes and challenges Chinese farmers faced, listen to episode 11- Chinese Farmers of Celery on iHeart radio.
Second, highlighting the local Chinese community, is one of Armstrong’s family run farms, Jong’s Vegetable Farm, serving the community since 1973.
During the summer and fall you will often see their farm stand set up at 3800 Pleasant Valley Road, featuring a large variety of vegetable crops. They continue to sell their products year round until they are sold out. Currently they still have plenty of varieties of beets in stock, some of which we were able to feature in the garden salad served in some of our Souper Meals this week. If you would like to purchase from their farm in the winter, you can reach them at 250-546-3720.
We have one more event scheduled in honour of Chinese New Year with our Let Food Bring Us Together international cooking class with an after school program called Hive through Shuswap Immigrant Service Society. We have a lot of fun with this group of kids, volunteers and staff doing monthly cooking classes. This week Anna will be teaching the kids to make Chinese dumplings.
We’re grateful for the opportunity to run these programs — Souper Meals, our hot lunch programs and food literacy classes. This is made possible by our community in supporting Shuswap Food Action’s growth, in the grants made possible through large organizations such as United Way and the Provincial government but also the volunteers who find their way to us and share their knowledge, their culture and experience with our community.
