Funding Our Food Systems Well Campaign

The City of Vancouver currently spends just $2.30 per household each year on food systems. Increasing that investment to $15 - less than the price of a coffee and a sandwich - could fund everything proposed in this food systems platform. That investment would be enough to build the just and sustainable food system the City has promised since 2003: one that survives the budget cycle and affirms the right to food.

What we’re doing

The policy ideas in this platform come from people who know Vancouver's food system from the inside: the people who participate in it, and the neighbours who run the kitchens, gardens, markets, and food recovery programs that hold it together. We asked what would actually make things better, narrowed a long list down to five decisions for a food secure Vancouver. 

We are asking every candidate for Mayor, City Council, and Park Board, regardless of party, to tell voters where they stand on food. Endorsing means committing, publicly and before the election, to vote for these measures if elected. We will share the answers we receive at vancouverfoodjustice.ca before you vote in October

For the reasoning & research behind each policy ask, check out our full platform here.

By the numbers

• $2.30 - what the City spends on food per household, per year (0.03% of the 2026 Operating Budget)

• $15 - what this whole platform would cost per household, per year (0.2% of the 2026 Operating Budget)

• 1 in 4 - Vancouver residents worried about being able to afford food.

• 3 times - for every dollar the City puts into food grants, community groups need three. And that only counts for the groups the City lets apply. 

• From 4 to 1 - The City had four planners working on food. Shortly after the 2026 budget came into effect, three of the positions were eliminated.

Food is a human right

Food is a human right. The right to adequate food is recognized in international human rights law, which Canada has committed to. Vancouver’s own Food Charter has recognized access to safe, sufficient, culturally appropriate and nutritious food as a basic human right since 2007. Canada’s ratification of the right to food obligates all levels of government to:

• Respect - do not interfere with the access people already have

• Protect - prevent others from interfering with access

• Fulfill - create the conditions in which people can feed themselves with dignity

Vancouver's current language on food is vague, which makes it easy to deprioritize. Acknowledging food as a right gives departments, advisory bodies, and Councillors a common reference point when food collides with other priorities.

Decisions for Mayor & Council

1. Fund community food systems adequately and permanently

About $7 of the $15.

Community food work in Vancouver runs on small, short-term grants. We want it to be properly funded and the people doing the work to be paid a living wage. Demand is three times what the City funds, and that only counts the groups allowed to apply. Meanwhile the City cut three of its four food staff. This decision puts a paid food coordinator in every neighbourhood, restores those positions, and turns short-term grants into funding organizations can plan around.

What Mayor & Council Can Do: 

• Update the Vancouver Food Charter with rights-based, equity-centred language, name the City’s duty to respect, protect, and fulfill the right to food, and use it to anchor food system budgeting.

• Action the funding streams committed to in the Closing the Gap Motion: make the 2026 increase to Sustainable Food Systems grants permanent and build on it, and establish the Indigenous food sovereignty and food recovery streams with new money rather than reallocations from existing food grants.

• Expand existing funding streams: more funding, more flexible eligibility, broader scope including pathways to fund pilots, and simpler reporting. Build in annual cost adjustment to keep pace with the living wage, and make neighbourhood capacity building the standard across food grant criteria.

• Fund a full-time Food Security Coordinator in every neighbourhood, delivered through the Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks, scaled up over 5-10 years.

• Restore City food system staff roles, including the three eliminated food planning positions, which would take City food systems staffing from one back to four, and resource staff to lead budget allocation in line with the City’s food strategy.

2. Build community food infrastructure and address food access gaps

About $3 of the $15, plus a one-time capital investment.
Some neighbourhoods have far fewer places to buy, grow, cook, and share food. This would build a food hub in South Vancouver with kitchens, market space, and wholesale distribution - most of it paid for with federal funding. It would also open up buildings the City already owns, which currently get handed out case by case with no public list and no standard terms.

What Mayor & Council Can Do:

• Establish a multi-purpose food hub and terminal in South Vancouver, combining wholesale distribution with a Community Food Centre that includes community kitchens, food programming, and affordable market space. Partner with Right To Food on operations and pursue federal Food-Link Fund capital for the distribution infrastructure. Anchor the hub with a Market City Framework.

