Food Policy Council
Vancouver
Food Policy Council Members
| Food Policy Council Member |
Role |
Organization |
| Joanne Bays, Co-Chair |
Consultant |
Public Health Association of British Columbia |
| Brent Mansfield, Co-Chair |
Community Liaison |
Think&EatGreen@School Project, UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems |
| Garden Project Coordinator |
Cultivating a Health Community in the Grandview/¿uuqinak’uuh Garden, Vancouver Coastal Health |
| Doug Aason |
Director of Community Investment |
Greater Vancouver Foodbank |
| Daryl Arnold |
Self-employed |
Commercial poultry farmer |
| Herb Barbolet |
Consultant, Food System |
SFU, Centre for Sustainable Community Development and Local Food First |
| Jason Boyce |
Social Sustainability Coordinator |
Nature's Path |
| Maria Burglehaus |
Community Nutritionist |
Vancouver Coastal Health |
| Carole Christopher |
Consultant, Therapist, Nutritionist |
Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC) |
| Janine de la Salle |
Director |
Food Systems Planning, HB Lanarc |
| Trish Kelly |
Director of Project Development |
Discovery Organics |
| Ilana Labow |
Co-founder |
Fresh Roots Urban Farm |
| Tara McDonald |
Executive Director |
Your Local Farmers Market Society |
| Ross Moster |
Founder |
Village Vancouver |
| Cale Price |
Proprietor |
Brixton Café |
| Carla S. Shore |
Principal |
C-Shore Communications Inc. |
| Helen Spiegelman |
Founder and Coordinator |
Zero Waste Vancouver |
| Kim Sutherland |
Regional Agrologist |
BC Ministry of Agriculture |
| Shelby Tay |
Organizer |
Village Vancouver |
| Chris Thoreau |
Owner |
My Urban Farm |
| David Tracey |
Coordinator |
Vancouver Community Agriculture Network (VCAN) |
| David Wilson |
Produce Operations Manager |
Choices Markets |
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Contact
Food Policy Council members can be contacted through James O'Neill,
Social Policy Division, at (604) 873-7764 or email to james.oneill@vancouver.ca.
Further Contacts
Food Policy Council Liaison - 2009
Food Policy Parks Board Liaison - 2009
Food Policy Staff Team
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Food Policy Council Bios
Joanne Bays, Co-Chair
Joanne has over 17 years experience in population health promotion. She is a community nutritionist, a researcher, a planner, a community developer, a health educator and a healthy public policy advocate with special interest in food policy and local sustainable food systems. Engaging communities in processes to shape the systems that impact their life, health, well being, has been a central focus of her career. Joanne has supported initiatives concerned with addressing community inequities, strengthening networks, and fostering sustainable built and natural environments. She has worked in partnership with diverse sectors at national and provincial levels and in urban, rural, and aboriginal settings throughout the province. As a consultant for the Public Health Association of British Columbia, Joanne is currently spearheading the Farm to School Salad Bar Initiative. The first provincial network of its kind in Canada - this initiative links farms and schools in order to improve child nutrition, support local farmers, and strengthen the capacity of local food system. Joanne is an adept speaker and presenter and devotes considerable thought and attention to the question of how to convey both information and inspiration.
Brent Mansfield, Co-Chair
After working as an elementary school teacher within the Vancouver School Board for almost three years Brent is now working in two roles involving schools as central elements within the context of working towards a healthy, sustainable and just food system. He is the Community Liaison for the Think&EatGreen@School Project, a community university research alliance project based out of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems at UBC in partnership with the Vancouver School Board and many other community organizations. He also gets to get his hands in the soil regularly through his role as the Garden Project Coordinator of Cultivating a Health Community in the Grandview/¿uuqinak’uuh Garden, a project funded by Vancouver Coastal Health. Brent feels privileged to be able to bring his passion and energy to the Vancouver Food Policy Council as one of the co-chairs.
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Doug Aason
Doug Aason is Director of Community Investment at the Greater Vancouver Foodbank. Previous to this position, he was Manager of Community Resources with Salvation Army – Harbour Light. Doug has a strong corporate business background that he brings to his work. He has owned and ran several successful businesses including launching a marketing company located in Costa Rica that grew to employ 110 people. In 1999, after he returned to Canada, he joined the non-profit world with a commitment to contribute his corporate talents to the community. Recognized as a community leader, Doug sits on a variety of non-profit boards and committees. He strongly promotes that the strength, health and potential of our communities lie in the partnerships we build.
