Say “Yes” This Giving Tuesday: Be a Friend of the Farmland Trust

I remember the day I laid my newborn son down in a meadow along Beaver Point Road. In that moment I looked at my boy, his tiny chest rising and falling against the great green heart of this island, and I thought, “We’re home.”

That sense of belonging — of being rooted in this place — has shaped everything I’ve done since. I’ve spent 25 years here learning how, just as the grand trees of this coastal rainforest are nourished by a shimmering web of mycelium, my humble kitchen table could become the launchpad to organize festivals, start non-profits organizations and grow a network that has spread like dandelion seeds from this tiny island to the mountains of Africa and the bighouse of Bella Bella. 

No matter where on Earth my work has taken me, I’ve always been sustained by my connection with the forests and fields of Salt Spring —  forces that hold the magic power to restore my faith in the possibility of wholeness when the world seemed impossibly dark. 

After spending decades in Africa on the frontlines of the AIDS pandemic and fighting pipelines together with Indigenous leaders, this spring I joined one of the coolest, most nimble and impactful organizations anywhere: the Salt Spring Farmland Trust.  

Now, as the FLT’s Executive Director, I’m so glad to be able to come home, and give back to this island I love so deeply. 

I have gone from saying “no” — challenging mega-projects,  defending what could not be lost — to saying “yes”. It’s a shift from resistance to creation, from stopping harm to fostering life. Yet, movement building and community are at the heart of both: the organizing, the friendships, the stubborn drive to see justice through that expresses itself one moment in intensive work and the next in raucous laughter.

At the Farmland Trust, we are working for local food, for healthy soils, for a future where every child, every family, has access to land to grow, to feed themselves, and to connect with the rhythms of the Earth. It’s ridiculously refreshing, because the ‘another world’ that I’ve always believed was possible is taking shape, right here, before my very eyes.

This Giving Tuesday, I’m asking you to join me at the Farmland Trust’s table. Become a Friend of the Farmland Trust by making a monthly donation, and join the movement to strengthen the things that really matter —the land under our feet, and the community that holds us. 

Become a Friend

Together, we are doing so much more than growing food. We are reimagining what it means to belong to the land, breathing life back into food systems that have fed generations of families here on these islands.

At the Root Food Hub, we are incubating farm-to-table businesses and helping them thrive. In the Burgoyne Valley, the Community Farm is providing fertile ground for over 90 gardeners and farmers, and sparking innovative initiatives like a solar agro-voltaic project and large-scale community composter.

Our Root to Bloom Centre for Regenerative Foodways is offering hands-on learning with some of the Gulf Islands’ preeminent experts to ensure that knowledge, skills, and inspiration flow from in the fields to the wider community. A bonus? Monthy donors, aka Friends of the Farmland Trust,  get early bird access to ensure enrollment in courses that tend to sell out.

This Giving Tuesday, say “yes” with us. Become a monthly donor to grow food security, community, and resilience for all.

Give Monthly

I am so grateful to be on these lands, at these tables, where regeneration — and dare I say, revolution— is taking root. Together, we can plant the seeds of the next world — one field, one meal, one act of care at a time.

With gratitude,

Andrea Palframan

Executive Director

Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust