Action Team Meeting February 2012
Richmond Food Security Society – Action Team minutes
February 16, 2012
In Attendance: Arzeena Hamir, Erika Simms, Alex Nixon, Anne Swann, Lois Carson-Boyce, Janice Lambert, Debbie Brow, Sue Burford, Minoo Javadi, De Whalen, Gretchen Frazer, Karin Whittaker, Olivia Lee (Student nurse), Jen Zhang (student nurse), Colin Dring, Don Mackenzie (Oxfam/Amnesty), Janice Crowe
1. Additions to Agenda: 2a: Migrant Farm Workers rally, 4a: Amnesty International,
5a: Feria Latina- May 2012, 6a: Local farm families
Minutes from January 19, 2012 – Approved
2. Good Food Box update: Brighouse United has agreed and are very enthusiastic to be the depot for the food box program. There needs to be a minimum of 50 orders and we are asking agencies to place a minimum of five orders. The agencies will need to send a representative to Brighouse United to pick up the produce bags as they would prefer fewer cars in the parking lot. The produce costs $8 for $12-15 worth of produce. The order can be placed and funds collected at the RFSS meeting. Arzeena suggested that any agency that would like to have their logo on the poster to please email her.
Erika requested if agencies could email orders a few days before the meeting so she knows what to order
2a: Migrant Farm workers – demo at the Mexican Consulate on Monday February 20, 2012.
3. Seedy Saturday event update: March 3rd from 10am-12pm at the barn in Terra Nova Rural. We will be collecting funds- table fees and coffee/baking by donation (coffee donated by Starbucks and Baked goods donated by Cobs) for the Shenanigans youth garden project that is at Garrett Wellness Centre. The vendors range from various seed suppliers, fruit trees, nut trees, Seaspray, honey, mason bees, mushrooms, manure, worms and Pacific permaculture coarse and farm school. Arzeena will be teaching a seed bomb workshop for kids and we will be launching the seed lending library.
4. Earth Day – April 21st
The event hasn’t gone far into the planning stages. There will be an event at Cambie community centre and we could partner with this group. Tatiana will put this forward to the committee. After a brief discussion the action team has decided to go ahead with the event taking place at the library as we would still draw a decent crowd because of the location. There will be a movie screening from Amnesty, a seed starting demo, seed lending library, poverty response for housing, sustainability survey, Oxfam- grow pots and seeds.
Committee to include: Arzeena Hamir, Erika Simms, De Whalen, Colin Dring, Janice Crowe and Karin Whittaker.
Action: Arzeena to plan a meeting with Leanne at the library.
4a: Amnesty will be holding their National AGM event at UBC on Saturday June 16th. There will be a youth conference on June 12th and June 13th. The RFSS Earth Day event will be raising funds to help an aboriginal youth to go to conference.
The conference event on Saturday will be open to public and will have up to 20 workshops to choose that will be at a modest cost. Consideration was asked for those students or low income persons to have a sliding scale, so it can be affordable for everyone. The theme of the conference is- ‘Human rights begin at home’. Lunch is being catered at the UBC campus and could look at local sourcing.
Action: The RFSS has requested that a percentage of food be sourced locally for the catered lunch.
5. Talk w/ Bill Zylmans: The talk on Thursday Feb 16th at 7pm is on how to lease land in Richmond. Bill is a second generation farmer in Richmond and has much experience with farming as well as land leasing. He will be bringing sample lease agreements. This talk is free and has about 30 people signed up for it. There is still space available for the event.
5a: Feria Latina is a Spanish festival on Saturday May 26th, 2012 at the Minoru Cultural Centre. This focus of the fair is on health and wellness. Minoo will update Erika on further details
Action: RFSS will have a table at this event
6. Farm to Cafeteria Conference: is a provincial conference that is taking place on March 9th and 10th. The first part will be at Terra Nova Rural Park on March 9th, the evening keynote speaker will be Dr. Warren Bell “From Pharm to Farm: What if everyone was to believe food is medicine?” The second day will be at Richmond City Hall with keynote speaker Cecily Upton, Co-founder and Service Program Director for Food Corps. On Saturday there will be six themes to choose from.
We are still in need of volunteers for the Friday event, especially drivers to take people on tours to different areas in Vancouver.
Action: Arzeena to send a notice to Alex at the food bank for volunteer drivers.
6a: Lois Carson- Boyce discussed about local farmers that are of past generations and that they would be an asset for the food security society. Recently, Helen Wowk, who was an avid gardener passed away. Her family is now in the 4th generation in Richmond. Such people that we could look at contacting would be Hoegler Family at Richmond Country Farms
Action: Arzeena and De to contact
7. Arzeena’s Job: The posting is out for Arzeena’s job is out and the deadline for applying is March 2, 2012. Interviews will be held around mid March with hopes to introduce the new coordinator at the March 16th meeting.
*March 8th is International Women’s Day and the event will take place at the VPL. Amnesty is intending to nominate Arzeena for Women, Food, Planet. Any person or persons in the RFSS organization could forward the nomination to Amnesty.
8. Website Update: Gretchen reported an upward trend in the viewing of the website with Arzeena’s Job posting being the highest. What seem to be the most effective postings are stories with original content. Gretchen has suggested that we get stories from local/community gardeners about what is happening in their garden with the possibility of including pictures. Example: A story on growing carrots
The calendar of events is filling up. Please remember to send any information on new events to Gretchen.
9. Bernardin Canning Workshop: Fresh Choice Kitchens will ‘Train the Trainer’ canning workshops. Arzeena would like to offer paying for the workshop of RFSS persons who are willing to go.
Prerequisites: Participants must be:
- Experienced in canning
- Community agency representatives who will be running community canning classes in 2012
Faciltated by:
- Emerie Brine, Executive Chef, Bernardin,
- Diane Collis, Manager, Fresh Choice Kitchens; and
- Darlene Tanaka, Co-ordinator, Fresh Choice Kitchens
Dates: The workshop is being offered twice, choose between:
1) Mon, April 30, 2012 9 am – 4 pm & Tues, May 1, 2012 9 am – 4 pm
OR
2) Wed, May 2, 2012, 9 am – 4pm & Thurs, May 3, 2012 9 am – 4 pm
Cost: $175.00 per person* (please bring a lunch)
Meeting adjourned 5pm- Next meeting March 16th, 2012
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