This is the third in a series of blog posts featuring each of our Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks.
Founded in 2002, Renfrew-Collingwood Food Justice (formerly known as the Renfrew-Collingwood Food Security Institute) is a neighbourhood food network that facilitates learning, leadership, and networking for local residents around food sharing, organic growing, food justice, food sovereignty, and nutrition to increase individual, family, and community capacity to attain food security.
Renfrew-Collingwood Food Justice focuses on community meals, cooking and nutrition workshops, gardening and urban farming—including workshops and seed-saving. For this food network team, food justice advocacy is an essential aspect of the work.
“We really try to integrate an approach in all of our programs that is holistically rooted in community development-based, anti-oppressive, and justice-oriented frameworks.”
Renfrew-Collingwood Food Justice
“Our work includes expanding beyond just service-provision based work and trying to focus also on advocacy and solidarity work in food justice.”
The pandemic hasn’t stopped the network team from doing good work, like addressing social isolation, lessened nutrition, and food security due to barriers of income, race, language, age, citizenship status.
Once the COVID-19 restrictions came into place, the network adapted quickly. Resources and staff time dedicated to community kitchens and regular weekly community meal programs have now been redirected to producing frozen meals for weekly emergency food response distribution.
The network’s urban agriculture programming—including gardening skills workshops—initially shifted to being delivered in online workshop formats like Zoom and through the creation of digital content like pre-recorded videos. Now, some physically distanced in-person urban agriculture activities are resuming on-site at garden spaces.
“We use the universal experience of food as a connecting point to bring people together for community development.”
Renfrew-Collingwood Food Justice
The Renfrew-Collingwood Food Justice team aims to continue developing the existing interest—already demonstrated by our community members—in civic engagement, advocacy, and community dialogue around food justice and related issues.
Learn more about Renfrew Collingwood Food Justice, get involved, and celebrate community food action:
- Contact foodsecurity@cnh.bc.ca
- Visit www.rcfood.wordpress.com
- Follow Renfrew-Collingwood Food Justice on Facebook and Instagram
