EYA Volunteers Help Shape Vancouver's Food Strategy

On a damp cold day in early December, an upbeat team of EYA youth volunteers assembled in the Strathcona Community Garden’s “Eco-Pavilion” to talk about food. Why were we motivated to leave the warmth of our houses on such a drab day and take time out of our weekend to talk about food of all things? Well, we were doing so in the knowledge that what we had to say was going to be heard by the City and ultimately help shape Vancouver’s Food Strategy.

The Food Policy Team over at the City of Vancouver intends to create a Food Strategy that will help Vancouver foster a “healthy, sustainable food system that benefits people, the local economy, our environment and the development of our city”. The Food Strategy will act as an official plan and contain specific goals and actions to improve our food system.

Before such a document can be drafted, the Food Policy Team needs community members’ insights into the current food system in Vancouver. In other words, they want to learn what’s working well, where the great food places and resources in our communities or “food assets” are, and what is missing or where the “food gaps” lie. This is where our group came in. We were coming together to hold a “Community Food Animation Session” in which community members hold a discussion session and then report back to the Food Policy Team with details of what came out of the “animation”.

Back in the Eco-Pavilion, we started our animation session with a bit of doodling on our “Vision Board”. The quote at the top of our board read “My ideal food system in Vancouver looks like this...” and below we did our best to capture our vision with lots of colourful drawings

(with many a person lamenting over the difficulties involved in drawing a bicycle!).

Once we had got our creative juices flowing, we gathered together to talk about our motivations for attending and our goals for the day. We decided that with such a broad topic as food, the best option was to list all the aspects of food that we were interested in and then vote to determine which two topics to focus on in our discussions. Everyone received two cake stickers to cast their votes with and pretty quickly it became clear that people were most interested in the topics of food waste/composting, education, and skills-sharing.

Having decided upon our two topics (combining education & skills-sharing into one), we were ready to launch into our activities. Our discussions were structured by considering the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and barriers in turn for both food waste/composting and education & skills-sharing as it related to the broader topic of food. We worked in small groups, jotting down our thoughts on post-it notes that we then grouped together on larger sheets. This activity allowed us to record our discussions as we went, capture thoughts from all of our participants, and readily identified reoccurring themes in our discussions.

The Food Policy Team might be pleased to hear that our volunteers had no trouble identifying a whole host of positive things that are currently happening in Vancouver with regards to food education and skills-sharing. A long list of positive resources and programs was identified, from community workshops to composting programs in schools, and from local food programs to the City Compost Hotline.

The strongest theme to emerge from our discussions about the weaknesses of education and skills-sharing in Vancouver, was the lack of communication and promotions from those offering educational workshops or programs. Several participants commented that it’s hard to know where to get started with a lot of activities relating to our food system and how to connect to skilled-individuals.

When it came to discussing the opportunities for education and skills-sharing in the city, popular suggestions included free access to spaces for community workshops, mandatory composting and food system classes in schools, building connections by producing a directory of skilled gardeners and developing a mentoring program. There were also lots of ideas on how to promote gardening knowledge via the likes of TV, Youtube, blogs, and other forms of social media.

A number of barriers to education and skills-sharing were also identified, including: lack of workshop space, issues with affordability, timing of workshops, language barriers, and apathy in city residents. We went on to discuss some of these issues in greater depth, and also examined the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and barriers to food waste/composting initiatives in the city. A full write-up on the results of discussion session can be found here.

While it was rather chilly in the Eco-Pavilion even despite the wood fire, we all had a good time sharing memories of meals, experiences of food in Vancouver, and speaking up about food issues that concern us. These Community Food Animation Sessions are just one of many activities taking place as part of the broader community consulations, before more targeted focus groups are held.

To find out how to have your say and learn more about the Vancouver Food Strategy, check out:

Website: vancouver.ca/foodpolicy

Contact the Food Policy Team: foodpolicy@vancouver.ca

Twitter: twitter.com/CoVFoodPolicy

Blog: vancouverfoodpolicy.tumblr.com

Background information about the Vancouver Food Strategy (pdf, 1.09 MB)

A big thank you to all the volunteers who shared their ideas, experiences, energy, and food! - Claire, EYA's Volunteer Coordinator

An-Te Chu, Occupier

An-Te, longtime EYA supporter and volunteer, speaks to his experience of engaging with the Occupy Vancouver movement

It was just like another October day in Vancouver but, it was not. Saturday 15, 2011 a day for the history books. Occupy Vancouver, a movement aligned with Occupy Wall Street, has yet to be determined to be a foot note of 2011 or a major turning point in history. I realized this as I saw the throngs of people gathered on this chilly Saturday who had come together to support what they believed in. One's position on the political spectrum isn't why they are there. They are there because they are the guardians of democracy. Democracy is the fundamental basis of our society, fairness and equality is supposed to be embedded in our government. Corruption and greed has eroded that away and both conservatives and liberals can see that. An interesting thing is that Occupy itself has improved democracy by using a magical word, consensus. Consensus does not mean that everyone agrees but that everyone is able to tolerate the majority's opinion. Majority Democracy is flawed because anyone other than the 51% can be oppressed. Consensus democracy is something I feel has worked on a small scale and therefore should be at least experimented with in government. Occupy has brought up many issues such as the environment, the banking system and others but the truth is, if the government listened to the people, all those things would be fixed.

