Indigenous Food Security: Harmony Garden - Skwxwu7mesh Uxwumixw Elders becoming Food Secure

Harmony Garden is located in North Vancouver,specifically, in the village of Humulchs'n. This garden is a community effort that was initiated by a small group of Elders in the community, who had started a Community Kitchen in the basement of St Paul's Church in the village of Sla7an, which is also located in North Vancouver.

The food security in this community was almost non-existent, until this program began through the dedicated efforts of the Elders. They saw the need to provide a hot meal for community members, and find out how they were doing with their nutritional needs, and whether or not they were being met.

The initial idea was to start a soup kitchen, and with some progressive suggestions towards Community Kitchens, these Elders were convinced! It was more exciting to imagine how cooking together would be able to help them build community, learn about their cousins, aunties, uncles, and other relatives, and what they were doing on a weekly basis.

It became apparent very soon that it would be beneficial to start a Community Garden to support the kitchen, and to see how much food they could produce year round, for the kitchen, as well as for people in the community.

It has been four years since the Community Kitchen started, and now it has been two years since the Community Garden started. This is a successful Food Security program. The fact that it was started by a group of elders, with no money, and no materials, as well as basic skills and knowledge of how to start all of this collectively, is very impressive, and inspiring.

They were also very new to organizing as a non-profit, and they just had a great deal of faith, and no fear of visioning a better future for their community. They are leading the way in Food Security for Indigenous Peoples.