We’ve seen virtual music lessons and concerts, but how about a virtual gardening, farming and learning about where our food comes from? BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation (“BCAITC”) has a multitude of free online resources, lesson plans, and activities to support learning about agriculture and food from home!
“BCAITC is able to assist students, teachers, and parents with at home learning during the current COVID-19 pandemic. We offer a wide range of free elementary, intermediate, and secondary level agri-food educational materials that anyone can download from our website at any time,” said Pat Tonn, BCAITC Executive Director.
“Now more than ever, we believe that it is essential to focus on the important aspects of agriculture, food, and health and provide students with valuable learning opportunities.”
Agriculture in the Classroom… at Home
Geared for grades K-12, the organization’s tools provide valuable agriculture, math, science, art, language arts, technology, and career learnings for children across British Columbia.
Additionally, fun agricultural trivia contests are also being hosted on the organization’s social media sites this spring. More resources and activities are being added to BCAITC’s online sites on a regular basis.
New this spring, BCAITC is hosting weekly storybook readings on Instagram Live and Facebook Live; families are invited to tune into the virtual agriculture adventures. BCAITC has also compiled a comprehensive schedule of weekly downloadable online lesson plans to extend the books’ learnings.
Introducing the #CHVCatchUp, a new monthly series featuring the latest updates and news from Covenant House Vancouver. Miss604 is proud to be the Official Blog Partner of CHV.
Caring for At-Risk Youth During COVID-19
At Covenant House Vancouver (“CHV”), their role and responsibility during this time, like anytime, is the health and well-being of young people experiencing homelessness. Young people who come to CHV have already experienced trauma and COVID-19’s unique challenges makes this an even more trying time for them.
Sleeping on the streets or in crowded emergency shelters means youth are more vulnerable to infections like the flu, colds, and other serious health conditions. They can suffer from extraordinarily high rates of both chronic and acute health problems because of this.
Food and nutrition are vital to their young people, as many of them have struggled with having enough to eat and often come to us malnourished.
Youth experiencing homelessness face many of the same adversities as adults, but they are still developing physically, cognitively, psychologically, and emotionally, and the risks and trauma they experience at this time can have long-lasting effects.
From Instagram: “Shoutout to our Outreach Team, who, through some creative problem solving, came up with a way to continue providing our Drop-In Centre services to young people even though we’ve had to close the Drop-In space. Youth can come to this outdoor table to request whatever they need (food, clothing, hygiene supplies, etc.) and someone from our team will run into the building to grab everything then slide it over across the table safely”
What Covenant House is Doing
Covenant House Vancouver will rely on its own staffing resources to support essential services and has a COVID-19 Emergency Plan including remote work where possible, minimal staffing (i.e., essential personnel only), and staff travel bans on both international and domestic travel.
They have revised their intake process to include recommended questions from the BC Centre for Disease Control (BC CDC).
If a youth presents with symptoms or has been in contact with someone who has been diagnosed or is symptomatic, they will need to be immediately isolated while staff follow instructions as provided by 8-1-1 HealthLink.
They are maintaining a two-week stock of emergency supplies, including food, linens, masks, hand sanitizers, cleaning materials, and medicines.
In addition to the industry-standard cleaning protocol already in place, they have introduced additional measures to increase the sanitation of spaces/buildings. These include:
Visible hand washing signage posted around buildings
“Cover your Cough” signs at entrances, washroom sinks, and high-traffic areas
Increased attention to high-touch areas – disinfecting multiple times daily with Vancouver Coastal Care Certified Wipes
Providing access to cleaning supplies, tissues, and hand sanitizer throughout programs for staff and youth to use.
Since 1997, Covenant House Vancouver has been providing love and hope to youth experiencing homelessness. They are the premiere service provider of residential and outreach services for homeless and at-risk youth ages 16 to 24 in Vancouver.
Kate Onos-Gilbert, Founder of Tulips of the Valley, the operator of the annual Chilliwack Tulip Festival, announced today that the 2020 festival will not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision to cancel this year’s festival adheres to measures issued by BC’s Provincial Health Officer prohibiting events greater than 50 people.
Photo courtesy of the Chilliwack Tulip Festival
Chilliwack Tulip Festival Cancelled
A springtime tradition in the Fraser Valley, this year would have marked the 14th annual Chilliwack Tulip Festival. Typically, the festival takes place over a four-week period, usually in April, sometimes into May, depending on the weather.
“The health and safety of our guests, staff, and community, is very important to us,” says Onos-Gilbert. “I wish everyone the very best during this challenging time. We hope we will be able to welcome guests back to our fields this summer for the annual Chilliwack Sunflower Festival, currently slated to commence in August.”
Remember the Good Times
Until we can once again tip toe through the rows of tulips at the festival, here are some of my favourite photos from over the years:
Follow the Chilliwack Tulip Festival on Facebook for updates next year, and you can also find the Chilliwack Sunflower Festival on Facebook.
There’s a lot of charm to Burnaby, which plays an important role as Vancouver’s gateway to the rest of the entire mainland of BC. They have lovely natural features from north to south including Burnaby Lake, Deer Lake, Burnaby Mountain, Barnet Marine Park, Central Park and beyond. Here are 10 photos of Burnaby Looking Beautiful, the next instalment in my #604Corners photo series:
Like you, I’m passionate about exploring British Columbia. But now is not the time to travel. Please stay home and follow the advice of health authorities to keep yourself and others safe. Do your part now, so we can all explore BC again later.
We salute them every night at 7:00pm during the shift change at St Paul’s (and beyond), the BC Government has finally waived hospital parking fees, and now many restaurants are offering discounts for frontline workers in Vancouver.
