Food Justice for All
The invitation said to bring slippers. Seemed like an odd request for the screening and panel discussion of The Interceptors, a short documentary that follows a passionate and diverse group of individuals and organizations tackling Vancouver’s food waste and food insecurity in innovative and inspiring ways. But, this is Vancouver and we tend to not question these types of requests. Especially when good food, engaging conversations and a worthy cause are involved.
The need for slippers became evident when the venue hosts, a charming philanthropic couple, greeted guests and quietly mentioned that they periodically open up their home, a cleverly transformed industrial warehouse in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, for fundraisers and causes they support. This one was presented by Les Dames d’Escoffier International, British Columbia chapter, along with Story Money Impact.
Guests, which included food entrepreneurs, well-known chefs, food justice advocates, food writers and foodies, enjoyed an assortment of appetizing canapés, prepared mostly by Chef TJ Conwi and his team from Ono Vancouver. Staying true to their mission, they used rescued food. Conwi, who is featured in the film, has gained much recognition for his work repurposing surplus food from grocery stores and food service suppliers to provide healthy restaurant-quality meals to people in need across Vancouver. To date he and his team have served more than 400,000 meals.
Conwi understands there’s still much that needs to be done. “There is no way that one person, or even one organization, can do this work on their own,” says Conwi who began the meal program as an emergency response to COVID-19, when the restaurant industry was forced to shut down. He collaborated with several other local organizations, including Food Runners, which is also featured in the film.
During the screening, the room was quiet as the film poignantly shed light on a much bigger issue. Food waste occurs through- out the entire supply chain and although many businesses and individuals are concerned about the problem, they often don’t have the ability or resources to co-ordinate food rescues, and so the food ends up as landfill.
After the screening, there was an opportunity for questions as the group discussed food insecurity and the growing concern around the need to reframe food waste by redistributing surplus food. According to a Vancouver food sector briefing on food recovery prepared by Food Stash Foundation and Food Runners in 2023, “each year 58 per cent of the food produced in Canada is wasted or lost ($49.46 billion value), even though 32 per centof this food (11.2 million tonnes) is edible and could be redirected to its best end use.”
“We need to divert more food, increase awareness and put more nutritious food back into the community and schools,” says Conwi, who has joined forces with a grassroots group called the Vancouver Food Justice Coalition. The group has broad representation from local individuals and organizations and has been working collaboratively behind the scenes to address these issues. Its mandate is “to create space for community-based organizations and those with lived and living experience to engage meaningfully and authentically in policy and systems change. It aims to lead food justice policy advocacy with community knowledge — working through community-driven, collaborative and cross-sectoral organizational structures and processes.”
“It’s about movement building and social change,” says Ian Marcuse, the community food organizer, a founding member with the coalition and co-ordinator for the city-wide Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks. “This is about social change work. And this is what people like myself live for.”
In his role as co-ordinator for the food networks, Marcuse and others have been committed to promoting food security in neighbourhoods across Vancouver for several years. “The beauty of that decentralized networked neighbourhood-based or what we also call place-based community development approach,” according to Marcuse, “is that it is very relational.” Working out of neighbourhood houses or community centres, they span the whole continuum from emergency food to what Marcuse calls “community development in the middle of all that beautiful stuff.”
Their programs range from food literacy, growing food, commu- nity kitchens, canning workshops, to eating and feasting together. “That's the kind of work we want to be doing,” Marcuse says. “We want to move away from the emergency food distribution of all those programs that dominate us and which take all our energy and time and our resources and money, and move that into the community development stuff, start growing food, start teaching people skills and really building resilience and capacity.”
Joey Liu, food security manager with South Vancouver Neighbourhood House, has also been involved with the coalition since it launched. She and her team work with its partners to provide weekly emergency grocery boxes to 320 households representing 1,100 individuals in the South Vancouver neighbourhoods of Sunset, Victoria-Fraserview and Killarney.
As a result, Liu is acutely aware that the inequities around food and the need for long-term advocacy and a food justice vision.
