The theme of September’s VFPC meeting will be on Confronting First World Hunger. We will be joined by Janet Poppendieck and Graham Riches, two of the leading thinkers around hunger in Canada, the US and worldwide. Janet Poppendieck, who is visiting from New York, is a scholar and activist with concerns about poverty, hunger, and food assistance in the US. She is the author of Breadlines Knee Deep in Wheat: Food Assistance in the Great Depression (1986), Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement (1999) and Free For All: Fixing School Food in America (2010). Graham Riches is one of the founding members of the VFPC, the former dean of Social Work at UBC and editor of the soon to be released First World Hunger Revisited (in which Janet also contributed a chapter). It looks to be a very interesting conversation. We hope that you can join us.

*Janet’s visit to Vancouver has been supported by the UBC’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems, Think&EatGreen@School Project, and The School of Social Work.

Join us September 17 6-8:30 PM in the Town Hall Room of City Hall.

See the proposed agenda>>

Vancouver is having a municipal election on November 15 and we want to see food issues on the agenda. We have a full agenda in store with updates and discussion on everything from the motion for a GE Free Vancouver, follow up from our last meeting on Migrant Farm Labour in BC with discussion of Vancouver as a Sanctuary City (run a Google search on “Vancouver Sanctuary City”), food hub and urban farming status updates from staff, and more. In the latter half of the meeting we will have a working session on how the VFPC would like to move ahead on getting food on the agenda for the upcoming local election.

Join us on June 25 6-8:30 PM, **Strathcona Room** (change in location from Town Hall Room for this month, you will find it in the basement), Vancouver City Hall.

See the proposed June agenda >>

Join us for our next meeting full of updates and next directions for the VFPC as well as a conversation on migrant farm labour in BC with Joana from SFU and Felix of the Agriculture Workers Alliance May 28 6-8:30 PM, Town Hall Room, Vancouver City Hall.

See the proposed May agenda>>

Felix Martinez has worked with temporary migrant agricultural workers since 2008. He worked at the Mexican Consulate as an officer for the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program until 2011, where he, along with 2 other co-workers blew the whistle on the Mexican consulate for the blacklisting of workers who attempted to unionize. In 2012 he started working with the Agriculture Workers Alliance, applying his knowledge of the program to help the temporary agricultural workers organize as well as to push for the change of policies within the program.

Joana Bettocchi-Barrow is a graduate student in the Latin American Studies Program at Simon Fraser University. Currently completing an ethnographic study, she is researching Central American migrant farm worker’s access to health services in BC and Ontario. She has a Bachelor of Arts in History and Latin American Studies from Simon Fraser University, where she completed an undergraduate thesis focused on the impact neoliberal agricultural practices have on migrant farm workers in Canada.

The City of Vancouver has launched its public consultation process for the Healthy City Strategy. Learn more and find out how to have your say here.

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