VFR: Ian, for readers who may be new to your work, can you share a bit about your background and what has kept you passionate about strengthening Vancouver’s food systems through the Neighbourhood Food Networks and beyond?
Ian Marcuse: I call “East Vancouver” home, where I have lived for the past 38 years. I am of Jewish, English, Welsh and Norwegian heritage, and my life’s work has included years of social service work in mental health and drug and alcohol counselling, old growth forest protection activism, expertise in natural home building, and gardening and landscape design.
I have been working in local food systems for the past 19 years, including 14 years with the Grandview Woodland Food Connection at Britannia Community Centre and now 5 years as the Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks’ Umbrella Coordinator.
I feel very lucky to be working in community-level food systems. Community food speaks to things I care deeply about: grassroots community building, decentralization, bioregionalism, cultural sovereignty, and mutual aid. I also value a strong social safety net, universal services, and a thriving public sector.
What drives my interest in food systems work is the continual learning about the many varied ways in which food intersects with our lives — from the opportunities to grow food in the city to learning about equity and justice.
Photo: Ian Marcuse, Buen Provecho Youth Community Kitchen
VFR: You’re also a steering committee member of the Vancouver Food Justice Coalition. How would you describe the Coalition and why this kind of community-led, cross-sector collaboration is so essential to advancing food justice in Vancouver?
IM: A career highlight has been our work with the Vancouver Food Justice Coalition. This Coalition, now around two years old and inclusive of over 50 community food or food intersecting organizations in Vancouver including the Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks, grew from 30 years of local food systems collaboration, relationship building and trust among hundreds of food and community organizations that over time fertilized the ground for the Coalition to germinate. This speaks to the vital importance of grassroots work required, community-led and cross-sectoral, and collective power for social change.
The overlapping crises of 2020 — a global pandemic, accelerating climate emergencies, soaring inflation, and geopolitical instability — were an alarm bell for many of us. They also revealed how significantly the City had been under-prioritizing food systems.
These crises underscored just how essential strong, resilient food systems are to the health and well-being of our city: they support public health, strengthen community resilience, reduce waste, advance climate adaptation, and ensure that all residents have reliable access to nutritious food.
Yet despite this critical importance, the City of Vancouver invests very little in this area. Across a multibillion-dollar operating and capital budget, less than $1 million per year is allocated to food systems work, an amount vastly out of proportion to the scale of community need and the essential role food systems play in creating a healthy, equitable, and sustainable city.
Despite years of community-driven progress, such as expanding urban agriculture and school food programs, growing a wide range of community food assets and infrastructure, and strengthening food literacy and food-engaged communities, food insecurity and inequity have continued to deepen.
These realities were a wake-up call, underscoring the need to engage more directly in upstream, structural change to address the root causes of food insecurity. It was from this recognition that the Coalition was formed.
VFR: The Food Justice Coalition’s “Advancing the Right to Food” brief emphasizes that food is a human right — not a charitable service. Why is it important that the City of Vancouver embed the right to food directly into its budgeting and decision-making?
IM: We all have the right to healthy food access that upholds our personal dignity and well-being. Lacking the financial means to
Photo: Isabella Falsetti, Riley Park Community Garden
purchase food of one’s own choosing, free from charity, or witnessing the domination of a corporate food system with its terrible appetite for waste, are signs of a human rights failure.
The Right to Food, a universal human right, is both a call to action and a legal framework for coordinated reform in food, agriculture, health, labor, and environmental systems. As defined by the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, “the right to adequate food is realized when [everyone], alone or in community with others, has physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or the means for its procurement.”
While these rights are detailed in various frameworks, for the Right to Food to be realized in Canada, food must be universally available, accessible, adequate, and sustainable. Canada, as a signatory to this Covenant, carries the legal duty and responsibility to uphold these rights.
The Coalition’s Advancing the Right to Food in Vancouver with Adequate Funding brief was submitted during the feedback process for the City’s proposed 2026 Budget to remind City Councillors and the Mayor of these responsibilities.
We already have a rights-based framework in the City of Vancouver’s Food Strategy. This is a strategy that uplifts dignified food access, supports sustainable urban agriculture, and advances vibrant and affordable food markets; but it is weakened without adequate municipal funding.