Daryl Arnold
Daryl has worked in various capacities including marketing poultry feed for many years. He has owned and operated a 53,000 bird broiler farm (meat birds) in Surrey for the past 22 years and was a partner and then owner of B.C. Animal Feed Manufacturing Plant. Currently he is the Chair of the Metro Vancouver Agriculture Advisory Committee (member since 1994,) the Vice- Chair of Surrey’s Agriculture Advisory Committee (member since its inception in 1995,) and Chair of the Surrey Farmers Institute. In the past Daryl has Chaired the BC Chicken Growers Association, the B.C. Chicken Marketing Board, and the Sustainable Poultry Farming Group (managing poultry wastes.) He has also been the B.C. Director to the Chicken Farmers of Canada.
Herb Barbolet
An Associate with the Centre for Sustainable Community Development at Simon Fraser University since 2003. Herb has been active in community development for more than 30 years - Working in community planning, energy conservation, citizen participation, cooperative housing, and food and agriculture. He now works in food policy research, projects and programmes: linking food to community economic development, health and safety, environment, social justice, and international development - from the very local to the global. He is one of the leading food activists in North America. Herb has a B.A. in Urbanism, a Master's in Community Development, and doctoral studies in Community Development and later in Community Planning and Political Economy. Herb co-authored food assessments for The Provincial Health Service Authority and a food assessment guides for the Vancouver Coastal Health, Fraser Health and the United Way.
Herb consulted on the establishment of the Vancouver Food Policy Council and has been a member since its inception. He was also a consultant and participant in Year 3 of the SFU Imagine BC Programme on Education and Learning. He was the founder, and for 10 years, executive director of FarmFolk/CityFolk, an internationally recognized NGO. Earlier he was and organic salad producer for 10 years and the executive director of the Community Planning Association of Canada (BC) for five years and developed cooperative housing for 10 years. For 13 years, he appeared on CBC radio Almanac's Food Panel, and in all media. Herb was a founding member of numerous non-profits (including the Cooperative Housing Federation of BC and the BC Association for Regenerative Agriculture), cooperatives (including Community Alternatives) and limited companies (including Glorious Garnish and Seasonal Salad Co. Ltd. and Chocolate Arts, Ltd.
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Jason Boyce
Jason is a team member with Nature’s Path Foods in the sustainability department and is an active member in the local food movement in his hometown on Vancouver, BC. His passion is helping support the growth of sustainable food systems. Jason has his MBA in Sustainable Business from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute, as well a BSC in Ecology from UBC; he brings a wide range of experiences and training in strategic planning, business development, change management and organizational development. Over the past 5 years, Jason has been involved in founding or building several leading sustainable food system projects and organizations including: Green Table Networks, The Farm Folk City Folk “Meet Your Maker” event, Local Food First, and the Ocean Wise Sustainable Seafood program.
Maria Burglehaus
Maria is focused on increasing access to nutrition education and healthy eating. VFPC has passed her motion to Increase the Nutritional Quality of Food and Beverages Sold in City-owned, Municipal and Recreation Facilities. She is already assisting with the Vancouver Park Board’s Stay Active Eat Healthy to see healthy choices available at concessions, vending machines, programs, events and meetings.
Maria has worked as a registered dietitian for more than 15 years. In her current role, she supports delivery of VCH Healthy Living Program grants to community agencies for healthy eating, active living and smoking cessation initiatives. Maria has a Masters of Science in Health Care and Epidemiology from UBC. She is a member of the East Vancouver Aboriginal Diabetes Coalition and has sat on the board of BC Association of Pregnancy Outreach Programs. She has published in the Journal of Aboriginal Health and the Canadian Journal of Public Health. She enjoys gardening in the backyard with her husband Alan and two sons, Thomas and Christopher.
