43 Vancouver election candidates back policy commitments to improve city-wide food security

Ahead of Vancouver’s October 17, 2026, municipal election, the Vancouver Food Justice Coalition has asked every candidate for Mayor, City Council, and Park Board to say whether they will support five policy commitments for a more food-secure city.

The Funding Our Food Systems Well platform was shaped by people working on the front lines of Vancouver’s food system, community-based organizations, and people with lived and living experience of inequity in the food system.

The platform calls on the City of Vancouver to invest $15 per household each year, equivalent to 0.2 per cent of its 2026 Operating Budget. The City currently spends just $2.30 per household, or 0.03 per cent of the budget, on food systems. Current City spending on food is not keeping pace with need; one in four Vancouver residents is worried about being able to afford food, demand for City food grants is three times the available funding, and community organizations are trying to meet growing demand with short-term, unstable funding. At the same time, three of the City’s four food-planning positions have been eliminated.

As of October 2, 43 candidates (5 Mayor, 21 Council, 17 Park Board) have endorsed one or more of the policy commitments from the Funding Our Food Systems Well platform.

The five commitments:

• Fund community food systems adequately and permanently — about $7 per household.

• Build community food infrastructure and address food-access gaps — about $3 per household, plus a one-time capital investment.

• Protect and expand affordable, independent, and culturally relevant food retail and markets — about $2 per household.

• Make food recovery permanent civic infrastructure — about $2 per household.

Open park land and facilities to community food systems — a Park Board decision costing under $1 per household.