Neighbourhood Food Networks

ACTION, EDUCATION, PLANNING, and HAVING FUN -- HOW DO WE TRANSITION TO A SUSTAINABLE, RESILIENT and JUST FOOD SYSTEM?

This page includes an overview of VV`s Neighbourhood Food Networks, specific interest food groups (bees, chickens, community gardening, seed saving, etc., and our other food related activities. For additional Food and food related groups, please visit Projects (Demo Village, FEED-AP (Food EnErgy Descent Action Plan), Permaculture Design, etc.) and Zero Waste.

Other pages with food related content include: Food Forum, Events (all), Food Events/Workshops, Gardening Events/Workshops, Workshops, Potlucks, Blogs, and Neighbourhood Villages.

Spring activities will be posted here soon. In the meantime, please visit VV's events page.

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Archive (2011)

Village Vancouver October Meetup    Oct 16
1pm to 4pm
West End Community Centre, Denman Room 
870 Denman St.
 
  Meet Village Vancouver members, hear what’s happening in VV networks, villages, and projects, including the West End Transition Village, learn about the new West End Neighbourhood Food Network, and share a potluck lunch.

FREE

To register: RSVP here, then register online at www.westendcc.ca, or in person, or by calling WE Community Centre (604-257-8333). Event 45409.404WE

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SEPT 27 - TONIGHT!

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN

BUILDING THE SOUTH VANCOUVER NEIGHBOURHOOD FOOD NETWORK

 What options already exist for fresh, local food in South Van? Where are there gaps?
  What would a sustainable and resilient food system look like in South Van? How do we get there?

Interested in networking, collaborating, dialoguing, growing, sharing, and celebrating healthy food options in South Vancouver? Join the discussion around strengthening our local food webs, networks, and urban agriculture initiatives . All are welcome! 

A collaborative effort by Village Vancouver, Vancouver Food Policy Council, South Vancouver Neighbourhood House and Community Members.

Date: Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Time:
  6:30 (try or make some Kale chips!)
  7:00-9:00pm—Discussion

Location: South Vancouver Neighbour House
6470 Victoria Drive and 49th

Questions? Email: [email protected]

FREE! To register, email:

[email protected]
 VV Neighbourhood Food Networks (NFN's) VVers are active in every neighbourhood in Vancouver and eslewhere, and virtually every member of Village Vancouver has some interest around food. Among other things, VV functions as one big neighbourhood food network, with each village and neighbourhood constituting a more localized network within the larger body - and several hundred people have participated in organized VV food networking related activities in over half the neighbourhoods in Vancouver, and in Burnaby, Coquitlam, New Westminster, and Port Coquitlam. The Network helps us identify our interests and resources, and helps connect us with others in our neighbourhoods.

There are currently tenneighbourhood Villages/Food Networks encompassing twelve neighbourhoods: Cedar Cottage, Dunbar, Grandview Woodland, Hastings Sunrise, Kitsilano, Main Street (encompassing Riley Park, Mt. Pleasant and South Cambie),  Strathcona (new), Sunset (new), UBC (new), and West End (new) In Metropolitan Vancouver, Transition Richmond has held a couple events and a number of other initiatives are being contemplated.

Networking, collaborating, dialoging, and growing, sharing, and celebrating - coming together around food in all ways possible in neighbourhoods and neighbourhood transition villages. Strengthening our local food webs, networks, and urban agriculture initiatives through collaboration, respect, and mutual support. Working towards food resiliency and sustainability on a very local level, and then working with other neighbourhood transition villages and initiatives and other neighbourhood food networks to do the same on a city and bioregional level. Join Village Vancouver, and then join the Neighbourhood Food Network on this page.

We're doing some people focused asset mapping around food and food resiliency in each neighbourhood, so we encourage you to indicate (on your personal page) your interests around food, and what skills and resources around food you can offer in your community. (For example, "can offer gardening space" or "have a fruit tree, can offer or swap fruit" or "have a truck, can haul straw." You can also indicate things you would like to learn or would like to have access to, etc. (For example, "looking for gardening space" or "would like to learn how to prune" or "would like to join a dinner co-op" or ???) We would like to build an identifiable and easy to use asset base of Villagers' interests, skills, resources, needs, etc. around food and food resiliency in each neighbourhood and village.