Carole Christopher
Carole has for nearly 30 years been a volunteer activist working as a Coordinator or as a Director with several organizations concerned with many social and environmental issues. She is currently Vice President of SPEC (Society Promoting Environmental Conservation,) BC’s oldest environmental organization. She has a Doctorate in Nutrition, has developed and taught university courses on nutritional ecology and community nutrition, consulted with the US Federal Trade Commission on regulating advertising to children, has broad experience in building community networks, and has written and spoken on a range of issues, including food security and the role of technology and marketing on the changing North American diet. She is Certified Process Work Therapist, with a strong focus on systems thinking and on facilitating group process and collaborative decision-making. She also is certified in Conflict Resolution from the Justice Institute of BC. Working with the Food Policy Council offers an opportunity to bring together several strong elements of her work life as a professional nutritionist, environmentalist, community advocate and conflict facilitator. Carole is an avid organic gardener and enjoys camping trips with her husband Rick Pollay.
Janine de la Salle
Janine was born and raised in Armstrong, a small agricultural town in the interior of BC. After travel and study, Janine became part of the legions of people studying urban agriculture and searching for ideas and solutions for how to bring these systems into the North American context. Janine is now one of Western Canada’s leading professionals in the theory and practice of sustainable food and agriculture systems, and is the Director of the Food and Agriculture System Planning practice at HB Lanarc Consultants. Janine brings food security and sustainability into focus for decision-makers by working with communities, non-profit organizations, local governments, and developers to create food and agriculture system strategies, planning and design opportunities for food, and progressive food policy. Janine is frequently teaches and speak about sustainable food and agriculture systems, is a long-standing member of the Vancouver Food Policy Council, and is a co-editor and contributor to a newly published book: Agricultural Urbanism, Handbook for Building Sustainable Food and Agriculture Systems in 21st Century Cities. Janine has recently been awarded the CIP President’s award for Young Planner (2010).
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Trish Kelly
Trish has worked in the natural foods industry for more than eighteen years. After many years in the retail sector, including almost a decade with Capers Markets, she moved into distribution, and can now be found at Discovery Organics, a wholesaler of fair trade and organic produce. A VFPC council member since 2007, Trish’s areas of interest include neighbourhood level food security, institutional purchasing policy, and food waste management. Her contributions to food policy in Vancouver include work on the backyard hen bylaw amendment and support for Vancouver’s Fair Trade City status, as well acting as lead for our Food Security at the Neighbourhood Level working group.
Ilana Labow
Ilana is a community-engaged farmer. She received training and has worked with Growing Power in Chicago, Milwaukee USA and studied under Dr. Elaine Solowey at The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, Israel. All of Ilana’s agricultural experience comes from working with people using sustainable agriculture methods to actualize co-existence, peace, build community food system security, vocational skill development, and create equal access to healthy, safe, affordable food. Ilana co-founded and is farmer/project manager of Fresh Roots Urban Farm (FRUF), establishing backyard and schoolyard farms that grow food for the neighbourhood while utilized as outdoor, hands-on learning classrooms. Driven to engage in food sovereignty and community health, Ilana focuses on growing whole foods and making it equally accessible to all people.
Tara McDonald
For the past 16 years, in both Canada and the US, Tara has worked with food producers and consumers to build sustainable, resilient regional local food systems and social enterprises. Teaming up with farmers, urban growers, inner-city youth, farmers' market organizers, low-income families, food distributors and municipal decision-makers, Tara has played a key role in the design and scaling-up of programs such as the Good Food Box, school food and community gardens, and inner-city youth urban agriculture businesses. As Executive Director of the Vancouver Farmers Markets (VFM: Your Local Farmers Market Society) since 2005, Tara has overseen the strategic growth of a network of year-round neighbourhood farmers markets in the city of Vancouver. In this time, VFM's 240 local food producers and artisan crafters' annual sales have tripled to $4.6 million in 2010. Market locations have spread across the city to serve 250 000 Vancouverites who can now walk, bike or take transit to buy directly from the farmers who grow their food. In the summer of 2010, Tara's advocacy work with City staff resulted in the development of landmark, wide-scale zoning and bylaw changes that make it easier for farmers markets to operate in the city.
Tara is often asked to provide consultation to policy-makers, academics and funders on local food-based economic and social enterprise development. She is a founding member of the Metro Vancouver GetLocal Business Alliance, an active member of the Local Food First steering committee and Project Coordinator for the New City Market, a local food hub facility for Vancouver (http://localfoodfirst.org/projects/new-city-market/). Tara lives in East Vancouver with her husband and 8 year-old daughter who is now growing 3 kinds of strawberries, snap peas, wax beans, 4 varieties of mint for homemade teas, corn, purple verbena for the butterflies, and sungold tomatoes companion-planted with basil.
