Support Meals and Nutrition

Some Ideas:

• Fund the purchase of groceries and supplies needed to provide meals, any amount is appreciated.
• Support the wages of our Indigenous professional cooks.
• Support the training cost for dedicated Indigenous Professional Cook trainees.
• Fund an Indigenous Entrepreneur to start a home-based food production business, we will hire them for catering work over the training season.

Local Accommodation Options for Out-of-Region Trainees and Guests

• Support the accommodation costs for out-of-region Trainees to attend Tea Creek's training.
• Directly support the development of our existing accommodation property to add RVs (in the short term) and guest cabins (in the longer term). The site is 3 acres. We can add 'camp' style accommodations such as trailers or RVs in the short-term. 
• Support a local Indigenous entrepreneur to create their own B&B, and we could refer guests to them.
• Support an Indigenous Carpentry cohort to build a Cabin(s) or Tiny Home(s) over 12 weeks, including all costs. This would also include sponsoring trainees as ITA BC Carpentry apprentices.
• Support the larger vision for accommodations, affordable housing, and incubators for Indigenous farmers and entrepreneurs! Click here to view the design brief.

Support Childcare for Trainees

Lack of affordable, reliable childcare is a large barrier for trainees at Tea Creek. Our site also offers a fantastic environment for children, if they have competent caregivers to keep them safe. Ideally, we would have a complimentary childcare service located on-site for participants who are unable to secure childcare at home. At a minimum on-site we would need a play area including a weather shelter (such as a gazebo).

Children on site would benefit from our land-based, culturally-safe education. They'd also have access to healthy, local food daily. 

Some Ideas:

• Support a local Indigenous entrepreneur to start a childcare business, possibly on our site, which would be actively supported by Tea Creek. 
• Support Tea Creek to add a child care space on site. 
• Provide funding for trainees and participants to hire their own in-community childcare. 

Using wood waste to build soil, compost, and heat structures

In land clearing, trees and brush are usually put into slash piles and burned, releasing carbon into the atmosphere. Instead, we chip as much as possible and use the chips as weed-suppressing mulch, and also as important soil and compost builders. Our wood chipper runs for much of the growing season, and trainees learn how to safely operate the chipper and use the chips for soil building and different food production such as bedding. We also process trees by hand for heating fuel, as most of our structures in the north are wood heated in the winter and shoulder seasons - and we can go through a lot of fuel heating structures during training.

Some Ideas

• Support the purchase of another wood chipper, to be lent out to communities for their own foodland development
• Support a firewood processor, to process slash piles
• Fund the creation of an on-site small scale compost facility (structure with at least 6 bays), which would ideally also feature heat capture
• Support a local Indigenous entrepreneur with startup costs for a firewood/ wood chipping business

Transport Equipment to Communities for Foodland Development

Indigenous communities in our region have very limited capacity to re-develop farm and food-producing lands (including food forests, etc). Currently, we have 1 "car hauler" trailer but need larger trailers and diesel towing trucks to effectively move machinery around community to community with the required attachments. Last year we used our own trainees, and deployed them to one community to rototill farm and garden spaces. We currently have four communities signed up who need equipment provided to get going.

Some Ideas:

• Support for fuel, insurance, and maintenance is appreicated.
• We could use two triple-axle equipment-moving trailers, and at least 1 more diesel truck.
• One of our Indigenous instructors has his class 1 license and can operate heavy trailers. We could run a training program to help others get their commercial licenses. 
• Fund an Indigenous entrepreneur to start up a regional transport business, who we could then hire to move equipment.
• This activity could be self-sustaining once the equipment is in place.