COWICHAN GREEN COMMUNITY

"Food Security in the Cowichan Valley"

In partnering with the Vancouver Island Health Authority, we wish to make this site the the resource place for all matters about food and food security. This is a huge and multi-faceted topic.

Many groups are working together on this issue from various points of view. We are hoping to bring representatives from many of them together to create a Food Security Coalition. The Coalition will accomplish several things.

The first will be to research and develop a Community Food Charter for the Cowichan Valley. Part of that project will be to plan, implement and evaluate a minimum of one workshop or presentation to the community at large for the purposes of increasing awareness and encouraging involvement in community food security in the Cowichan Valley. There will also be media releases and meetings with community, non-profit and service groups.

The second part of the work will be to liaise with representatives from regional and municipal government for the purposes of increasing awareness of community food security and local food issues in the Cowichan Valley and building relationships and partnerships with regional and municipal governments. The purpose of this will be to gain the support of local government who will hopefully retool their zoning bylaws to permit more home-grown food in more places than are permitted presently.

For instance, the City of Duncan is planning to permit chickens on single family lots and may be requiring developers of multi-family developments to provide a food production area.

The third prong of the plan will include working with Alderlea Farms for the purposes of sharing of resources and educational activities and exploring the opportunity for increasing access to local foods to low income individuals through food shares for local community supported agriculture.

We will also plan and begin development of a farming skills and methods manual for educating new and aspiring farmers for use in farm apprenticeship programs at Alderlea Farms, to share with other apprenticeship programs as well as engaging local academic institutions to develop partnerships with local farms and farmers for the purposes of encouraging farming and community food security.

There is a further plan afoot for hosting a conference in the Cowichan Valley with a focus on local foods, community food security and farming.

This is an ambitious project which we hope to have completed by planting season next year. Please join us and help to make food security a reality in the Cowichan Valley.

To get you started, here is a link to the document, "A Seat at the Table, a Resource Guide for Local Governments to Promote Food Secure Communities- June 2008"
Click here for the latest VIHA Food Security Update. September 2008.