Course:LFS350/Projects/Fall2017/vancouver-food-summit/

From UBC Wiki

Project Summary

Title

Sustenance Festival

Purpose

Sustenance Festival is an annual multi-site arts, culture, and food festival organized by the Vancouver Park Board. Students will document a year-long process of research and relationship-building (December 2016-November 2017) that will inform the future shape of the festival. Parks staff and partners are seeking to better understand and address under-representation/exclusion of marginalized groups from the “food movement,” so that Sustenance Festival can become a stronger example of intercultural food systems engagement. Students' documentation tasks include interviewing key actors, and attending and documenting sessions at the Vancouver Food Summit (which overlaps with Sustenance). Students will develop a creative report (written and/or multimedia) showing the developmental story of this process.

Areas of Focus

  • Asset-based community development
  • Food, arts, and culture
  • Food justice
  • Social movements

Skills

  • Audio-visual documentation experience
  • Understanding of asset-based community development
  • Understanding of/interest in storytelling as food justice and decolonizing praxis

Other

  • Schedule is flexible and to be determined with community partner, however, students are required to attend the Vancouver Food Summit on Thursday, September 28.

Location

  • Vancouver Food Summit: 200-138 East 7th Ave, Vancouver, BC V5T 1M6
  • Other locations are flexible in and around Vancouver (to be arranged with interviewees)

Organization Information

Name

  • Vancouver Park Board

http://vancouver.ca/parks-recreation-culture/arts-and-culture.aspx/

  • Sustenance Festival

https://www.facebook.com/SustenanceFestival/


Vision + Mission

The Vancouver Park Board’s Culture Plan strives to develop, enliven, enhance, and promote arts, culture, and cultural diversity in our city in ways that benefit our citizens, creative community, businesses, and visitors. Centered around World Food Day, Sustenance Festival is a project of the Park Board and is a celebration of the intersections between art, culture and food. It is a city-wide festival featuring food-inspired workshops, exhibitions, talks, walks, dances and more – all taking place in community centres and public spaces throughout Vancouver. The Park Board’s mission is to provide, preserve, and advocate for parks and recreation services to benefit all people, communities, and the environment.

Guiding Principles + Values

Nurturing community engagement (also called public engagement, public participation, or public involvement) is a fundamental civic goal.

  • We believe that people who are affected by a decision have a right to be involved in the decision-making process;
  • We promise that the public's contribution will influence the decision;
  • We promote sustainable decisions by recognizing and communicating the needs and interests of all participants, including decision-makers;
  • We seek out and facilitate the involvement of people potentially affected by or interested in a decision;
  • We seek input from participants in designing how they participate;
  • We provide participants with the information they need to participate in a meaningful way;
  • We communicate to participants how their input affected the decision.

Primary Contact

  • Contact Person(s): Rebecca Till, Green Programmer
  • Email: rebecca.till@vancouver.ca
  • Address: 2099 Beach Ave., Vancouver BC, V6G 1Z4
  • Phone: 604.257.8106
  • Days of Work: Monday-Wednesday

Project Description

The underrepresentation of particular populations/groups in Vancouver’s food movement reflects broader issues of exclusion in the dominant food movement across North America. These same groups also experience disproportionate effects of structural inequalities (such as racism and poverty), resulting in complex experiences of food insecurity; they are more likely to take up dangerous or underpaid food-related labour, experience higher rates of diet-related illnesses, and are often the target of nutrition education interventions (Slocum, 2006; Alkon, 2013). Sustenance is an opportunity to shift away from exclusion and needs-based approaches, towards asset-based and celebratory engagement with underrepresented groups.

Parks staff and partners are seeking to build on past successes in engaging culturally diverse groups, in order to strengthen Sustenance as a platform for intercultural connections and relationship building. Approaches to this work include identifying barriers to participation, and seeking out existing community food initiatives that have not been recognized as part of the dominant food movement. A key strategy for gathering this information is identifying and connecting with community leaders to hear their stories/insights/challenges/successes (December 2016-November 2017).

Students will help to document this process by interviewing 5-6 key actors, documenting sessions at the Vancouver Food Summit (which overlaps with Sustenance), and using this material to develop a creative deliverable that may incorporate audiovisual elements.

Goal and Project Scope

Sustenance Festival is an annual arts, culture, and food festival organized by the Vancouver Park Board. Students will document a year-long process of research and relationship-building (December 2016-November 2017) by interviewing key actors, and by attending and documenting sessions at the Vancouver Food Summit. Parks staff and partners are seeking to better understand and address under-representation of marginalized groups from the “food movement,” so that Sustenance Festival can become a stronger example of intercultural food systems engagement. Students will develop a creative report (written and/or multimedia) showing the developmental story of this process.

Skills Preferred

  • Audio-visual documentation experience
  • Understanding of asset-based community development
  • Understanding of/interest in storytelling as food justice and decolonizing praxis

Preferred Days of Week and Hours

  • Schedule is flexible and to be determined with community partner, however, students are required to attend the Vancouver Food Summit on Thursday, September 28.
  • Community partner’s days of work are Monday-Wednesday

Project/Partner Orientation

The student group will meet with the community partner for orientation to the project. Detailed background information will be provided at that time. A volunteer orientation for the Vancouver Food Summit will also be arranged separately.

The following resources are suggested to provide context for the project:

Community Service Opportunities

Students will help to document the Vancouver Food Summit. This is an opportunity to support and participate in one of Vancouver’s spiciest food justice events and to meet food justice activists of many ages and backgrounds.

Expected Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

I hope students will learn about…

  • The connections between food, stories, and justice

I think students will come to appreciate…

  • The never-finished process of community development

Students will develop …

  • An understanding of barriers to participating in the “food movement,” and a greater awareness of diverse forms of food systems participation

Organizational Outcomes

  • A clearer understanding of the Sustenance Festival’s developmental process
  • A deliverable that can be shared with project participants as well as community partners who are interested in food systems and intercultural inclusion
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