Our Past is Our Future

Impact Report 2025
Indigenous Food Sovereignty Assn.
and Tea Creek Training

We are so proud, and so thankful.

Before you read over this report, there are some important notes on the year. It was the first year that private-directed funding exceeded government sources, and the diversity of support is higher than ever. It took longer than usual to publish because of the sheer volume of outcomes this past year.

We had a small but very dedicated and hard working Indigenous-led team, and an active and supportive community - thank you.

We want to shout-out our funders, especially those who’ve supported us multi-year, or who gave us general contributions: First Peoples Cultural Council, Makeway, Farm Credit Canada, REFBC, BC Energy Regulator, and the Vancouver, Endswell, All One, and CN Foundations.

We also want to thank you. Everyone who has supported us and continues to support us - thank you.

Building for the Future

If you visit the farm today, you’ll see our landscape has transformed. We have broken ground on a 4,000 sq. ft. Food Hub and Leadership Training Centre, as well as a 4,000 sq. ft. steel workshop. We also completed a 4,000 sq. ft. high-end commercial greenhouse, which will drastically extend our growing season and training capabilities.

Check out a video tour of the timber framing here.

Nourishing People

We grew over 20,000 lbs of fresh vegetables right here on the farm, all of which were given away to our community. In addition, our partnership with Second Harvest allowed us to rescue and distribute over 100,000 lbs of food, reaching thousands of households, schools, and community groups across the northwest.

  • Free gardening and farming irrigation supplies were provided to First Nations farms and gardens - ranging from local Gitxsan, Wetʼsuwetʼen, Nisga’a, Tsimshian and Secwepemc communities.

Community Connection

Our gates remained open. We hosted over 1,200 Indigenous visitors, ranging from elementary and high school groups to the hundreds of neighbors who joined us for our "Farmstand Fridays." Indigenous site visits exceeded 7,000 for the year, and we’ve now had over 46,000 Indigenous site visits since we opened our doors!

  • We taught plant identification, history of the grease trails, planting seeds, cover crops, transplanting strawberries, learning to forage and to love vegetables fresh from the garden. “They taste better than the store! Kale flowers are my favourite, why don’t they sell them in the stores!?!”

Training for the Future

Through our IFEAST program, we trained over 30 Indigenous people this year. We are incredibly proud to share that over two-thirds of those participants graduated and have transitioned into meaningful employment or further education.

Scaling the Vision

We aren’t just keeping the knowledge here. We developed and deployed toolkits, funding, and knowledge that assisted two other Indigenous-led farms in launching their own IFEAST training programs.

Multi-Use Space Finished

A win to finally see our multi-use space finished—and it’s beautiful. A milestone was renting the space to our first community group. We’ve been putting it to work daily for teaching, training, longhouse construction, seeds, and workshops. It was magic using it to host our Longhouse blessing and the IFEAST graduations.

Healing Spaces Finished

Our “green roof cabin” was completed this year and was used for on-site therapy sessions. We also finished our new west coast style sauna down by the creek. The cabin was well used and was a key part of our program success this year!

IFEAST Driver’s Licenses

We had our most successful year ever helping trainees get their driver’s licenses. Lack of transportation is a top barrier for Indigenous people in our region, and getting a license is a key step to jobs, self-employment, and personal sovereignty. Some of our IFEAST grads also purchased their first vehicles!

Cabin Across Creek

Our “cabin across the creek” was completed with the assistance of IFEAST trainees, and it turned out wonderfully! This beautiful little off-grid cabin will host VIP guests on the farm for many years to come. It has a view over the creek towards the new longhouses and training centre.

Seed Distribution

Our IFSA crew worked for weeks to sort many thousands of donated seeds into dozens of packages that we distributed widely to Indigenous communities, community groups, schools, and people who in turn distributed locally to their communities. This supported over 100 gardens this year alone!

Firewood for Elders

Our IFEAST trainees worked in the winter to provide loads of free firewood to elders in need in our local area. It was a good way to learn skills, teamwork, and help elders in our community. This initiative started when we learned there were people actually freezing at home because they couldn’t afford heat or firewood. Our trainees were really pleased to help.

Tea Creek Film Wins!

The award-winning Tea Creek Film continued to pick up steam, winning Best Documentary and Best Environmental film awards at the Sundar Film Festival. The film was also featured in many community screenings, and had a sold-out debut screening in Vancouver. The film continues to play sold-out screenings today. It is one of the best ways to experience Tea Creek - other than being here in person, of course.

Farm Challenges and Lessons

We hit the ground running by managing the full farm cycle from seed starts to final harvesting. Focus was on hands-on skills, moving from transplanting and seed sowing right into tractor training. Challenges included overcoming a cut worm invasion and dealing with another severe drought. Lack of water cut our potato yields by 50%, but an experiment using alternative growing methods resulted in a 100% increase in yields. We will be switching to new methods for 2026.

First Community Plant-In

With the support of Farm Folk City Folk, we hosted our first-ever community plant-in, and it was a big success! Experienced farmers, new volunteers, and families joined us for a day of planting thousands of starts and seeds that was centred around an Indigenous Food Sovereignty feast. This followed a highly successful community harvest, and is a template for future years.

Hosted Community Groups

We provided lessons and inspiration to community groups including PHABC, Nuxalk Nation youth leaders, Dzalkant Friendship House, the “crazy” Northern Health Dieticians (their words, not ours!), our local MLA and the agriculture critic for BC, and leaders from First Nations who have bought back ranches.

Traditional Workshops

We offered the highest number and variety yet of traditional knowledge workshops in 2025. Workshops included:

  • Wild Medicine and Food all year long with Gitxsan Bush Girl

  • Berry picking, jam making, and preserves

  • Traditional salmon processing, smoking, and jarring

  • Traditional hide tanning with Rachel Janzé

New Greenhouse

In 2024 we purchased a couple new 40×100’ greenhouses, and in 2025 we built the first one. Trainees worked with mentors and excavated the site, created the footing and foundation forms, laid water and power lines, poured concrete, and then built the whole greenhouse. In the fall and winter it was used as a workshop for the Longhouse construction, and in 2026 it will start growing food.

New Slaughter Trailer

Discussions that started in 2023 with SSMPA around a new training slaughter trailer for Indigenous peoples came to wonderful conclusions in 2025 - starting with a tour of the Spray Creek Ranch abattoir in Lillooet and culminating with a 2-day slaughter and cut-wrap workshop at Tea Creek. SSMPA has contributed a cutting-edge slaughter trailer to IFSA and it is joining our Food Hub resources in 2026.

Agri-Success Cover Story

Tea Creek was featured as the cover story for the Agri-Success magazine in Canada for the Fall 2025 issue. This was an honour for us. The story highlights our innovation and accomplishments, and ability to boost the agriculture economy.

The Tea Creek Model has become an inspiration for many. Read more of Tea Creek in the media here, on our media page.