I often find myself thinking about food this time of year, when harvest season is upon us and the local grocery stores and farmers markets overflow with fresh, healthy, local food.
Faced with displays of bright red peppers, juicy tomatoes, deep purple beets and all manner of other delicious offerings, it’s easy to think of the abundance and forget about the need. Because despite how fortunate we are here to have access to such bounty, this is not the case for everyone in our community.
I’ve written about food insecurity in this column before, both because it is a current priority for the Victoria Foundation and because I believe strongly in working toward a food-secure region. It seems a great shame to me that people in our community — our neighbours, in some cases our family — go hungry when there is such abundance.
In fact, studies show that 14 per cent of residents here are food-insecure, meaning they go hungry at least once a year because they do not have enough money for food or do not have access to affordable food. That’s more than 50,000 people.
But this is not going to be a doom-and-gloom column; in fact, I’ve brought up the topic to highlight some recent positive stories and great strides that have been made toward solving food insecurity.
First of all, thanks to the generosity of you and the participation of local grocers, the recent Island Food Caring campaign raised $37,693 to support the Food Rescue Project, which recovers and redistributes healthy, fresh food to insecure communities in our region.
Country Grocer, Fairway Market, Red Barn Market, the Root Cellar and Thrifty Foods all encouraged customers to donate, and then the Victoria Foundation matched the funds to reach our total. A wonderful result.
Also shoring up the efforts and future of the Food Rescue Project has been the purchase of the Food Security Distribution Centre in Esquimalt by the Mustard Seed, thanks to a grant from the provincial government, along with funding from VanCity and the Victoria Foundation.
Finalized this summer, the purchase ensures this program, which is feeding about 35,000 local residents, can continue long into the future.
Finally, the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture announced this month the funding of a feasibility study to assess just how well the distribution centre works and will work in the future to act as a regional food hub. The goal is to offer resources through the centre to help local farmers, food producers and processors to expand operations and build a more resilient local food economy.
All of these updates are encouraging and speak to a real on-the-ground approach to a problem we believe we can solve. The bounty of the harvest season is a wonderful thing, and I look forward to a day when we can all reap its rewards.
Sandra Richardson is CEO of the Victoria Foundation.
