City of Vancouver Food Strategy

Supplementary Information

Municipal Planner Interview with the City of Vancouver Re: City of Vancouver's Food Strategy

After over a decade of food policy and planning initiatives, the City of Vancouver developed a Food Strategy to establish a coordinated approach to food systems planning.

Policy Development

In 2003, Council approved a motion to develop a “just and sustainable food system for the City of Vancouver”. The motion spurred the formation of Vancouver’s Food Policy Council (a citizen advisory group on food policy issues) as well as the creation of two planning positions to focus on food systems. Subsequently, a number of food-related policy and programs took root between 2003 and 2013. Some of these include the development of urban chicken keeping and beekeeping guidelines, grants to support neighbourhood food networks, street food program expansion, a kitchen scrap collection program, Vancouver’s Food Charter, and the Greenest City Action Plan. The latter two policies, which called for a coordinated strategy to focus the City’s efforts surrounding food systems, ultimately paved the way for the creation of the Food Strategy.

Consultation

Both internal and public engagement were priorities during the development of the Food Strategy.

These included broad engagement efforts with the general public as well as targeted engagement with specific community groups such as urban farmers, community organizations, cultural groups and youth.

Internally, the planning department reached out to many city managerial divisions, including Real-Estate, Parks, Finance, Sustainability, the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation and others to increase bureaucratic capacity for the project and foster cross-departmental cooperation.

Policy Adoption

The magnitude and range of ideas that were proposed by the draft plan complicated the adoption process, necessitating numerous iterations and a strategic evaluation of the contents against the local government’s capacity and jurisdiction. Applying such a pragmatic approach to refining the document was deemed necessary for the Food Strategy to be useful and achievable.

Policy Implementation

Vancouver’s dedicated staff planning positions have been key to implementing the Food Strategy since its adoption in 2013. It was reported that an ongoing challenge in implementing the Strategy has been adapting and accounting for emerging topics in food systems planning. Examples of these emerging themes include school food programs, indigenous food systems and the relationship between food security and income security.

Policy Outcomes and Recommendations

The Food Strategy has resulted in the creation and implementation of a multitude of policies and projects that are helping Vancouver move toward a just and sustainable food system. Some of these outcomes include:

• Zoning and business license provisions for urban farms
• Community garden infrastructure upgrades
• Urban beekeeping guideline update
• Sustainable food systems grants
• Farmers’ market guidelines and policy update

• Sustainable large development rezoning policy requiring new buildings greater than 500,000sq ft. to include food assets
• Support for community food markets
• Support for community kitchens
• Support for street food vending

Given the descriptive nature of the Food Strategy goals, it was reported that monitoring impact is an ongoing challenge. The Food Strategy provides directives, but not measurable goals, and therefore presents a challenge in evaluating progress. While annual reviews are conducted, it was reported that further monitoring could be beneficial.

References

City of Vancouver, Department of Social Policy, personal communication, November 2016.