Blog #4 – Farewell

As we come to the final weeks of the term, we bring to you our last blog post of the project. With our final post comes a reflection on a moment of significance that has helped shape our attitudes for the future.

Current Vancouver Food Asset Map- Kitchen and Food Programs (April 2, 2017)

What?

As a group, we were trying to tackle food insecurity, specifically the lack of kitchen access, from using one aspect: The Vancouver Food Asset Map (VFAM). This interactive map was an effective platform to visualize the many food assets that exist in Vancouver, highlighting the need for more easy-to-read, approachable tools for the community. The VFAM was initially supposed to be a useful tool, but we encountered setbacks such as people simply not having access to a computer, not knowing how to use a computer, or encountering language barriers. Through our community trialling, we found that the VFAM wasn’t able to reach a big enough audience of people and thus many people and families are being missed.

So what?

As we continued working on our project throughout the term, we learned that in order to tackle food insecurity, more forces and different types of resources would be required on top of the Vancouver Food Asset Map. Although it was clear that it would be an extremely useful tool, it became evident to us that it was only really addressing a small fraction of the bigger issue of food insecurity. Food insecurity is not something that can be solved overnight, and as we learned in lecture and tutorial, it is something that needs to be addressed with many different strategies. The Food Asset Map offers a way for community members to find resources in their neighbourhood and obtain their immediate needs, but it does not address the chronic causes of food insecurity. Our research into the community gave us valuable feedback for further improvement on the tool itself, but also insight to community members’ situations, and how they might or might not use the VFAM tool. This helped us understand the complexity of food insecurity in Vancouver as a whole.

Now what?

Through adopting a food justice lens, we hope to begin the process of seeing the constraints that exist in society as we work towards collectively facing obstacles in the food system (Gottlieb and Joshi, 2010: ix). As individuals who are all part of the food system, it is up to us to make an impact in our own communities and to transform the current food system. This project taught us the power in community initiatives, in working on a local scale to connect resources and combat food insecurity. Even within our own community exists many challenges, and it is by talking with community members and building off the work of past students, that we can create feasible solutions. More communication also gives us an opportunity to further discuss our findings. Our community work and partnership has given us space and resources to manifest our findings into practical solutions, so we hope future projects can take different approaches to improve our work as well. We would like to bring awareness to difficulties and constraints that may be inevitable working in community projects, but to also invite all to learn and embrace the uncertainty.

Some Members’ Thoughts

Ruby –

The Vancouver Food Access Map has provided a great and very practical tool for community members to easily find various food assets around the city. The functional and accessible format make it powerful in reaching a wider audience. However, through my conversations with community members, I found that this tool still excludes the most marginalized people that it’s critically trying to help. Those without easy access to computers, or knowledge of how to use them, are not as able to use the map for the purposes it has been created for. Therefore, I believe the next big step, alongside adding more assets, is to connect with community partners such as libraries and other resources that may have access to computers and be able to provide support for map users.

Tracy –

Similarly, I also think branching out to other partners to promote the VFAM is a logical step for further utilizing the map. In order for community members to use it, they should and need to know about this tool. What I thought this project lacked was its promotional presence, despite being a relatively easy tool to access online. Perhaps food assets and community programs should advertise this tool so community members can explore other options that may suit their needs.

 

References

Gottlieb, R., & Joshi, A. (2010). Food Justice. MIT Press.