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Ross Moster
Ross has a thirty-five year background in small business, food, cooperatives, social and environmental activism, and sustainable, resilient community building. He is engaged in numerous projects through Village Vancouver (metropolitan Vancouver's Transition Town Initiative), which he founded and convenes, and is a member of the Car Free Vancouver, SPEC, NOW BC Co-op, and IMAPON boards. An active member of the Vancouver Food Policy Council, he's involved with several other initiatives, including SFU's Local Food Project advisory committee, Vancouver 's Peak Oil Executive, Salon d'Elan Vital (co-founder), the Vancouver Permaculture Meetup, the Westside Food Security Collaborative, and Langara College's Summer School on Building Community. He is particularly passionate about fostering caring, connection, and collaboration in local communities, and pursues this through VV's Neighbourhood Food Networks/Villages and other groups.
Ross served as GM of an organic food co-op for 20 years, and on the boards of L.A. EcoVillage and various California cooperative organizations for many years. In the 1970's, he published the L.A. People's Yellow Pages, a social change/social service resource directory. He lives in Vancouver with his wife Laura Lee and their cat Attila, and relishes ties to family and community.
Cale Price
Cale is a Chef by trade and has been working in the food service industry for 20 years. He has worked locally in some of Vancouver’s finest restaurants/hotels and in Michelin rated restaurants in the United Kingdom. He is a member of the British Columbia Chef’s Association and the British Culinary Federation. Cale trained with master butcher Sebastian Cortez of Sebastian and Co. organic meats and holds a certificate at Langara College for food photography. In 2010, he opened his own establishment called the Brixton Café.
Carla S. Shore
Carla has been involved with sustainability and food security for a number of years, both as a volunteer and with her company. As a public relations strategist and writer, she helps organizations manage communications issues that range from sensitive, high profile topics to publicity-driven events. Fluent in English and French, Carla's experience includes communications planning, media relations, media training, social media, facilitation, and speechwriting. She is particularly adept at plain-language writing, translating subject-specific text into English. Among her professional achievements, Carla works as the Communications Director for the Cohen Commission of Inquiry into the Decline of the Sockeye Salmon on the Fraser River, drafted the Agriculture Plan for BC, was media liaison to the Select Standing Committee on Health's investigation into childhood obesity, and is lead of the food security working group of the Vancouver Board of Trade's Sustainability Committee. She is the mother of two elementary school children, a little league coach and an umpire with Rowing BC. She does not have a green thumb but her tiny garden manages to grow food anyhow.
Helen Spiegelman
Through her work with the Recycling Council of BC during the 1990s and her current work with the US-based Product Policy Institute, Helen is an internationally recognized expert in waste management policies and practices. Locally, she is the founder and coordinator of Zero Waste Vancouver, a citizens' initiative calling for progressive waste prevention policies in our region. Helen is currently researching the serious issue of food waste in landfills and she hopes to work with members of the Vancouver Food Policy Council to support the development of effective programs and policies in our city to prevent the waste of food.
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Kim Sutherland
Kim has more than twenty years experience of working in agriculture, in particular in intensive agriculture production systems. She has been working as a Regional Agrologist in the Fraser Valley since 2001. She has many contacts with farmers and is engaged in programs to strengthen agriculture in the Fraser Valley and Pemberton. Her recent work has involved looking at climate change on our food production zones, environmentally sensitive areas and how to mitigate impacts on them, and evaluating land use in the ALR, in the FVRD and in Pemberton.
Shelby Tay
Shelby is the Communications & Outreach Coordinator for the US national hub of the Transition Towns Network. She has collaborated with diverse organizations as a facilitator, content developer, kitchen helper, event organizer, volunteer coordinator, bike tinkerer, photographer and overall generalist. Back in 2005, she joined Post Carbon Institute and coordinated the Relocalization Network, an international network of citizen-driven initiatives working to address peak oil and climate change. Since then she has been interested in the use of storytelling, social media and social enterprise models to support communities of all stripes in their efforts to learn and experiment. These interests have led her to be involved in a range of projects that address environmental and social justice in collaboration with Village Vancouver, the Pine Street Community Gardens, Next Up Leadership Network, the Otesha Project, and A Loving Spoonful.
