City of Vancouver Councilors voted 6 - 3 yesterday to approve a Ken Sims ABC motion to pause all new supportive housing building in the DTES. 97 individuals, including members of the Vancouver Food Justice Coalition, many with lived experience, urban planning academics and service providers spoke to council on this draconian motion. The vast majority were alarmed by this cruel and dangerous motion that will slow down much needed housing for individuals with dire mental health, physical and social needs - and at worse lead to increased death for those living on the DTES streets. Several thousand are on waitlists for this housing.

It was a beautiful sunny and crisp day for a school food run this past Feb 14th Valentine’s Day. Brent Mansfield and a team of kids (well some ran part way) completed a 49 km run to raise awareness about the important need for a universal school food program. Brent is no stranger to these advocacy runs; this latest run urging the provincial government to sign and finalize an agreement with the federal government by the end of March. Under the 2024 National School Food Policy Budget, provinces would see an allocation of $79 million in the first year alone with BC receiving a portion to support B.C. students within this school year through the existing Feeding Futures Program.

Thank you for talking with me today. Your new book The Painful Truth About Hunger in America: Why We Must Unlearn Everything We Think We Know and Start Again has helped clarify my thinking and is a critical call for us all to think and look much deeper into the systems that are driving hunger. Approximately 1 in 5 Canadians is food insecure, an astonishingly high number in a country as wealthy as Canada. Household food insecurity rates are trending upwards. 

After seven years in power and a narrow election win, NDP Premier David Eby said he heard the voters’ message that his party needs to do better.

Welcome news if the commitment is demonstrated in the January ministerial mandate letters, which direct cabinet members on their key responsibilities.

One focus — championed only by the Greens in the election campaign — should be B.C.’s widespread food poverty and insecurity.

Household food insecurity is trending upwards in B.C., especially among the unemployed and working poor experiencing severe cost of living increases. Food Banks BC is reporting record-breaking client numbers for 2024.

But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Listen to our conversations with Mariana Chilton about her new book - The Painful Truth About Hunger in America: Why We Must Unlearn Everything We Think That We Know - And Start Again.

And joined by Leona Brown and Elder Marr Dorvault who shared local lived experience.