Environmental Youth Alliance Presentation to VFPC

At the November VFPC meeting, Liz Perkins and Dalia Levy from the Environmental Youth Alliance (www.eya.ca) presented to the Food Policy Council. They gave us an introduction to what EYA is, “a local youth driven non-profit organization that provides young people with meaningful employment projects that benefit our communities while supporting our environment- socially, economically, as well as ecologically.” And described the internship program they are participating in.

Funded by Gov of Canada, the 8 month internships involve hands-on experience in the community and growing food, and involve an independent project component. Dalia combined theatre and environmentalism to found an eco-art club to educate on students relevant issues, and Liz was hired on as coordinator of the Fruit Tree project, connecting with canning workshops to provide fruit.

EYA feels it is important to make a connection to the VFPC and food security at a civic level because youth need to feel engaged and empowered in issues of food security, else the future just appears doomed and dull.

They also explained some of the barriers to youth participation in food security work, and made the following suggestions of how to increase youth participation in local food security issues and the VFPC:

• Improve VFPC website by: adding more up to date information such as current policy work, hot topics and monthly updates. Also include policy outlines and links to programs and organizations that are youth centred or otherwise
• Add a Youth seat to the Vancouver Food Policy Council.
• Dalia also pointed out the City of Vancouver’s Youth Outreach doesn’t have a Food Security focus area despite interest from and asked that we make contact with the youth Outreach team to discuss this.

So what next? From the upcoming forum’s registration, we know that EYA members are actively taking steps to stay engaged in the VFPC. And as we enter the new year and our membership committee meets, I’ll make sure the issue of youth representation on the council is on our agenda. As we ramp up posting on this blog, we’d like to open up to guest bloggers including youth from EYA or other organizations.

Thanks so much to the EYA youth who came out and made such an engaging presentation!