oh wait. I haven't introduced myself, im sorry,

Hi, I'm 14, I'm An-Te Chu, I'm an Occupier

I headed down on the very first day and I stayed until the sun went down. At first, I looked around and saw a throng of strangers a handful of which I knew, I blinked and I saw an ocean of friends. There was a steady stream of people ebbing and flowing around the main stage and it was barely noon. I was busily handing out food that had been generously donated. Across from the Food Not Bombs tent was the Zeitgeist and 9-11 Truth tents, interesting people there. In my mind, the jury is still out on those two movements. City workers and police officers gazed inquisitively, I guess they were expecting the black bloc. Behind us, were a circle of meditators, oblivious to the stares of the fire chief and oncoming traffic. Tent City was just getting set up and people just wandered about and conversing. The general assembly wasn't very productive but there were baby steps. I spoke about consensus democracy and proposed a few ideas. I finally left after joining a committee and making a few new friends. As the sun slowly went down and the second general assembly was being called, I finally went home. I transited home with a postal worker who, on medical leave, had to go home and pick up his sleeping tent so he could show his support. He gave me a bead from his colourful necklace. I slept that night, with my homework still in my backpack, unopened.

I went back the next day, to participate and mediate in the GAs, help out the food tent, and organize things with a committee. I went home at 11. The next weekend and the weekend after that. I went on a march to the major banks but I left with a bad taste because of what happened at TD. People danced on the counters at the Dominion bank, something I felt violated our right to protest. That was the first thing I disagreed with. Over the following weekends, I hummed and hawed about going back. There had arisen a clear leadership and direction issue and there were many things I frowned upon. The Tent City was starting to tick some political nerves and the media's portrayal soured. I grimaced. I loathed the misrepresentation yet I could not find myself supporting a cause that I did not whole heartedly agree with.

I returned. I returned because I felt that if there was something I disagreed with, it was my responsibility to voice my opinion and try to change it. I organized a credit union information blitz that fizzled but my resolve didn't disappear. I joined the new committees and I helped with new projects. I spoke to people and made new connections.
Then the injunction came. I was asked to go down on injunction day but I stayed at school because I wanted to avoid trouble. After spending a day of anxiety and cowardliness, I came home to the news of Phase two and the movement of the camp. I was glad. The fight was now back on the internet where it had begun yet still very much alive. Occupy the Ports was on December 12th. The first of many hopefully.

It's almost midnight. Place your hand with mine and lets turn it back so that the sun can rise again. Remember the sunrise and the taste of democracy. Remember.

Volunteer Appreciation

As we steadily approach the end of 2011, and thus the last volunteer events of the year, I'd like to extend a warm thank-you to all who have contributed in some way this year. In 12 months as working as EYA's Volunteer Coordinator, I've been priviliged to work alongside some truly stellar volunteers that have shared their time, energy, knowledge and humour to make our time in the gardens and at outreach events really enjoyable. I've personally worked with 378 different volunteers this year, and EYA on the whole has had 514 individuals lending a hand to make a difference in our communities. It's been wonderfully inspiring to meet and talk to so many engaged, passionate, and curious volunteers.

Together we've:

• grown and cared for plants in over 25 garden plots

• maintained an orchard

• produced 1,000s of packages of our own “urban seeds” (514 packages in 2 hours remains the record to beat!)

• saved and processed another crop of seed from the Youth Garden

• maintained and supported the Means of Production (artists') Garden

• attended numerous community / harvest / environmental events

• moved approximately 450 cubic feet of soil / compost (405 cubic ft in one day!!!)

• impressed numerous pre-schoolers with our “Wiggly Worm” vermicomposting workshop

• supported the food bank and local community kitchens with volunteer-grown produce from the Youth Garden

• removed more horsetail, himalayan blackberry, gout weed and morning glory from the gardens than anyone probably cares to remember!!!

• got our craft on and produced adorable felt gnomes and beautiful (invasive) English-Ivy wreaths for Rhizome Cafe's “Crafts for a Cause” event

• contributed to Vancouver's Food Strategy by sharing our ideas at our recent “Food Animation Session” (blog post coming up!)

Quite the list of achievements! Needless to say, we couldn't have done it without you. I've certainly learned a huge amount from our activities over the last year and I hope you've all taken away something positive from our time together too. Hopefully we'll see many of the same faces down at the garden in the new year. If you don't have the time to devote to volunteering and are looking for a means of staying connected and supporting EYA, you might want to consider joining us as a member.

Our last volunteer session of the year will be this Saturday (December 17th) from 1-3 pm. We'll be making a start on packaging up some of our saved heritage seeds as part of our Urban Seeds Program. Come on down to learn about seed saving, make new friends and enjoy the warmth of the wood fire. We'll be in the Eco-Pavilion, which is the large timber building with solar panels on the roof located in the Strathcona Community Garden (map).We'll resume our volunteer activities on Saturday, January 7th, same time, same place.

Until then, wishing you all the very best for the holidays and a happy new year.

Claire, Volunteer Coordinator