Join us for our next meeting all about the birds and the bees as we explore urban pollinators with local experts Brian Campbell and Rob Hunt. Park Board Commissioner Niki Sharma will also be joining us to discuss this motion passed Monday.

April 16 6-8:30 PM, Town Hall Room, Vancouver City Hall **note that we are going to be in our usual location after all – stay tuned for offsite meetings in the future**

See the proposed April agenda>>

Rob Hunt’s presentation on local pollinators

A wonderful group of youth is organizing a Vancouver YOUTH Food Policy Council! Target audience are youth aged 25 and under but everyone welcome. Notice of the first meeting below.

Along with some regular business, we are welcoming special guest Darlene Seto to our March meeting to help stimulate a conversation on how the Vancouver Food Policy Council and other food system communities can meaningfully ‘Engage Across Diversity’.

Darlene is the program manager for SFU’s LiVWELL Research Group, where much of her work involves developing community-based research projects with diverse immigrant and community groups.  An advocate for ways to meaningfully bridge cultural inclusion and sustainability practice, she holds a MA from UBC in Resource Management and Environmental Studies, where her graduate work looked at the engagement of diverse publics in Vancouver’s community gardens.

Join us March 19 6-8:30 PM, Town Hall Room, City Hall.

VFPC – Proposed March 2014 Agenda

We are taking our February meeting to do some planning for the next year in the life of the VFPC. As always, this meeting is open to the public and will be an opportunity to hear from City staff on the implementation progress of the Vancouver Food Strategy after its first year, hear about and join a VFPC working group, and help shape the next year of meetings and projects.

Join us February 19 6-8:30 PM, Town Hall Room, City Hall.

VFPC Proposed February 2014 Agenda

Presentation on implementation of the food strategy:

We expect that our first meeting of 2014 is going to be a big one. The coverage and conversation about the Agricultural Land Reserve has been very active recently raising some questions and concerns. The Vancouver Food Policy Council is bringing together a panel of government, farming, and academic experts to share what they believe is the most important information on the province’s ALR for the VFPC and public to know: A Citizen’s Guide to the ALR. Panel presentations will be followed by discussion.

If you care about the future of agriculture in this province, we suggest you join us January 22 6-8:30 PM, Town Hall Room, City Hall.

The panel will begin at 7 PM with:

Kim Sutherland, BC Ministry of Agriculture

Bill Zylman, W&A Farms

Dr. Lenore Newman, University of Fraser Valley

Dr. Art Bomke

Read the panelist biographies

VFPC Proposed January 2014 Meeting Agenda

Kim Sutherland’s Presentation

Dr. John Ikerd, world renowned leader in sustainable agriculture and economics, will discuss the critical role of sustainable agriculture in building healthy communities and provide insights on how to put ideas into action. A prolific speaker and writer, John Ikerd is author of Small Farms are Real Farms, Crisis and Opportunity: Sustainability in America Agriculture and The Essentials of Economic Sustainability and Sustainable Capitalism.
http://www.johnikerd.com

We are excited to announce in place of our normal meeting on October 16, World Food Day, we will be hosting an event, Good Food for All: Exploring how the right to food can shape our policies and organizations, from 6:00-8:30pm at the Roundhouse as part of the Sustenance Festival. The event is free but spots will go fast so go here to register quickly so that you won’t miss out!

The event will explore how we can work together towards a transition to a food system based on the right to food. Presentations and dicsussion will focus on how public policy and community-based food organizations can contribute to a more just and sustainable food system. Here is a bit of a teaser below.

MC – Richard Wolak, Vancouver Foodster

Performance

“The New Veg in Town” by the DTES Kitchen Tables Project Outreach Team

Presentations from Thought Leaders

Nick Saul, Community Food Centres of Canada

Aart Schuurman-Hess, Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society

Doris Chow, DTES Kitchen Tables Project and Anna Cavouras, DTES Neighbourhood House

Victoria Bull and Fraser Stuart, Raise the Rates Campaign

Towards Change: Breakout Groups and Discussion

*** In keeping that October 16 is also the first day of the Welfare Food Challenge, an event to highlight the inadequacy of welfare rates in BC, some very simple food (think peanut butter sandwiches or something of the like) will be served. ***

Vancouver Food Policy Council meetings start up again next Wednesday night, September 18 at 6pm in the Town Hall Room at City Hall. You won’t want to miss this month’s theme, Advancing Food Policy Through Food Waste. The following presenters are on the agenda for the theme (starting after the break at 7pm):
(1) Tara Moreau – Food Policy 101 – Tara will lead us off with a primer on food policy. She’ll introduce some key terms, and discuss how policy change may happen. The information she provides will help to increase our understanding of food policy so we can better engage with change-making in a practical sense.
(2) Katie Schilt – Food Waste Policy in Vancouver – Katie has been the VFPC and SPEC Food Waste Policy Research Intern. She has completed an incredible amount of work this summer, and is very excited to present our research findings. There will also be some exciting outcomes and action steps to discuss.
(3) Leah Toews – Policy Analysis 101 – Leah is a graduate of the SFU Masters of Public Policy program. Leah will take us through the process of policy analysis using her thesis topic – Increasing Green Bin Program Participation in Multi-Family Residences.

You can download the draft agenda for the meeting here.