Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks are excited to support Renfrew-Collingwood Food Justice at Collingwood Neighbourhood House, along with the collaborators from Joyce St Action Network as they launch an advocacy campaign to bring the importance of Cultural Food Assets and Intangible Cultural Heritage in Vancouver to the attention of the City Council candidates in the upcoming municipal elections. Consider lending your support and signing on to our letter to municipal candidates to protect Cultural Food Assets and Intangible Cultural Heritage in Vancouver. Please reach out to info@vancouverfoodnetworks.com to get involved.
Cultural Food Assets are spaces that maintain and share culture through food and may include small family businesses such as green grocers and cultural restaurants. These businesses provide community members with access to important cultural food items, ranging from produce, herbal medicines, traditional goods and ethnic meals. They also function as vital community spaces, providing community members with access to culturally appropriate resources and supports, including job opportunities. These Cultural Food Assets represent an Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) that refers to the forms of culture that are important to groups of people, embedded in everyday life, and critical in accessing, experiencing and transmitting one’s culture. ICH holds a special importance for diasporic populations and equity-denied groups and represents a key foundation in a just food system.
However, due to increased pressure from redevelopment and gentrification, these invaluable cultural food assets are under threat of displacement in many neighbourhoods across Vancouver. Currently, there is no existing comprehensive policy that protects these assets. In response, a number of food justice groups have actively advocated for such policy which resulted in the March 2022, Placekeeping: Protecting and Supporting Cultural Food Assets and Other Forms of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Vancouver, put forward by Councilor Christine Boyle and which passed with unanimous support the rest of city council. But much more work needs to be done.
We are now reaching out to food justice and poverty reduction organizations, cultural and community groups, businesses and concerned citizens to support an open letter to municipal candidates to express a shared concern for the future of Cultural Food Assets and Intangible Cultural Heritage in Vancouver, and invite them to consider appropriate policy responses. All candidates running for Mayor and Council in the October 2022 Municipal Election will then be sent the open letter along with a survey to gain insight on their stance on the issue. The campaign will help identify potential “Cultural Food Asset Champions” running for office. The information gathered from this survey will be helpful in holding the elected officials accountable to support relevant policy responses in the new term. We are hopeful that this campaign will not only introduce new councillors to the work that has been done to date but also galvanise continued support from the incumbent councillors.
We ask you to show your commitment to food justice by supporting our advocacy campaign and signing on to our letter to municipal candidates to protect Cultural Food Assets and Intangible Cultural Heritage in Vancouver.
If you are interested in being a signatory on this campaign, please reach out to info@vancouverfoodnetworks.com
