City of Powell River Council has endorsed a request from Vancouver Island University (VIU) to partner in a proposed food security project.
At the December 7 council meeting, community development officer Alexandra Young said she was bringing forward a recommendation to become a partner with VIU to apply for a social sciences and humanities research council grant. She said it was a federal grant.
“If awarded, city staff would be participating on the project advisory committee,” said Young.
She said the project’s research question was: How can the qathet region and City of Powell River enhance food security and develop sustainable food systems in a remote coastal community and modern treaty context? She added that there were no direct financial implications to the city at this time.
“It is staff’s recommendation that council endorse this partnership agreement to be the partner organization for the application,” said Young. “If VIU was awarded this grant they would be getting up to $25,000 for the first round of the partner engagement grant.”
City councillor Cindy Elliott asked, if the grant was successful, what kind of engagement can be expected in the community and what that might look like.
VIU tiwšɛmawtxw campus administrator Liam Haggarty said the methodology used would be to employ the services of a recent PhD graduate from the University of British Columbia (UBC) who received her graduate degree in food systems, and has moved to the qathet region. He said the research would involve interviews with organizations and individuals who are involved in food production, as well as involvement in engagement events with community members. It will help the researcher understand how food insecurity is being experienced, what kind of resources and capacity the community currently has for food system enhancement, and food security in general, he added.
The project would also identify what further work might be done beyond the duration of this grant to enhance food resiliency and self-sufficiency here.
Elliott said she is excited about conducting studies here and hoping the grant will be received.
Councillor Rob Southcott said in past, there was a great deal more food produced locally. He said there is minimal cooperation by importers of food into this area. He said there is no stockpiling, so as far as food security goes, the community is extremely vulnerable, which was backed up by a UBC study.
“We’ve had a policy written way back to almost 20 years ago by this city, and most recently, in 2018, the farm sector plan,” said Southcott. “There has been a lot of work to try to help move this forward. I’m so delighted to see this initiative coming forward.”
Council voted unanimously to endorse and support VIU’s addressing food insecurity in the qathet region application for a grant, and that mayor Ron Woznow sign the draft letter of engagement to the partnership request.
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