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com

12 Things You Can Do to Strengthen the Food System on the West Side
by Spring Gillard

1. Grow Your Own. In your backyard, on your balcony, on a rooftop. And if you don’t
want to garden, share your space with someone who does. No space, see Sharing
Backyards or join a community garden. Or inquire at your child’s school if they might be
open to starting a veggie garden.

2. Buy Local. Shop at farmers’ markets. Read labels and try to buy local products. Stores
like Edible BC in Granville Island feature BC products. On 4th Ave Terra Breads bakes
all its own products. And for chocolate lovers, visit Chocolate Arts on 4th and Cocoa
Nymph at 10th & Alma.

3. Compost. Recycle your food and garden waste. Learn how at City Farmer or call the
compost hotline. Encourage your grocery store, favourite restaurants, retailers to do the
same.

4. Grow a Row. If you do have a garden, plant a row for the hungry. Learn more on the
City of Vancouver Food Policy web site.

5. Food Delivery. Too busy to shop? Join a local food delivery program like SPUD, or a
weekly box of produce with the Fruit & Veggie Deal or a buying co-operative like Now
BC. Or sign up for a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) program like Kitsilano
Farms.

6. Fruit Trees. If you have too much fruit, donate it to the Fruit Tree Project. Or sign up
for a picking session. If you have an area near you that might be suitable for fruit trees,
contact the Vancouver Park Board.

7. Eat Out Green. Look for the Green Table Network and Ocean Wise stickers in local
restaurant windows.

8. Celebrate Food. Eat and cook together. With family, friends, neighbours, at a
community kitchen. Attend food events. Farm Folk City Folk has Feast of Fields and
others. UBC Farm does many events too. Or take a tour. Groups like Slow Food
Vancouver offer fabulous tours like Bike the Blossoms. Edible BC does tours and there
are Circle Farm Tours. And Spring does tours too, find out more at The Compost Diaries.

9. Volunteer with a group that is helping to strengthen the food system. The Westside
Food Security Collaborative (WFSC) is one of them!

10. Grocery Stores. Talk to your grocer about bringing in more local and organic
products. If there are “access” issues (narrow aisles, bulky end of aisle displays, hard to
get around in especially for seniors), bring those to their attention too.

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11. Talk it Up. Talk to your friends, family, neighbours about the food system. Write
letters to the editor. Let your municipal, provincial and federal politicians know how
concerned you are about strengthening our food system and retaining farmland (including
UBC Farm) so that we can continue to feed ourselves.

12. Commit to doing at least one of the above from now on!

Resources
Chocolate Arts www.chocolatearts.com
Circle Farm Tours www.circlefarmtour.com
City Farmer www.cityfarmer.info
City of Vancouver Food Policy www.vancouver.ca/foodpolicy
Cocoa Nymph www.cocoanymph.com
Community Kitchens www.communitykitchens.ca
Compost Diaries compostdiary.com
Compost Hotline 604.736.2250
Edible BC www.edible-britishcolumbia.com
Edible Vancouver Magazine www.ediblevancouver.com
Farmers’ Markets eatlocal.org and www.bcfarmersmarket.org
Farm Folk City Folk www.ffcf.bc.ca
Food Runners www.foodbank.bc.ca/main/?foodRunners
Fruit & Veggie Deal fruit.and.veggie.deal@gmail.com.
Fruit Tree Project www.vcn.bc.ca/fruit/
Green Table Network www.greentable.net
Kitsilano Farms www.kitsilanofarms.com
Meal Exchange www.mealexchange.com
Meals on Wheels www.mealcall.org/canada/british-columbia/vancouver.htm
Now BC www.nowbc.ca
Ocean Wise oceanwise@vanaqua.org
Quest Food Exchange. Food recovery. www.questoutreach.org
Rocky Mountain Flatbread www.rockymountainflatbread.ca
School Fruit & Veggie Programs. List of participating schools, scroll down to district #39
Vancouver http://www.aitc.ca/bc/programs/snack-program/program-
information/participating-schools
Slow Food Vancouver www.slowfoodvancouver.com
Southlands Farm www.southlandsfarms.com
SPUD grocery delivery. www.spud.ca
Terra Breads www.terrabreads.com
UBC Farm www.landfood.ubc.ca/ubcfarm
Van Community Food Resource Lists.http://www.vch.ca/nutrition/foodresources.htm
Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden 2150 Maple Street
Vancouver Food Policy Council blog. http://www.vancouverfoodpolicycouncil.ca/
Vancouver Park Board http://vancouver.ca/parks/trees/aboutstreettrees.htm
Westside Family Place www3.telus.net/wsfp/
Westside Food Security Collaborative http://www.kitshouse.org/foodsecurity.html)
Village Vancouver www.villagevancouver.ca