“In 2021, a few of us started talking to each other, and what we were all going through as people in the community. We’re strug- gling more now than through COVID,” says Liu. “[We] felt like enough-is-enough as people were being pushed past limits. [We] felt back then that non-profits had the burden of figuring out short-term and long-term solutions, especially since food was not a priority on any level.”
Members of the newly formed coalition organized a food justice town hall and prepared a series of briefings for Vancouver city councillors. The goal was to create an opportunity for community and elected officials to come together “in a spirit of learning, sharing and exploring opportunities to work more closely in ways that can strengthen and help address the current food systems challenges with a focus on equity, resilience and decolonization.”
According to Liu, “[The town hall] was a successful event, and we now had many more organizations involved. We are all looking at different pieces of the system, not just our own lane. We are looking at the whole picture and working together to reduce redundancy and getting [city] councillors out to see the work.” Liu hopes that as part of the bigger picture, there will be a shift in perspectives regarding how food and other social issues connect.
Michelle Reining, executive director of Vancouver Food Runners, is also actively involved with the coalition. “We are a Metro Vancouver food recovery organization and we use app technology and a team of volunteer drivers to redirect food from about a 150 food businesses now to about a 145 non-profit partners.” This year, they’re on track to deliver 1.7 million pounds of food through their program. “We cannot use food donations to solve food security,” Reining says, “but what we can do is support non-profit organizations that are doing phenomenal work in the community.”
Reining, who also co-chairs the Vancouver Food Policy Council, believes they now have the power to do even more collectively as they can leverage resources by sharing information and working together. “I feel like the Vancouver Food Justice Coalition is really a community grassroots voice and public sphere where people can join if they want to get involved with these kinds of issues,” Reining says, but she hopes more people will get involved. “We all do things a little bit differently, and we all complement each other.”
Carla Pellegrini, executive director from the Food Stash Foundation, also believes the coalition is in a position to address the need for government policy and change. “But none of us can do it alone,” Pellegrini says. Through the town hall, the coalition wanted to hold the city accountable and advocate for better funding towards those doing the work. Through a collective voice and collective pressure, Pellegrini believes they are creating a huge impact, and says, “The ripple effect of healthy and affordable food is motivating.”
Leona Brown, an Indigenous advocate also involved with the coalition, believes that “If we gather our voices, we will be able to influence the city and create a space where all can be accessible.” Gurjashan Singh Dhummi, community development co-ordinator with Columbia College, has even managed to involve students with the coalition and has been impressed by the diversity of the group and what can be achieved when a unified voice advocates together and shares resources. But Dhummi also believes that more support is required. “We need to advocate for more local government funding as food sovereignty is not an individual problem; we need to make sure people have access to resources.”
In an important step towards advocating for change, Reining is excited to announce that on July 24, City of Vancouver Councillor Adriane Carr brought forward a motion called "Closing the Gap" that was passed by City Council unanimously. According to Reining, “The passing of this motion is an important step in recognizing value and necessity of food systems work in Vancouver and Indigenous food sovereignty — how food is foundational to our health, well-being, security and sense of community.” Currently only 0.03 per cent of the City of Vancouver’s Operating Budget supports the city’s vital food systems. “Many people came together to draft, refine, and support this motion, including the Vancouver Food Policy Council, Vancouver Food Justice Coalition, Indigenous food leaders, elected officials, representatives from Vancouver Coastal Health, food programming staff, volunteers and academics,” Reining says, “and it represents a real collective ‘win’ for our food community in the city.”
So, like bringing a pair of slippers to wear, we respect the wishes of our hosts and their home, setting aside our own individual needs for the collective good. And through events like the screening of The Interceptors and grassroots initiatives such as the Vancouver Food Justice Coalition, we can join forces to effect change in meaningful and lasting ways. We just need to show up, get involved and keep having those important conversations.
Food Stash Foundation
foodstash.ca | @foodstashfoundation
Ono Vancouver
onovancouver.com | @onovancouver
Vancouver Food Policy Council
vancouverfoodpolicycouncil.ca
Vancouver Food Runners
vancouverfoodrunners.com | @vancouver_food_runners
Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks
vancouverfoodnetworks.com | @vancouverfoodnetwork
