Green Millennium Foundation

Village Vancouver (West End Transition Village) and West End Neighbourhood Food Network present this series of events about food and gardening.

To register, go to www.westendcc.ca or call 604-257-8333 (Community Centre). Click image to enlarge.

Download poster in PDF here:  Poster, Robin Wheeler West End workshops 8-9 Oct 2011

Sign up online here: https://www.eventbrite.com/event/2236994912

• Sat Oct 8 and Sun Oct 9
• Mole Hill (Community Room, back lane at 1169 Pendrell)
• $5 donation (for 1 or all 3)

• Workshop 1: “Personal Food Security” 10:30 to 12 noon, Saturday, Oct 8
• Workshop 2: “Apartment Gardening” 10:30 to 12 noon, Sunday, Oct 9
• Workshop 3: “Edible Landscaping.” 1:30 to 3 pm, Sunday, Oct 9

Join “edible landscapes” expert Robin Wheeler for one, two, or three workshops on food growing and food security in the highly urbanized setting of the West End. Learn skills. Gain knowledge. Network with others. Each workshop will be 1.5 hours long. Choose one, two, or all three. Hand out materials will be available. Workshops will include presentation, discussion, and Q&A.

PRESENTER: Robin Wheeler teaches traditional skills, sustenance gardening and medicinals at Edible Landscapes (www.ediblelandscapes.ca), a nursery and teaching garden in Roberts Creek, British Columbia. Author of Food Security for the Faint of Heart, and Gardening for the Faint of Heart.

COOPERATION: Gordon Neighbourhood House (Neighbourhood Small Grants Program), Mole Hill Community Housing Society (for room space).

ORGANIZERS: Green Millennium Foundation, Village Vancouver, West End Neighbourhood Food Network

Register online, write foodwestend [at] gmail.com or tel 604-512-9059

Info: www.greenmillennium.org

Meeting: West End Neighbourhood Food Network

When: Wednesday, July 6, 2011
6 pm potluck (for those who wish to bring a dish and socialize)
7 – 9 pm meeting

Where: Gordon Neighbourhood House (1019 Broughton Street)

Topics: Sharing of ideas and recap of discussions of recent months about food growing, food security, sustainability and more in the West End. Discussion about future prospects for open and supportive networking and activities to make more progress on these themes. See below for notes of May 12, 2011 meeting.

Everyone is welcome.

Contact: foodwestend@gmail.com

Neighbourhood Food Network In West End?

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We cordially invite you to a follow-up meeting about food growing, food security, and sustainability in the West End of Vancouver. There will be further discussions about the potential for a neighbourhood food network here.

“Food Growing, Security and Sustainability: A Neighbourhood Food Network in the West End?”
May 12 (Thursday)
West End Community Centre 870 Denman Street
6 pm: Potluck dinner
7 to 9 pm: Discussion
Cost: Free
Registration: Not required, but we welcome an e-mail to FoodWestEnd@gmail.com so we can prepare.
Anyone is welcome.

This event follows a successful meeting on April 9, entitled“Building a Neighbourhood Food Network in the West End.” The notes and presentation materials of that meeting will be available by this weekend on the websites of Village Vancouver and Green Millennium Foundation (see below). The discussion in April showed that many people are interested in these topics, are already active, and have considerable knowledge, resources and enthusiasm. On May 12 we will discuss some of the ideas that arose, future actions, and look for people and groups willing to get involved in building momentum.

Organized by:
Village Vancouver (http://www.villagevancouver.ca/group/westendtransitionvillage)
Green Millennium Foundation (www.greenmillennium.org)
(We thank the Vancouver Food Policy Council (www.vancouverfoodpolicycouncil.ca) and West End Community Centre Association for their cooperation.)

Download poster here: Poster, Nghbrhood Food Ntwrk West End, 9-Apr-2011

Building a Neighbourhood Food Network in the West End
April 9 (Saturday), 2011 from 1 pm to 4 pm
West End Community Centre 870 Denman Street
FREE. Refreshments will be provided.

How can neighbours foster food growing, food security and sustainability in the West End? Hear what’s going on in existing neighbourhood food networks, and how Village Vancouver, Vancouver Food Policy Council, and others are
helping to build new networks. Then explore how a local, neighbour-driven food network could share, garden,
celebrate, and build security around food in the West End.

Presented by: Village Vancouver and Green Millennium Foundation with support from the Vancouver Food Policy Council.

Registration required:  RSVP here, then register online at www.westendcc.ca, or in person, or by calling WE Community Centre (604-257-8333), or simply e-mail GreenMillenniumFoundation@gmail.com and we’ll pass it on.

Limited to 50 participants.

Message from Green Millennium Foundation about this event:
We all eat food every day, certainly we could produce more in the city, even in highly urban communities like the West End. But what would that look like and what issues arise?

There is considerable media and public interest in sustainability, organic and healthy food, farmers markets, and the “100-mile diet.” Meanwhile, there are concerns about “peak oil,” food riots overseas, rising food prices, food safety and security, the impacts of food production on climate change, and the impacts of climate change on food production. These are all connected with food and our future, and affect people of all income levels in all communities.

Several communities in Vancouver have local networks of people to support the growing of food. Some are funded, some are entirely volunteer. Each is different. You will hear about them at the meeting.

Food is already being grown in West End back yards, on roof tops, on balconies, window sills, in school yards, in community gardens, and more. And some food is actually being manufactured in the West End. What is the potential for growing more food here? And if we were to consider the entire cycle of food we consume (raw materials, planting, growing, transporting, consuming, disposing, composting) here on this peninsula and with our West End population of over 46,000, what might we learn? Come and find out on April 9. There are many angles to this discussion, and everything is “on the table.”

