The Vancouver Food Policy Council (VFPC) had their first meeting on July 27^th. The next open meetings will be on September 28^th and November 30^th from 5:30-7:30PM. Everyone is welcome to attend! Visit the City of Vancouver to learn about the VFPC’s new members, see the minutes from this and previous meetings, and to find out information on future meetings.

Stay tuned to learn more about upcoming VFPC projects and priorities!

UPDATE, April 4, 2023: The recruitment process is now closed and appointments will be made shortly. Stay tuned for announcements of the incoming members and meeting schedule. Thanks for your interest!

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Are you interested in becoming a member of the VFPC?

The City is now accepting applications from the public to join the VFPC for the 2023-2026 term. Applications are open until March 19th and available at https://vancouver.ca/your-government/apply-for-a-civic-agency.aspx .

Before applying, please review more information about the VFPC on this website and the City’s website. In particular, review the VFPC’s current Terms of Reference.

FAQs:

1. Who is eligible to apply? Please review information about eligibility requirements for membership here under “who we are”, and read more about the VFPC’s membership structure, which is informed both by “expertise” and “lived experience” here.
2. How long is the term? The full term runs from May 2023 – November 2026. Members will be appointed until December 31, 2024, at which point appointments are automatically renewable to the end of the term, and recruitment shall be conducted to fill any vacancies arising.
3. What will the VFPC be working on this term? VFPC members collectively determine their own work plan and meeting agendas with support from staff and elected liaisons. In the upcoming term, staff anticipate that members will have the opportunity to provide input and advice on a variety of food policy and programs, such as:
   • Neighbourhood food asset planning
   • Community plan development and implementation (eg: Rupert Renfrew Station Area Plan, Broadway Plan)
   • Response to Council directed priorities (eg: Placekeeping – Cultural Food Assets motion, UNDRIP Strategy Implementation)
   • Local Food Systems Action Plan implementation
   • Food waste prevention and reduction
   • And more.
4. How often does the VFPC meet, what is the time commitment? The VFPC generally meets once/month on a Thursday evening from 6-8:30pm. Beyond this, members spend an additional minimum of 3-5 hours/month preparing for meetings, monitoring VFPC-related email correspondence, and participating in sub-committees which may meet separately between the main monthly meetings. A member who is absent from more than two consecutive regular meetings without a leave of absence is deemed to have resigned and their seat will be offered to a new member.
5. What is the meeting format? In the upcoming term, we anticipate returning to in-person meetings held at City Hall. Meetings are open to the public and staffed by a City Clerk who record the official minutes for the public record.
6. Is there compensation? VFPC membership is a volunteer position. Members are eligible to receive reimbursement for certain meeting-related expenses and a light meal is provided for in-person meetings held over dinner hours.

We would greatly appreciate if you could circulate this opportunity to others in your community who may be interested.

If you have questions about this opportunity, please contact staff at foodpolicy@vancouver.ca

We held our last meeting of the term on September 29th, 2022 and are now on hiatus until the next term gets underway in mid-2023.

If you are interested in applying to be a VFPC member, keep an eye out for membership recruitment starting in mid-January 2023.  More information about the recruitment and appointment process is available at https://vancouver.ca/your-government/join-an-advisory-board-or-committee.aspx or by contacting civicagenciesinfo
@vancouver.ca

See you next term!

Update: this event has already taken place! Read highlights of our discussion and the presentations in the meeting minutes. 

Please save the date for this special talk taking place as part of our May meeting:

VFPC Community Talk: How to Solve our Food Waste Problem
Hosted by the Vancouver Food Policy Council’s Food Waste Working Group

Online event: Thursday, May 26^th , 6 pm – 7:30 pm
Registration is not required, find a link to join the meeting posted here at the time of the event (https://vancouver.ca/your-government/vancouver-food-policy-council.aspx) 

Discover how we can solve Vancouver’s food waste problem with 6 amazing panelists who will discuss:

• The current landscape of food waste in Canada
• Municipal policy options we can implement
• Groups using innovative tech to end food waste
• The city’s Circular Food Innovation Lab

Guest speakers include:

• Lori Nikkel, Chief Executive Officer of Second Harvest
• Jamie-Lynne Varney, author of A “Right to Food” Framework for a Just Circular Economy of Food
• Juan Martinez, author of Policies, Incentives, and Measurement Protocols for Food Waste Reporting by Businesses
• Jake-Zeljko Pavlovic, VP of Procurement and Merchandising, Freshlocal Solutions Inc. (SPUD.ca)
• Erin Nichols, City of Vancouver Senior Project Manager – Zero Waste
• Danielle Todd, Founder and Director of Make Food Not Waste (video presentation)

Regular meeting agenda, including liaison updates and working group business, will follow from 7:30-8:30pm.

Please save the date for this special upcoming event, taking place outside of our regular meeting schedule.

Community Talks: Addressing Food Policy in a Climate Crisis

April 21, 7:00 pm in-person at Mt. Pleasant Neighbourhood House
Registration required via Eventbrite 

Hosted by the Vancouver Food Policy Council and Mt. Pleasant Food Network,  Seth Klein will speak to the community about his new book A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency.  Seth will share how to address the climate crisis with a “wartime approach” and how government policies could galvanize our communities to work together.

Following his talk, we invite panelists to speak to the climate affects on our food system in the Lower Mainland, and to develop solutions together. After seeing the impacts of climate change in our backyards last year, it’s time to understand more fully how we need to adapt and what needs to change within our food system.

Join the Vancouver Food Policy Council to Learn about School Meal Programs and Vision for Our Community

All are welcome
March 31st 6-7:30pm 
Online, link to join posted here 

The federal and provincial governments have directed multiple ministries to work together to develop school meal programs. Now’s our chance to work locally to envision what school food can look like in the future. Join us in learning about school food programs and be prepared to envision what our future school meal program can be! Come learn from our esteemed panel:

• Dr. Jennifer Gaddis, assistant professor of Civil Society and Community Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Braden Etzerza, Indigenous Lead of the BC Chapter of the Coalition for School Food

2022.03.31_Poster – Growing a School Meal Program

Hello and Welcome to VFPC,

We are now keeping all minutes and posting all agendas directly on the City of Vancouver website, so please visit us there!

We are continuing to send our newsletters out before each meeting that is open to the public, so please do sign up for those reminders and invitations!

Hope to see you soon!

Best,

VFPC Admin Team

All are welcome to join our meeting on Thursday January 13th, 6-8:30pm held online via Webex. Find a link to join the meeting here. 

This month we are grateful to welcome Kanatiio Gabriel to our meeting. Kanatiio will be presenting his vision of Indigenous Food Sovereignty and inviting conversation about the complexity and pathways towards this vision. Kanatiio works with Dude’s Club Vancouver, the Astoria Urban Farm, and the DTES Food Sovereignty Collaborative, and his biography is available on the DUDES Club website here.

Agenda: 

Link to the meeting is available here

Thursday, September 9, 2021, 6:00pm (PST)
Virtually (WebEx)

Link to the meeting here