Shara Bakos Answers 3 KCFN Questions - Kimberley Municipal Election, October 2026

Municipal elections matter. 

From land use and infrastructure to affordability, emergency preparedness, community services and local food systems (to name just a few)... politics and public policy have real consequences in our everyday lives.

With Kimberley and Cranbrook soon to be hitting the municipal ballot boxes — Advance Voting is open Wednesday, October 7 & Wednesday, October 14, with General Voting Day on Saturday, October 17 — the Kimberley Cranbrook Food Network recently narrowed our many possible interconnected food-system questions down to three (3) that we sent to all candidates for Mayor and City Council in both communities.

We're sharing their responses on our website/socials as they come back to us to help residents (which includes ourselves) hear directly from the people seeking to represent us all on important community matters such as the three questions we asked below.

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Shara Bakos is running for Kimberley City Councillor. You can learn more about their candidacy through their Facebook — but first, please see below for Shara's responses to our three KCFN questions, which we have shared as submitted.

Q1. What specific actions would you support at the municipal level to strengthen local food production and access to local food in our communities?

I think Kimberley already has some wonderful things happening when it comes to local food. We have our farmers’ market, community gardens, local growers and organizations doing some really important work.

For me, the first step would be talking to those people. What’s working? What’s not? Are there barriers that the City could help remove?

I’d like to look at our zoning and land-use policies and see if we’re making it easy for people to grow food locally. Are there opportunities for community gardens on municipal land? Are we supporting the farmers and growers who are already here?

I think there’s also something really valuable about people knowing where their food comes from and having opportunities to grow some of it themselves.

I would support looking at what we already have, where the gaps are and what practical things the City can do to help local food production grow.

Q2. Food insecurity is affecting households in our communities, while local organizations providing food access and food-security programs are often working with limited resources. What role do you think the City should play in supporting this work, and what specific actions or partnerships would you pursue?

I think we’re really fortunate in Kimberley to have people and organizations who work so hard to make sure others in our community have access to food.

But I also recognize that they’re often doing this work with limited resources, and that the need isn’t going away.

I would want to sit down with the Food Bank, the Food Recovery Depot and the other organizations doing this work and ask what they need. Is it space? Funding? Transportation? Volunteers? What could the City do that would actually make a difference?

Maybe that’s helping connect organizations with grant opportunities, looking at the use of municipal spaces or finding ways to bring groups together so they’re not all trying to solve the same problems separately.

I also think we need to look at the bigger picture. Food insecurity doesn’t exist on its own. It’s connected to housing costs, wages and the cost of living.

I don’t think the City can solve all of those things, but I do think we have a responsibility to be part of the conversation and to support the people who are already doing this work.

Q3. Wildfires, drought, extreme weather and disruptions to transportation can affect both local food production and our communities' access to food. How should the City incorporate food security into its emergency preparedness and climate-resilience planning?

I think living where we do, we’re all pretty aware of how quickly things can change when it comes to wildfires, drought and extreme weather.

When we talk about emergency preparedness, we often think about evacuation routes, emergency services and keeping people safe. But we also need to think about what happens when the trucks can’t get through, grocery store shelves aren’t being restocked or people have to leave their homes.

What does that look like for our seniors? For families who are already struggling to put food on the table? For people who don’t have the ability to keep extra food or supplies at home?

I would support looking at our existing emergency plans and asking whether we’ve considered those things. Are we working with our grocery stores, food organizations and regional emergency partners? Do we know where the gaps are?

I also think this connects back to supporting local food production and protecting our water supply. The more resilient our community is, the better prepared we are when something unexpected happens.

For me, it’s about asking those questions before we’re in an emergency, not when we’re already in the middle of one.

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Many thanks to Shara Bakos for taking the time to respond to our questions — and cheers to all of the candidates who have put their names forward to serve our communities in these important roles (and thank YOU for stopping by to read & add some more context to your voting decisions/discussions).

You can learn more about Shara's campaign through their Facebook  — and you can read responses from other candidates via our Municipal Election 2026 page (which we will continue to update as more responses come back).

For official municipal voting information and full candidate information, remember where you live and then visit the City of Kimberley 2026 Election page and Kimberley candidate profiles (if you live in Kimberley), or the City of Cranbrook 2026 Election page and Cranbrook candidate profiles (if you live in Cranbrook). And for wherever you live, ElectionsBC is always a good spot online to visit for trustworthy election information.

And then remember, for the upcoming Municipal Election, whether you live in Kimberley or Cranbrook or somewhere else… these are the dates for voting in the upcoming Municipal Election:

• Advance Voting: Wednesday, October 7 & Wednesday, October 14

• General Voting Day: Saturday, October 17

Please Note: Kimberley Cranbrook Food Network (KCFN) sent the same three questions to all candidates for Mayor and City Council in Kimberley and Cranbrook that we were able to find contact information for on Sunday, October 4th (27 candidates in total between both communities). Candidate responses are published as submitted, with only minor formatting changes if necessary for readability. KCFN does not endorse individual candidates, we just endorse informed & engaged voters (and we hope people find these Q&As as engaging as we do).