Delicious Sunflower Sprouts!
Hey everyone, I know the Canucks have their big game tonight, but don’t forget to stop by the Main St Farmer’s Market for some pre-game goodies! The Main St. Market has lots of stuff grown and made in right here in the inner-city. Be sure to check out SOLEfood Urban Farm and Chris Thoreau’s sunflower sprouts (toted to and from the market by bike, woot!) as examples of the bounty that the inner-city has to offer.
Also be sure to keep up on your urban farming news and events by checking out the latest issue of the Urban Farm Network newsletter. The June issue is out now! Highlights include:
- Urban Farming Census now underway, a project of UBC AgSci student Mark Schutzbank and funded by Carrot Cache
- Urban farmers are eligible to fill out the federal Census of Agriculture! Take this opportunity to let the decision-makers know your unique needs as an urban farmer.
- June Urban Farmer Gathering scheduled for June 21st, 6pm, at 618 Malkin Ave
- UFN receives $7500 Vancity grant for urban farming workshops and seeks input on workshop development
- Urban farming highlights from mainstream media
See the full newsletter here and be sure to sign up to recieve it via email! You can also follow urban farm news through Chris’ Twitter account @cmthoreau
After tonight we’ll have to take a break from chanting Go Canucks Go! I propose we take up a new mantra: Grow Farmers Grow! Go eat some local food!
Photo courtesy Steven Walling via Wikimedia Commons
Don’t be a chicken, get involved in the urban farming community! You can stay up-to-date with all the farming news and events via the Urban Farm Network Newsletter, and the May edition is now available. Highlights include:
- Vancouver Tool Library opens at 3448 Commercial St. This looks like an awesome community resource!
- Info on upcoming Urban Farmer meetings
- A look at urban farm ordinances and bylaws in other westcoast cities (to get a handle on Vancouver food policy, check out the Vancouver Food Policy Council)
- Links to interesting authors and articles discussing urban farm issues
The full Urban Farm Network Newsletter can be found here. Be sure to subscribe to receive future issues directly.
And, if urban farming is something you are involved in, want to be involved in, or are interested in knowing more about, sign yourself up for the Urban Farm Network Listserv!
Will Allen and the farmers at SOLEfood
In this month’s newsletter, our focus is on all things food-related. We discuss the recent hiring of outreach workers by the Downtown Eastside Kitchen Tables Project. This initiative is a collaboration between Potluck Cafe and Catering and the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House which aims to change the food system in the neighbourhood. We also detailed our meeting with Growing Power’s Will Allen, an urban farmer who has accomplished amazing things, and his visit to SOLEfood farm.
To read more, please see the newsletter in full:
February Employment Newsletter
Other items featured this month include:
Let us know what you think!
That’s what members of the Strathcona Business Improvement Association (BIA) are hoping as they put forth an application for funding for a number of micro-gardens throughout the Strathcona neighbourhood. Aviva Insurance is holding a competition for the best ideas that support positive change within communities, and the BIA needs your votes to keep it in the running.
The proposed 20-30 gardens would be situated adjacent to public spaces in the area. This would contribute to the beauty of the neighbourhood, allow for the local growth of edible plants, and engage the community in the gardens’ collective upkeep. Barbed wire fences and other deterrents currently found in Strathcona can create an exclusion of people from their neighbourhood.
Building nice green spaces in urban areas is in line with the principles of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design. The principles suggest that the use of openly visible space in a positive manner can strengthen a person’s bond with their physical environment. The more connected individuals feel with the space in which they live, the less likely they are to do harm to that space and to others. This interplay can create the ideal mutually beneficial relationship between a city and its residents, where each is influenced by the other.
The gardens would be constructed by landscapers from Mission Possible Enterprises, a non-profit organization in the Downtown Eastside which helps people with job readiness barriers find employment opportunities. Mission Possible hopes working with local youth in this endeavour will engage the youth with the neighbourhood and allow them to make a meaningful contribution to a large project. 
Strathcona has always housed a progressive group of citizens with very strong views on what happens to their neighbourhood. In the 1960s when urban activism was just beginning to take form, protests were held in Strathcona to fight the plan to build a highway through the neighbourhood. This helped spur a number of similar campaigns in later years in Canada and the US. The pride and passion residents have with regards to their area is inspiring. It is very appropriate that Strathcona may once again have the chance to be a trailblazer in terms of community building.
You can read more about the project and vote for it here: http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf5454
Every vote counts!
SOLEfood Open House Information Session
418 East Hastings Street
(Mah Benevolent Society of Vancouver, at Dunlevy Avenue)
Saturday, August 14, 2010
2:00pm – 4:00pm
This Saturday, August 14th, 2010, there will be a SOLEfood Open House Information Session regarding a possible second farm site at Union Street and Gore Avenue (the grass area adjacent to the via duct). The good folks at SOLEfood have requested feedback and input from neighbours on the project before they submit an application for the development permit
See the SOLEfood open house invitation for more details.
About SOLEfood: The SOLEfood Urban Farm Project is a non-profit social enterprise that trains and employs DTES residents in urban agriculture. The food grown is sold to restaurants and at Farmers Markets in order to achieve economic self sufficiency.
If you’re unable to attend but would still like to submit comments, questions or suggestions you can do so via email, phone or mail. Please send it to:
E-mail: SOLEfood@unitedwecan.ca
Or via regular mail to:
Seann Dory & Doris Chow
39 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6A 1M9
Phone: 604-837-1601
