Feeding ourselves well

Goal

A healthy, just, and sustainable food system.

Target

Increase citywide and neighbourhood food assets by a minimum of 50% by 2020.

Overview

We work with community organizations to create sustainable and just food systems. In partnership with the Vancouver Food Policy Council, we created and adopted the Vancouver Food Strategy in 2013. The Strategy addresses a number of gaps and vulnerabilities in the food system.

Considerations for this goal include:

Unequal access to healthy, affordable food
Opportunities to better support the local food economy
Making more resources available for underserved and vulnerable communities
Community development initiatives

Progress we've made so far

Healthy City Dashboard

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Local Food Chart

Source: City of Vancouver, Food Policy.

How we measure success

We use a number of data sources to monitor trends in the health of the city. We monitor progress toward Feeding Ourselves Well using data from the City’s inventory of food assets, reports from non-profit organizations, and surveys of food costs.
Food Assets
- As of 2017 the City has counted 5,129 garden plots and other assets in Vancouver
  Source: City of Vancouver, Food Policy; Vancouverfoodnetworks.com
Neighbourhood Food Networks
- As of 2017, there were 14 food networks operating in Vancouver
  Source: City of Vancouver, Food Policy; Vancouverfoodnetworks.com
Cost of Health Canada's National Nutritious Food Basket
- In 2015, a healthy food basket for a family of four cost $1,011.
  Source: Provincial Health Services Authority, Food Costing in BC 2015
2015-2018 Priority actions

Actions are being undertaken through the Vancouver Food Strategy and the Park Board's Local Food Action Plan.
The Vancouver Food Strategy focuses on all aspects of the food system, including:
- Food Production – supporting and enabling community food assets (e.g. community gardens and urban farms) and making stronger connections to all parts of the food system
- Empowering Residents – enhancing access for individuals to participate in the activities of neighbourhood food networks and other community-based food programs, particularly for vulnerable and isolated groups
- Food Access – improving access to healthy, local, affordable food for all by increasing the number of healthy food retail including farmers markets, community food markets, and piloting healthy food programs
The Park Board's Local Food Action Plan has four priority areas which aim to include all aspects of the local food cycle, from growing to composting:
- Increasing food assets, for example, planting fruit trees and community gardens in parks
- Sustainable and local food economies, for example, collaboration with the City of Vancouver on local food sourcing to guide procurement contracts
- Engaged and capacity rich food networks, for example, enhancing food programs available in Community Centres
- Soil generation, for example, coordination with the City of Vancouver to implement waste management systems to handle food waste and compostable from Community Centres and concessions