It’s really moving to see the restaurant industry, that has been hit so hard itself, give back to its community. Here are some resources for take-out and delivery options that you can share with your friends and loved ones who are courageously fighting COVID-19 on behalf of us all.
Restaurant Discounts for Frontline Workers in Vancouver
The most robust and complete resource is Breaking Bread. It launched a few weeks ago to provide an up-to-date catalogue of restaurant take-out and delivery options (including eateries that had not previously ever offered the service). They have a searchable list of discount offers here »
“Giving thanks to the healthcare professionals by keeping them caffeinated and nourished. Purchase a gift card that goes directly to Peace Arch Hospital or Hilltop Medical Clinic. To load a gift card, call in or send an etransfer”
Free delivery and 25% off all regular priced take out menu items. “We also know that it is difficult for front line workers to pick up so the owners Dominic and Suzanne are personally offering to deliver to Front Line teams and individuals for orders over $100.”
“We are working with @feedtheheroesvan to offer large orders to be sent to the workers of various healthcare facilities in the greater Vancouver area. Donations are accepted here.”
Other restaurants not in the Breaking Bread database include:
Restaurant:Bombay Kitchen & Bar, (604) 336-1111, Vancouver Offer: Health-care workers can order online for delivery to their medical facility or doctor’s office and will receive 50 percent off at time of payment.
Restaurant:Tractor Foods, Vancouver Offer: Michelle Porter Vancouver Real Estate has generously donated free lunch or dinner to all frontline workers. Stop the Ash & Broadway location and choose anything on the menu (up to $15 in value) and @porteryvr will take care of your meal. Make sure to bring your ID or badge to claim.
Restaurant:Afghan Kitchen (604) 727-0070, Surrey Offer: Offering 30% discount on pick-up orders for: Hospital staff, including doctors, nurses, residents, interns, and support staff; First responders, including paramedics, emergency medical technicians, police officers, firefighters, rescuers, and military personnel
#ChopstickstoHeroes
As a continued effort to support local businesses, the Chinese Restaurant Awards have co-created the Chopsticks to Vancouver Health Care Heroes #ChopstickstoHeroes campaign, starting April 6, 2020.
30 local Asian restaurants will prepare and donate 50 dinner meals. 100 meals per day over a 15 day period will be sent to health care workers at the Vancouver General Hospital. A total of 1,500 nutritious meals with vegetarian options will meet the donation requirements and food safety standards outlined by the Vancouver General Hospital. You can contact the organizers if you’d like to sponsor some of these meals.
Bamboo Groove Restaurant Cherry’s Food House Chow Fusion Restaurant Dinesty Dumpling House Emperor’s Kitchen Fortune Terrace Chinese Cuisine Geng Shi Ji Glorious Bao & Fried Rice Gram Cafe and Pancakes Hotpot Palace Jianghu Taiwanese Pots & Wok Cuisines Liuyishou Hotpot Lougheed Wonton Restaurant M Sushi M8 Bistro and Bar Me and Crepe
Memory Corner Micha New Fishport Seafood Bistro New Mandarin Seafood Restaurant Old Beijing Roast Duck Peninsula (Oakridge) Seafood Restaurant Shine Valley Lamb Soup Sip Bowl La Mian The Dolar Shop The Fish Man Tian Shi Fu Restaurant Uno Beef Noodle Yang Guo Fu Spicy Soup Yuan’s Hotpot
We need to support those fighting COVID-19 for us, and we need to help them do their job. Please stay home and help flatten the curve.
If you know of more participating eateries, please leave a comment below and I’ll add it to the list, thank you!
I have a private wine club with my sister and a few close friends which usually meets every month in the summer. In March, we have already hosted two weekly meetings on Zoom. Usually our get togethers include everyone bringing the same varietal, from the BC winery of their choice. We then taste, take notes, and post our favourite to our Facebook group. The virtual meetings are far less structured.
This is where Okanagan Crush Pad (“OCP”) could really help my group — and yours. Invite one of their team members to your next online happy hour and turn it into a rather civilized wine tasting event!
Virtual Wine Tasting with Okanagan Crush Pad
Due to recent physical distancing, virtual gatherings over platforms like Skype, Messenger, Instagram, and Zoom have become very popular, including happy hour and friends getting together over wine. But missing is the experience of talking to a wine expert as you taste along with your friends or work colleagues.
While OCP has previously posted video of guided tastings, the makers of Haywire, Narrative and Free Form are now going a step further. Just follow these four steps:
Can’t get together in person? Round up the people you are missing most;
Each person buys a wine tasting pack (2 full bottles and 1 half bottle);
Set a date and time for your online tasting with your friends;
Coordinate the details with OCP Wine brand ambassador Rawan* by emailing her at rawan@hq-wine.com
*An OCP team member will be part of any gathering where four or more wine tasting packs are sold (12 bottles total – 8 full bottles and 4 half bottles). There is no maximum size, but the ideal gathering would be no larger than 12 different logins.
Wine Tasting Packs from OCP
Pack 1 ($70.70) 1 x 375ml Haywire Baby Bub 2018 1 x 750 ml Free Form Cabernet Franc 2017 1 x 750 ml Narrative Viognier 2018 Order here »
Pack 2 ($87.30) 1 x 375ml Narrative Baby XC Method 2019 1 x 750 ml Free Form Vin Gris 2018 1 x 750 ml Haywire Pinot Noir 2018 Order here »
Crack open a baby sparkling wine while you all sign-on, and toast each other with a cheers! A team member from the winery will join you for the tasting. They will tell you about the wines, answer any questions, and then they can leave the online party and you can carry on with your friends.
Follow Okanagan Crush Pad on Facebook for more info.
