Tag Archives: Cortes Natural Food Co-op

Cortes Island Food Bank Drive To Meet Rising Local Need

The Cortes Island Food Bank recently launched a food drive to meet unprecedented need. Cortes Currents met with two of the charity’s key personal in the garage where most of the food is stored. Executive Director Filipe Figueira explained :

 “The situation is getting worse on Cortes. It is the same as across the country.  Two years ago, we had 100 client visits  a year. This year we had 600, that’s about 50 clients a month. People are really suffering economically. The good news is that we’re in a better situation to help those people. We’ve really built up the capacity of the food bank to deal with this emergency. We’ve got some really good staff and good food, but it’s not a good situation.” 

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The 2024 Creative Spaces Garden and Studio Tour On Cortes Island

The Creative Spaces Garden and Studio Tour is Saturday June 22, from 10 am to 4 pm. This is an annual fundraiser for the Cortes Island Museum, as well as a showcase of some of the island’s hidden gems.  

“It’s a great opportunity to feature creative talents of people on the island, and it’s a self guided  tour of studios and gardens that takes you all the way around from Whaletown, down to Smelt Bay, and Cortes Bay. We’ve got painters, textile artists, weavers, spinners,  ceramicists .  We’ve got a number of potters and pottery studios that are participating. And then some beautiful spaces with gardens that range from low bluff to high bluff. You pick up a map, which includes a button, and you just go around the island visiting people with talents you may not have known about, or see spaces that you were curious about but never had an opportunity to actually walk into. Walk through the gates and see what people are growing there,” explained Melanie Boyle, Managing Director of the Cortes Island Museum.

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Getting Ready For Love Fest 2024

Ben Coey is co-producing this year’s Lovefest, which returns to Linnaea Farm on Saturday August 10th.  

“Rex, Amy and Rick have been running and producing the festival for a number of years. They’ve  decided that they need to have a bit of a break from doing it. I’ve worked with Rex on a number of projects previously.  He asked me if I liked to get involved and help out with co-producing and I said, ‘yeah, sure,’” Coey explained.

“I’m good friends with Rex. I’ve toured for many years as a drummer in a band with Rex’s son, Jack. I’ve always loved coming to Lovefest, and played in it a couple of times. I’m spending more time up in Cortes and gradually moving up here. This is a nice way to just get involved with the community.”

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FOCI’s Create, Connect and Conserve series

The Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI) summer programs have long been popular with tourists and summer. This year FOCI wanted to offer something for the year round community. 

“ The inspiration is partly wanting to make sure that more members of the community know about FOCI. We do a lot of projects, but they’re not really shiny and we don’t really advertise them.  They’re on our website, but if people don’t go there and read about them, they don’t know that they’re happening,” explained Soma Feldmar, the society’s Administrative Assistant.

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Cortes Island’s First Two Tourism Cafes

Close to 40 residents turned out to the first two Tourism Cafes on Cortes Island. The Cortes Community Economic Development Association (CCEDA) brought in Lesley Anderson and Nancy Arsenault to facilitate meetings at Mansons and Gorge Halls last week. The pair will host a virtual Tourism Cafe on  Wednesday, November 1st from 10 am to 12 pm, and return in January to present their findings. 

“ People came out of the meeting feeling a lot more informed about this planning process and how it can be a force for better tourism outcomes on the island in the future.  A process like this can be really useful and it doesn’t have to result in greater tourism. It’s how we can nuance that tourism and make it better for the island and just attract the right visitors,” explained Kate Maddigan, Economic Development Officer of CCEDA.

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