A rights-based system would both create the socio-economic-political conditions for a vibrant, equitable, self-determined food system and help address the upstream structural causes of food insecurity, for example, through social and income policy solutions.
VFR: With city food systems funding currently sitting at just 0.03% of the municipal budget, what impacts are you seeing on neighbourhood food networks, frontline programs, and the people who rely on them?
IM: This tiny 0.03% share of food systems funding is indicative that our local government simply does not view food security as a priority. Rather than supporting people’s health and well-being, we see an austerity budget that will make life more expensive for those community members who are struggling the most.
The impacts of limited food funding for us are many. City funding (even when combined with other revenue sources) is simply not enough to meet program demands and community food needs as the cost of living increases and inequality worsens. Food program waitlists are growing; recent revenue declines and shrinking grants and donations are leading to deficits and program cuts, including seniors’ lunch programs and community kitchens.
Organizations are facing large staff layoffs, increasing workloads, and rising burnout. Without adequate investment, Vancouver will fall behind on meeting its food strategy objectives, and the community infrastructure needed to support a resilient, equitable food system will continue to erode.
VFR: As Vancouver prepares for its upcoming council budget decisions, what should residents understand about the stakes, particularly in relation to the commitments made in last year’s “Closing the Gap: Investing in the City of Vancouver’s Food System” motion?
IM: The stakes are indeed high. Vancouver Council will decide on the 2026 City budget on November 25, following a budget hearing where more than 600 people spoke, with the vast majority opposing the proposed budget as presented. The majority ABC Council is pursuing a 0% property tax hike, which goes against staff’s original recommendation of a 5–7% increase to keep pace with the cost of maintaining city infrastructure and services.
To achieve this 0% tax increase, City staff will need to identify $120 million in new revenues (e.g., fee increases, sponsorships) and expense reductions. A 0% tax increase is extremely rare for a municipal budget, especially when 56% of the City’s revenue comes from property taxes. Specific details about the required cuts are still lacking, but we do know that a 12% decrease to Arts, Culture and Community Services (approximately $6 million) is expected. This is the department under which food systems work mainly resides.
This proposed budget effectively undermines last year’s “Closing the Gap: Investing in the City of Vancouver’s Food System” motion, brought forward by Councillor Adriane Carr with support from the Vancouver Food Policy Council. The motion passed unanimously, directing staff to “explore opportunities” to increase food systems funding, including developing a new Indigenous food systems grant and examining potential funding mechanisms for food recovery initiatives.
This motion gave us hope that, after years of low food systems investment, meaningful increases might finally be on the horizon. It signalled recognition that food systems are vital community infrastructure requiring stable, intentional funding.
However, all City departments have been warned that no new funding is available and that they should brace for cuts, with the sole exception of a $50 million increase for policing. This city-wide austerity approach stands in stark contrast to the commitments outlined in the “Closing the Gap” motion.
While the City has said they will not cut Social Policy grants, the uncertainty remains troubling. In addition, we are particularly concerned about retaining our much-needed and highly supportive team of three City of Vancouver food systems planners, whose work is essential to maintaining and advancing Vancouver’s food security goals.
Vancouver Food Justice Coalition Members
VFR: For people who want to support a more just and resilient food system as well as Arts, Culture, and Community Services, what actions can they take right now — including how they can give input to City Council during this budget cycle?
IM: People can still give feedback directly to the City right now. Go to this City of Vancouver webpage: https://vancouver.ca/your-government/contact-council.aspx
- Click “Feedback on an upcoming Council meeting agenda item”
- Then agenda item “Nov. 25 Council Meeting: 2026 Capital and Operating Budget” pops up, and then they can give their feedback on that item, which will then go to Mayor and Council.
Or send a personalized email to the Mayor and Council to share your perspective on the budget and express your support for protecting public services, including food as a human right and the commitments made in last year’s motion to strengthen food systems funding in Vancouver.
And for anyone interested in getting more involved in food systems advocacy and policy, you can reach out to the Vancouver Food Justice Coalition here: info@vancouverfoodjustice.ca