We offer resources for individuals, neighbourhoods, and emerging and existing neighbourhood villages. Want to start or join a Seed Saving Collective? Coop Co-op? Meet other Beekeepers, or others in your neighbourhood with interests around food and sustainability? Or other urban market gardeners/farmers or urban homesteaders? Contact Ross at [email protected] or join the appropriate network.

VV Food working group At the core of Food Network Transition activities. We focus on 3 areas: Action (including connecting people in existing and new neighbourhood food networks), Education, and Planning (in the form of the food component of VV's Energy Descent Action Plan.)

One of Summer 2010's hightlights:
We invite you to join us at
Building Neighbourhood Food Networks

Tuesday, July xx (event from 2010) 1:00 – 4:00 pm
Langara College, 100 W. 49th Ave., Room C509

Join with other groups and individuals who are involved in neighbourhood and city-wide food security/ food system activities in looking at networking opportunities in and between different Vancouver neighbourhoods. We invite individuals and groups who are engaged around food, food security, food justice, and building sustainable and resilient food systems to learn what local Neighbourhood Food Networks are doing, and to meet colleagues, share ideas, and explore ways to work together toward common food security goals.

FREE. To register: xxxx (event from 2010)

We look forward to your participation!

Cheers,
Ross

Village Vancouver
villagevancouver.ca

Building Neighbourhood Food Networks is part of the 2010 Langara College Summer School on Building Community, and is co-sponsored by Village Vancouver, Vancouver Food Policy Council, Grandview Woodland Food Connection, and Langara College Continuing Studies.

Westside Collaborative Community Garden Member (at Kits Neighbourhood House) in collaboration with Westside Food Security Collaborative and Kits House. Currently, a number of Kits Transition Viillage members participate. Weekly work parties. Shared responsibilities/shared decision making/ shared bounty. Surplus donated to food providers.

VV UBC Farm Taskforce (2008) Media and other work in support of the Farm.

Initial impetus for Demonstration Urban Retail Farm project (approved by the City of North Vancouver last year). The initial discussions which led to this started at a VV-Salon d'Elan Vital salon discussion "The Future Ain't What it Used to Be: Envisioning Sustainable Scenarios in Vancouver in Beyond".

Consultation and participation in re-establishing NOW BC (as a cooperative). (2008)

EDUCATION WHICH LEADS TO ACTION

"Reskilling" School Urban Agriculture workshops - We've held over 75 workshops in the last year, with over 750 people attending - Gardening, Backyard Chickens, Seed Saving, Preserving, Composting, Outdoor Classrooms, Neighbourhood Food Networking and more. Our workshops are community based gatherings which help participants connect with others who share a desire to engage around food and sustainability on a neighbourhood level. Current and past presenters include Robin Wheeler, Grant Watson, Philip Be'er, Jordan Maynard, Heather Havens, Spring Gillard, Janet Millington, and Ross Moster.

The workshops are part of an ongoing series designed to help individuals, neighbourhoods, and communties learn how to live well while reducing our carbon footprints and using substantially less fossil fuels.

Cultivating Food, Cultivating Neighbourhoods series (2010, at Langara College)
Spring series - April 10-April 29. Seed Saving, Creating Community around Food,
Backyard Chickens, Neighbourhood Food Networking. Fall series dates to be announced.

Neighbourhood Food Growing and Sharing and How to Create a Village in the City are two interactive workshops which can help neighbours think about how to create a neighbourhood food network and a neighbourhood transition village in your community. If you are interested in scheduling a workshop in your neighbourhood, please contact Ross @ [email protected].

Langara Summer School on Building Community. VV is a co-sponsor; the Food working group contributes various events and workshops.

