Westside Food Security Collaborative (WFSC)

9:30-11, Tuesday Oct 20, 2009

Steeves Manor

1) Welcomes/Introductions:
Attendees:
Catherine Leach – Kitsilano Neighbourhood House
Sally Spears – Steeves Manor
Ellen Wickberg – Westside Family Place
Chelsea Calder – Kitsilano Neighbourhood House
Charlotte Roth – Pocket Market volunteer, UBC Farm Intergenerational
Program
Spring Gillard – Pocket Markets, Westside Food Security Tours
Lisa Ross – Jewish Family Services Agency
Zsuzsi Fodor – UBC Social Planning Student
Lindsay Clark– UBC Social Planning Student
Maria Burglehaus – VCH Healthy Living Program
Nicole Mireau – VCH Community Nutritionist
Regrets:
Lisa McCune
Diane Ash
Penny Rogers
Karen Dar Woon
Dellie Lidyard

2) Pocket Markets and UBC Students involvement:

• Their masters program requires them to find meaningful projects in
community that interest them to work 100 hrs.
• They can do research, prep work, help build community relationships,
do assessment frameworks, evaluations
• Wanting to give their time at the same time learning from the
collaborative
• Spring: would love to see the students do the evaluation piece and
connect with community groups. The pocket markets start in June, but
all the work needs to be complete by April.
• Would be great to develop a document that describes the history and
the coming to be of the pocket markets, in addition to a website, and
a “fresh sheet” that would include a profile of the farmers, recipes, and
tips for growing.
• Spring will send students both grant applications
• We will need a list of where the pocket market locations will be. We
will consider doing some at corporate offices to subsidize the low
income markets. corporate space on the Westside, or VGH as options)

Background information about the pocket market

• Not farmers but organized by a non-profit, who buy from local farmers
 • Set up in key target locations, following the model of Food Roots in
Victoria and Richmond Food Security
• Realized that seniors in the South Granville area were going hungry
due to the lack of produce store available in that neighbourhood.
• This initiated a few smaller markets. $$ appeared from VCH to buy the
produce for the 2 markets that were set up during the summer at the
South Granville Seniors Center.
• 50 visits and 35 sales at the first market, followed by close numbers at
the second. Made most of the money back.
• Now have United Way funding, waiting on Vancouver Foundation
funding (will find out in mid Dec)
• In the future, it would be great to develop ownership at site, get
volunteers from each site to run the market, to become self-sustaining.

3) Nicole and Maria – Healthy Living Program

• Want to share how this program can mesh with what the collaborative
is doing to address food security on the Westside
• The Healthy Living program is a new, city-wide program that was
developed to reverse the alarming increase of chronic diseases. The
program is made up of a team of nurses, dieticians, physiotherapists,
and recreational therapists directly focusing on health promotion by
partnering with other community organizations to target housing, food
security, physical activity and family.
• Target group is age 35-64, aboriginals, adults living in poverty or with
low income, newcomers and ethnic groups, specifically the South Asian
group.
• Examples of past programs:
i. Walking programs w/ South Asian women in South Vancouver –
has evolved into swimming by engaging the community to find
out what other needs exist.
ii. Change the food offered in local temples by making the healthy
choice the easy choices
iii. Community health fairs and screening clinics
iv. Vancouver Park Board – looking to see how many healthy food
options are available and how they can improve.

Health Living Program Grant Application – Deadline Nov 6th

• 2 x 20,000 funding streams (Nov & May), onetime seed funding
• Only available to non-profits that are not already receiving funding
from VCH sources
• Can collaborate with other agencies to apply

4) Listserve
• It has been set up and an announcement will be sent out that will
include all necessary information for subscribers

5) Governance
• Recently it has been found that 4-5 people have been emailing outside
of the collaborative and we want to maintain transparency.
 • Go back to look at the structure of the group – where the working
group/executive group because as transparent as possible.
• In the past, Catherine and Lisa have been co-chairing with Spring
helping occasionally. Chelsea will now be doing the admin stuff
• We will now set up ad hoc working groups for each project
i. Pocket Market Committee
• We will encourage these conversations every time a new project
becomes developed within the collaborative to allow individuals to get
involved as they want.
• When it comes to funding applications, the collaborative will open it up
to the whole group for whoever wants to get involved

6) Roundtable
Nicole:
• Community flu clinics starting next week, just for seniors 65+, in
weeks to come, clinics will open for the rest of the public
• Farmer Jordan from Southlands Farms will be doing school farm
tours from Oct 26th – Oct 30th, reservations required. Please
forward information to contacts and listserv
Lisa:
• Thursday Oct 22, Van Duesen Gardens Film showing 7:30
• Will be holding a “Think Tank” meeting in Nov to gather
community groups together to share best practices, and how to
improve their programs.
Spring:
• UBC Farm Tour Oct 31, 1:30-3:30, guided tour, register at
gardnhrt@shaw.ca $35
• Will be doing the Gauntlet tour about emergency food services
on the west side in November – more info to come.
• Metro Vancouver staff were participants on her Waste Tour, had
a conversation about food recovery in addition to waste
management on the west side. In addition to Quest/Food Bank,
what else can be done for businesses? Will talk again in Nov. Will
send Portland information – It was a great connection with Metro
Van. Check these two innovative web sites:
http://your.kingcounty.gov/solidwaste/garbage-recycling/edible-
food.asp
http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=9887

Charlotte:
• Intergenerational project at UBC through the education
department
• Focuses on how young children learn with older volunteers,
Schools apply to the program, currently there are 3 schools, with
one class coming 12 x throughout the year to see the whole
cycling of planting, growing, harvesting of a garden. Teacher
has to incorporate garden program into curriculum.
• Program continues to evolve as they learn more. Has been
running for 3 years.
 • Day at farm includes being responsible for the planning and
maintence of raised bed by volunteers and 2-3 students, share a
snack with food from the garden and there is a kitchen where
the students learn to cook with fresh produce from their garden.
Ellen:
• Distributing apples from fruit tree project
Sally:
• Flu shot clinics were difficult to run because of the change in age
range to 65+
• 3rd Thursday packaged 20 boxes
• Going to UBC to do a presentation but needs Fruit & Veggie
pamphlet – Kits House send to Sally or give to Sandra.
Chelsea:
• New Community Youth Engager at Kits House, extremely
interested in food security initiatives on the Westside.
• Planning to develop a program to get youth more involved with
food security, include an educational side as well as hands on
component where they volunteer their time in the community on
a local food security project. Still developing this and figuring
out what that can look like.
Catherine:
• Autumn Fair, this Saturday 10-3pm – there will be lots of
information on the developments
• Open House Nov 14th for the 8th & Vine site development
• Nov 3rd public hearing at City Hall, want everyone who supports
low income housing for seniors to come, check out the city
website for more information.
• Kits House will be holding another focus group on environmental
sustainability in the coming months