Local Foods
Alaska imports more than 95% of its food and the average grocery store only has enough food for three days. At the Sitka Conservation Society we are working towards creating a more resilient food system by supporting local efforts to protect the habitat of wild foods, support traditional harvest/subsistence lifestyles, increase local food production, create access to wild seafood, reform the school lunch program to include local foods, and increase awareness of local fishing culture.
Click on the programs and activities below to learn more:
Fish to Schools
As the ninth largest seafood port in the country, Sitka is swimming with fish. Students should have access to this nutritious, local food that drives our economy and represents the interconnectedness of our community. Local fish lunches are served twice a month at local schools. The lunch program is served with a “Stream to Plate” curriculum, taking students through the cycle in which fish mature in our waterways, are harvested by local fishermen, undergo processing by our town’s thriving seafood processors, and finally grace our dinner table.
Salmon Tours
Wild Alaskan salmon are the lifeblood of Sitka’s culture and the backbone of its economy. A summer program of the Sitka Conservation SocietySitka Salmon Tours are daily tours that provide an in-depth look on the path salmon take from the stream to the plate.
Wildfoods Potluck
The annual Sitka Conservation Society wild foods potluck celebrates the abundance of wild local foods in the Sitka area, and gives the community a chance to share and sample an incredible variety dishes. Not only is the food always great but a lot of it comes with great stories as well, stories of hunting trips and secret hard-to-reach blueberry patches.
Related Posts:
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Wild Foods, A New Relationship
Arguably, to know a place is to know the plants. It’s one thing to appreciate the aesthetics of a certain habitat but another to really know the plants within it. To really know a plant creates a relationship. One that’s based on an understanding and appreciation of seasons, habitat, and life cycle. It’s a give [...]
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SCS & JVC Northwest: Rooted in the Same Values
The Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) Northwest has placed volunteers in various organizations all over Sitka for nearly two decades, focusing on issues of social and ecological justice. This year, I joined the Sitka Conservation Society team as their first Jesuit Volunteer (JV). Many of the core values of the JVC Northwest program align closely with [...]
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Sitka: A Tongass Salmon Town
In 2011, SCS began the Sitka Salmon Tours program. The goal of the tours was to give visitors a salmon’s eye view from the forests where the salmon are born, to the ocean, the fisher and processor, and finally to our plates. We’ve discontinued the Salmon Tours for 2013. Instead, we have distilled all of [...]
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Spring Wild Edibles Course – FULL (sign up for wait list)
THIS CLASS IS FULL. To sign up for the waiting list, send your name, email and phone number to tracy@sitkawild.org.. SCS is organizing a spring edibles course with the Kayaani Commission and instructors Scott Brylinsky and Kitty LaBounty. Students will learn how to identify, harvest, and prepare wild edibles from three distinct habitats in the [...]
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Sealaska Bill: A Threat to Public Lands
Take action to protect your public lands HERE. The following letter was submitted to the Sitka Sentinel by SCS. Dear Editor: The current version of the Sealaska legislation is scheduled for a hearing on April 25th in the Senate Public Lands Subcommittee. This Sealaska bill is a threat to the public lands of the Tongass and [...]