• Lease City and Property Endowment Fund land to community groups and non-profits: provide long-term, favourable leases for equity-increasing projects without requiring departments to reimburse the Fund.

• Publish an inventory of City-owned space suitable for food use and offer standard multi-year lease terms in place of case-by-case arrangements.

• Add community food infrastructure to the Amenity Cost Charge by-law, including community and teaching kitchens, food hubs, pantries, and non-profit market space, so development charges can build food capacity rather than just charitable food distribution.

3. Protect and scale affordable, independent, and culturally relevant food retail and markets

About $2 of the $15. 

Small grocers, cultural food shops, and markets are being priced out. Over half of Chinatown's fresh food stores closed between 2009 and 2016, and businesses along Kingsway, Fraser, and Victoria are moving out of Vancouver to survive. The City can use its zoning, land, tax, and permitting powers to keep important businesses open and help more of them get started.

What Mayor & Council can do:

• Use the zoning tools available under the Vancouver Charter: store-size caps, a defined “fresh food store” use, neighbourhood grocery stores in more zones, ground-floor grocery stores as a rezoning condition, and the application of the Chinatown Cultural District Framework to other culturally distinct neighbourhoods.

• Use City land and rent levers: subsidized leases, non-profit food space secured on title in perpetuity, and commercial rent supports for independent and cultural food businesses.

• Protect independent and cultural food businesses from redevelopment-driven tax burdens: continue and expand theDevelopment Potential Relief Program with cultural food retail explicitly in scope, and press the Province for the permanent split assessment Council has called for since 2022.

• Cut permitting red tape: multi-year permits for markets in place of the annual event-permit cycle and reduced or waived fees for non-profit food programming.

4. Make food recovery permanent civic infrastructure

About $2 of the $15. 

Good food is thrown out every day, while community groups need more healthy food for their essential programming. The Vancouver Food Recovery Network currently relies on short-term grants, with minimal government support, to continue its work. Food recovery needs to be supported as a permanent City service and recognized as civic infrastructure. 

What Mayor & Council can do:

• Legally name food recovery as civic infrastructure, with a departmental home in Engineering and a dedicated budget line.

• Build community cold-chain infrastructure: powered, shared refrigerated storage at markets and community sites.

• Enable commercial-sector donation: expand community capacity to receive, store, and redistribute recovered food, and use the City’s procurement policy, event permitting, and industry partnerships to get grocers and food businesses donating more.

Decision for Parks Board

1. Open up park land and facilities for community food systems

Under $1 of the $15. 

Growing, cooking, and sharing food in parks takes too much paperwork, costs too much, and can be taken away on short notice. Groups can't invest in soil or plant fruit trees on land they might lose next season. This asks the Park Board to grant longer, simpler permissions, to treat farmers markets as a normal use of a park, and to support Indigenous food sovereignty work.

What Parks Board can do:

• Create one standardized, multi-year garden licence to replace ad-hoc permissions, so groups can invest in soil, infrastructure, and perennials.

• Revitalize the fieldhouse program and earmark fieldhouses and community centre kitchens for food use, with affordable, multi-year access for non-profit operators.

• Recognize farmers and community food markets as legitimate park use, with multi-year agreements, protected space, and market infrastructure funded through Park Board budgets.

• Support Indigenous-rooted food uses, including smokehouses, foraging, food-bearing plantings, and pollinator habitat promotion.

• Publish an inventory of park land suitable for food systems uses, including underused parcels and park edges.

How you can get involved!

• Endorse this platform - fill out this quick survey to add your voice.

• Share this platform - send it to a neighbour, a co-worker, your building's group chat. Most people have no idea the City spends $2.30 a household on food.

• Come to our virtual Town Hall on October 13th - candidates will answer questions about food, and you can hear how they respond before you decide.

• See where candidates stand - we are publishing every answer at vancouverfoodjustice.ca.

• Ask candidates what they think about food - candidates will be at your door, at community events, and in your inbox between now and October 17th. Ask what they will do about food. The more often they hear the question, the harder it is to treat food as an afterthought.

• Vote on October 17th!