Chris Thoreau
Chris is currently finishing his undergraduate degree in Agroecology at UBC. His focus has been on soils, urban farming, and plant breeding. Currently working on expanding the viability of urban farming as a business, he hopes to unite these three areas of study to help ensure the sustainability of urban food production. Chris also operates My Urban Farm, an urban farming business focused on growing sunflower sprouts and other soil grown sprouts and shoots for local markets. In his second year he has built the business into a profitable and respected contribution to the local food chain. My Urban Farm distributes all its food by bicycle.
Prior to his time at UBC, Chris operated Influence Organics – a small Certified Organic farm on Vancouver Island (IOPA #1315). Here he utilized no-till soil management techniques in conjunction with permaculture principles to grow a variety of food for local markets, restaurants, and CSAs. He simultaneously spent six years volunteering and working with the Victoria Compost Education Centre as the on-site gardener, while also developing and teaching workshops for the public.
During his time in Victoria, Chris also contributed to other community initiatives. He spent two years on the IOPA board of directors and as a member of theIOPA certification committee. He has also sat on the board of the Moss Street Market and theSociety for Organic Urban Land Care. He has helped organize and host a number of community events including workshops, conferences, and farm tours. Chris is also an IOIA trained organic inspector.
David Tracey
David is a writer/designer promoting urban agriculture and community ecology. He owns the environmental design and consulting firm EcoUrbanist. As a journalist he has reported for the International Herald Tribune, the Economist, CBC radio, ABC TV and many others. His books include Urban Agriculture: Ideas and Designs for the New Food Revolution and Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto.
David Wilson
David has over 20 years experience in the Retail Food sector. The last 16 years have been spent with Choices Markets, a Vancouver based locally owned independent grocer focused on Natural and Organic foods, with a product mix that supports regional growers and manufacturers. During the last 10 years Dave has held the position of Produce Operations Manager. Having spent 3 years as a Stewardship Team member with FarmFolkCityFolk, sustainable food supply is not only a profession, but a personal passion. He brings a practical working knowledge of the supply and demand cycle of the Retail Food Industry, with a goal to improve access for all, and stability of the food chain, in a just and sustainable manner.
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Previous Members, Vancouver
Food Policy Council
| Food Policy Council Member |
Role |
Organization |
John Bishop |
Chef, Owner |
Bishops Restaurant |
| Aron Bjornson |
Marketing Manager |
Capers Community Markets |
| Erika Del Carmen Fuchs |
Founder |
Justicia for Migrant Workers BC |
Corrine Eisler |
Nutritionist |
Vancouver Coastal Health |
| Spring Gillard |
President |
Garden Heart Productions |
Stephen Hall |
Consultant |
Sustainable Energy Implementation |
Brian Holl |
Professor |
Faculty of Land & Food System, UBC |
| Deepthi Jayatilaka |
Program Director |
Vancouver Foundation |
| Barbara Joughin |
Writer |
A3 WordSmith |
| Susan Kurbis |
Senior Manager
|
Environmental Youth Alliance |
| Melanie Kurrein |
Community Nutritionist |
Vancouver Coastal Health |
| André LaRivière |
Producer |
Green Table Network |
| Christiana Miewald |
Food System Analyst |
Simon Fraser University |
| Jeff Nield |
Operations Manager |
Farm Folk City Folk |
Miriam Palacios |
Program Coordinator |
Oxfam Canada |
| Heather Pritchard |
Farmer |
Glorious Garnish & Seasonal Salad Co. |
Shefali Raja |
Nutritionist |
Vancouver Coastal Health |
| Carol Ranger |
Nutritionist |
REACH Community Health Centre |
| Eva Riccius |
Ecologist, Community Organizer |
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society |
Graham Richies |
Professor and Director |
Faculty of Social Work, UBC |
Andrea Reimer |
Executive Director |
Western Canadian Wilderness Committee |
| Joyce Rock |
Executive Director |
Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House Society |
| Karin Schreurs |
Market Coordinator |
Granville Island Public Market |
| Barbara Seed |
Community Nutritionist |
Fraser Health |
| Yona Sipos |
PhD. Candidate |
UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems |
John Van Luven |
Executive Director |
St James Community Service |
David Van Seters |
President |
SPUD (Small Potatoes Urban Delivery |
| T’Uy’Tanat-Cease Wyss |
Ethnobotanist/Media Artist/Educator/Activist |
Skwxw’u7mesh Nation |
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