Food Security & Growing in the West End
Sunday Dec 5, 10:30 – 12:30
West End Community Centre, Denman Street, Vancouver
Register: Online at www.westendcc.ca, or in person, or by calling (604-257-8333).

A presentation and group discussion on initiatives, policies, networks, and
resources  in Vancouver regarding food security and food growing as they
apply to our lives and community in the West End. Presenters include Robin
Wheeler (author of Food Security for the Faint of Heart and founder of the
Sustainable Living Arts School), Ross Moster (Village Vancouver), and Randy
Helten (Green Millennium Foundation). More information  will be added as we get closer to the date. Other presenters may be added.

Fee $15.

(June 5, 2010) Thank you to all the people who joined the workshops from April through June at the West End Community Centre. We’ll be working on follow-up plans next. Please see “latest news” and “cool links” tabs for useful information!

The Green Millennium Foundation in 2010 continued to develop plans for promoting local food growing and food security for urban dwellers of all income levels. The benefits for personal health, community wellbeing, and even for the environment and climate are almost countless. We look forward to working with partners Robin Wheeler (Edible Landscapes), Village Vancouver, and many other groups that share common goals. Watch for news on a series of workshops with Robin in the late spring designed especially for apartment dwellers in Vancouver’s West End. We note that the City of Vancouver has adopted a food security policy and has decided to place  an emphasis on “edible landscapes” for the next two years as one of its activities under the Greenest City initiatives. As a community-based organization, we hope to work with others to support these policies. We will also be moving forward with poverty-alleviation and human empowerment projects in cooperation with partners in India.

Apartment and Container Gardening Workshop
Who:     Robin Wheeler (presenter)
When:  October 13, 2009 (Tuesday)
12:45 to 2:15 pm
Where:  West End Community Centre (Denman Room)
870 Denman Street, Tel 604-257-8333
Cost:    $15*
What:   At this workshop, Robin showed how to get more food from your balcony or patio. Space and weight are big problems for apartment dwellers. Participants learned to decide how to choose plants, discuss containers, soils, feeding and watering, succession planting and more in this workshop for small spaces. 12 persons participated.
*Fee was waived if requested for financial reasons.

• Robin Wheeler is the founder of The Sustainable Living Arts School, and the author of Gardening for the Faint of Heart and Food Security for the Faint of Heart. She lives on the Sunshine Coast, and brings a vast wealth of knowledge and experience with her to each workshop. (ww.ediblelandscapes.ca, and www.slas.ca)
• Village Vancouver (www.villagevancouver.ca) inspires individuals and organizations to take actions that build resilient and sustainable communities.
• The West End Residents Association (www.wera.bc.ca) is an inclusive membership driven group seeking to improve and maintain quality of life for West End residents of Vancouver.
• Green Millennium Foundation (www.GreenMillennium.org) is a registered charity working for a better, more sustainable world.

A creative evening with Robin Wheeler (Edible Landscapes) for apartment dwellers on Vancouver’s downtown peninsula

Short videos on our “100-Meter Diets…” meeting of Sept. 28th.
Post-meeting interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2gplgBN9H4
Scenes of meeting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyjsWiRWp3M (sound problem at beginning)

REPORT

“100-Meter Diets, Gardens, and Food Security in the West End”

• On Sept 28, 2009, about 35 people showed up for our evening with Robin Wheeler (www.EdibleLandscapes.ca) to hear about how people living on Vancouver’s densely populated downtown peninsula can turn this community into an edible landscape and grow more food for themselves. See event details below.
• There was an active discussion and many ideas arose.
• A report and short video will be available within about two weeks.
• WERA and the GMF hope to open up a discussion, assess the potential and find the resource persons and organizations who would like to work together in a structured approach to develop a shared vision, plus short and long-term plans for addressing food security and food growing in our community. Everything is “on the table.”
• Two questions: How much food can we grow here? And what are the best models and examples in the world that can be applied here?
• If you have ideas, suggestions, comments, or questions, PLEASE do contact us.

WHEN

7 to 8:45 pm, September 28, 2009

WHERE
Gordon Neighborhood House, 1019 Broughton Street
(Between Nelson and Comox. Venue tel. 604-683-2554)

WHO
Robin Wheeler teaches traditional skills, sustenance gardening and medicinals at Edible Landscapes (www.ediblelandscapes.ca), a nursery and teaching garden in Roberts Creek, British Columbia. She is the author of “Food Security for the Faint of Heart” and “Gardening for the Faint of Heart.”

WHAT
Think about the 100-mile diet, farmers’ markets, community gardens, high food prices, sustainability, food safety, emergency preparedness…and you will understand why more and more people are interested in having healthy food grown close to home. Now there’s a buzz about the “100-meter diet.” But how much food can we grow for ourselves here in the West End of Vancouver?

In the first half, Robin Wheeler covered various concepts from her book and experience—edible landscapes; food growing on apartment balconies and patios; ideas for sharing land, food, space, and time; food preservation/storage in apartments; and so on. In the second half, an open discussion shared information about issues in the West End. What’s already being done and who’s doing it? How can apartment dwellers get more space to grow food? What frameworks and support systems exist? Can these ideas somehow help low-income families? What problems and opportunities exist? Entrance by donation ($5 recommended). A report will be prepared. Please contact us if you would like a copy e-mailed to you.

SPONSORS
Green Millennium Foundation (www.greenmillennium.org)
West End Residents Association (www.wera.bc.ca)

CONTACT
FoodWestEnd [at] gmail.com

“Must we think outside the box? There is no box!”