Month: March 2013

Check out his wonderful new video of the Corn Festival made by Hadas Levy.

The Corn Festival is an annual event organized by the Canada El Salvador Action Network and hosted by the Grandview Woodland Food Connection and Britannia Community Centre. It is an important celebration for the Latin American community and recognition of the importance of corn for the peoples of Latin America is ever more important as local varieties of corn are being lost to new genetically modified and industrial corn production.

This festival is held in fall during the harvest season at Britannia Community Centre. All communities are welcome as the intention is to build connections and relations among all people who love corn.

For many people, the cost of living in Vancouver has meant either paying the rent or buying food. Even for some home owners, food is passed over in order to pay the monthly mortgage. The link between food insecurity and cost of housing is clearly evident.

Let’s look at the cost of living for a household on income assistance. In the most recent “Cost of Eating in British Columbia 2011” report the provincial average cost for a nutritious food basket for a family of four is $868.43 per month. This same family on income assistance earns approximately $1,851. Rent for this family might be in the range of $1000/month if they are lucky but much more if they are paying market rent. After paying for food and rent, there is no money left to buy any other costs including transportation, clothing and school supplies.

And for a single man on disability assistance, he would likely be paying close to 75% of his income on housing, leaving little to properly feed himself.

For a full analysis from the Cost of Eating report check out: http://www.dietitians.ca/Downloadable-Content/Public/CostofEatingBC2011_FINAL.aspx

Food insecurity is a result of inadequate anti-poverty policy in which many often complex issues inevitably lead to an individual lacking in financial/income security. Housing affordability is a significant indicator for financial health and without a national housing strategy and policies to provide more affordable housing, families and individuals continue to struggle to make ends meet.

As food activists, it is important that we also work to advocate for social policy and change that also help build food secure communities. For this reason the Grandview Woodland Food Connection is keen to endorse the housing demands of the BC Save Social Housing Coalition:

We demand immediate provincial government housing action to solve the housing crisis in BC:
• Build 10,000 units of good quality social housing per year.
• Prioritize social housing units for Indigenous Peoples, migrants, women, seniors, people with mental health and physical disabilities including HIV/AIDs, and vulnerable low-income people who are disproportionately at risk of homelessness and hidden homelessness.
• Save existing low rent housing by enforcing maintenance standards; maintain non-market projects whose operating agreements are expiring; freeze rents & don’t allow increased rents when tenants move; and close loopholes in the Residential Tenancy Act to stop renovictions.
• Protect tenants. Recognize tenant unions and their power to negotiate with landlords; Make all supportive & student housing fully covered by the Residential Tenancy Act.
• Include everyone who needs housing. End eligibility discrimination and make all BC residents eligible for BC Housing. Extend housing rights to temporary migrant workers by granting them permanent legal status.
• Fund social housing through taxation as a social responsibility of the government, and support residents of communities to develop and manage their social housing themselves.Here’s the link to the social housing coalition website if you need more info.
http://www.socialhousingbc.com/our-demands/

Fresh Roots Urban Farms is establishing a school farm this month! The first of its kind in Canada! And we’d love for you to come out and join us! March 23 & 24 Fresh Roots will be establishing a 1/4 acre Schoolyard Market Garden at Vancouver Technical Secondary.

In collaboration and generously supported by Vancity, The Real Estate Foundation of BC, Vancouver Foundation, the City of Vancouver, and the Vancouver School Board (along with many other awesome partners and collaborators)…

The schoolyard market garden will serve as an outdoor classroom for students and teachers, and provide healthy, fresh produce to go into school cafeterias and sell into the neighborhood.

Students, neighborhood residents, and community members will be joining us March 23 through March 27 to help us wheelbarrow the soil into place so we can sow seeds and get growing!

And we are inviting you to join us as well!
When: March 23 & 24
Where: Vancouver Technical Secondary School map here
Time: 10am – 1pm, 1pm – 4pm each day.
Please choose a time block you can commit to and email your RSVP to volunteer@freshroots.ca
What to wear: Clothes you can get dirty in! Long pants! Closed toed shoes! Gardening gloves, Rain-Gear: we’ll be working outside rain and shine.
What to bring: Water bottle, snacks, A willingness to have fun – at our farm events we work, laugh, eat, have a great time.

Please email all questions and RSVPs to volunteer@freshroots.ca