NEIGHBORHOOD FOOD GROWING, SHARING, AND PREPAREDNESS IN THE WEST END (April 11-June 5, 2010)
VV, Green Millennium Foundation (GMF), and West End Residents Association (WERA) present Robin Wheeler (www.ediblelandscapes.ca), in a series of workshops on the food-secure household, gardening, food growing, and community organization, targeted especially for residents of the West End. The workshops will be held on one Sunday and two Saturdays at the West End Community Centre in Vancouver.
April 11 (Sun) 10:00-11:30 am THE FOOD SECURE HOUSEHOLD
April 11 (Sun) 11:45-1:30 pm APARTMENT GARDENING
May 1 (Sat) 9:15-10:30 am -- FOOD DIRECTED EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
May 1 (Sat) 10:45 am- 12:15 pm -- SEED SAVING IN THE CITY
June 5 (Sat) 9:15-10:45 am -- FOOD PRESERVATION
June 5 (Sat) 11:00 am-12:30 pm -- INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY - SHAPES IN SHARING.Price: $15 per workshop. Anyone who registers for all six workshops will receive a bonus gift of their choice of either of Robin’s books.
Registration starts at 9 am on March 15. Register online (www.westendcc.ca), in person, or by calling (604-257-8333). You can download the Spring 2010 Guide. See page 22!
Sponsors: www.greenmillennium.org, villagevancouver.ca, www.wera.bc.ca
Special thanks! To the West End Community Centre Association for their support (venue and promo)!

Fork in the Road: Cultivating Food and Community in Local Neighbourhoods workshop and monthly potlucks (2008-09)

Cornucopia, an interactive, educational art piece focusing on the industrialization of the food system and local alternatives to it. (Artist-in-residence collaborative - with VV, Interdisciplinary Media Arts, NOW BC, and Rob Symers - project commissioned for Sustenance: A Feast of Arts and Culture, at the Roundhouse, October 2009)

Vancouver Permaculture Meetup Every month VV talks about a different aspect of what we're doing - neighbourhood villages, neighbourhood food networking,our various working groups, the Transition Town movement, and so on. VPM meets (usually at the Roundhouse) on the 3rd Thursday of the month, starting at 7 pm. New participants always welcome!

Urban Agriculture display booths @ PNE Ag Barn (2008, 2009)
Fall 2010 highlights: 13 part Fall Series "Cultivating Food, Cultivating Community" in Strathcona, "Food for All" Fall Series in Hastings-Sunrise, Demonstration neighbourhood transition villages at various Fall Harvest festivals (Sept 19 and 25), Savour with Neighbours community potluck at Heritage Hall (October 4th, 300 people attended, neighbourhood village seed saving collectives forming, 2 day Permaculture Design and Community Resiliency workshop (November 27-28), Community and Food Security panel discussion in the West End (Dec 5). 2011: Two Block Diet presentations, neighbourhood Permaculture Blitz days, more Backyard Chicken workshops, Robin Wheeler workshops, Grant Watson workshops, and much more!

AFFILATIONS

Westside Food Security Collaborative (VV is a member. VV & Neighbourhood Food       Network convenor is a member of the steering committee)

SFU Local Food Project advisory committee

SPEC Food Working Group (Ditto above)

Vancouver Permaculture Meetup Core Group 2010. (Ditto above)

Kits Neighbourhood House Welcoming Communities Project (2010)

NOW BC Co-op Board (Ditto above. One other VV board member is also a member, and several Council members are VV members )

Vancouver Food Policy Council (VV & Neighbourhood Food Network convenor is a member. One other VV board member is also a member.)


PLANNING

Food Energy Descent Action Plan (Community Resiliency Plan) (FED-AP) In partnership with the Vancouver Food Policy Council

What would a sustainable and resilient food system look like?

Imagine a food system that used 90% less fossil fuels. What would it look like? How would we "get there"?

Broccoli Promenades (member participation)


Finally, we suggest checking out NOW BC Co-op (www.nowbc.ca), a kindred organization and "online farmers market" with whom we've partnered with on numerous occasions.