Youth Food Policy Committee Action Team
Vancouver Youth Food Policy Committee & Action Team Cassandra Ly University of British Columbia
Annie Liang University of British Columbia
ABSTRACT:
Furthermore, the world has witnessed numerous international and local movements, demonstrating resilience, passion, and drive of a diverse range of people. Youth, especially, are standing up to demand and protect the health of our environment.
Local and global food systems have been altered and exploited for decades by industries. The McDonaldization of our food system, decline in biodiversity, and extreme weather conditions are impacting the livelihoods of animals, people, and the natural environment. To combat such challenges require large-scale changes, but grassroots initiatives, such as the development of a Youth Food Policy Committee, will create community awareness, social responsibility and values that is beneficial to our current education system. This project will provide a platform for students across the Vancouver School District to congregate and collaboratively develop a one-of-a-kind food policy. Currently, the traditional school system places minimal emphasis on curriculum that provides knowledge, understanding, and practical experience on subjects that impact our world in real-time. Ideas revolving around food security and health to the social implications of food will be explored and incorporated into the policy to create a more sustainable school food system. The congregation of students from across the district will provide them maximum flexibility to take charge of their education. The YFPC will empower and acknowledge young people as today and tomorrow’s resilient and passionate change-shifters, risk-takers, and policy-makers.
2) DESCRIPTION The Youth Food Policy Committee, implemented within the Vancouver School Board (VSB) system, aims at empowering and engaging students from different backgrounds, abilities, and experiences. The YFPC addresses a variety of issues related to community food security, interdisciplinary curriculum integration, and hands-on project development. Vancouver High Schools have established a Student Council to run events that promote school spirit. However, with the addition of an elected Sustainability Representative, students can challenge and transcend the boundaries of the school’s status quo on a more FOOD FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH: holistic and urgent level. ISSUES ADDRESSED BY VSB YOUTH FOOD POLICY COMMITTEE ACTION TEAM
1. Compost Program
CATEGORIES & SUBJECT DESCRIPTORS
2. Inter-school campaigns & projects
COMMUNITY FOOD SECURITY
[Education Systems]; [Youth Empowerment]
PROJECT DEVELOPMENT & iMPLMENTATION ~provide hands on learning experiences
~ access to grow, buy and prepare food
KEYWORDS
HEALTH & ACCESS TO FOOD FOR ALL
Ownership, Food Security, Urban Agriculture 1. Systems thinking
1) INTRODUCTION: AIMS & BACKGROUND
2. Make recommendations to current school system
Our world is entering an era of environmental loss and degradation and the evidence is undeniable. “Up to 25% of the world’s food production may become “lost” during this century as a result of climate change, water scarcity, invasive pests and land degradation” [1]. It is evident, for the health of the earth and its citizens, that we must reevaluate the way our infrastructure works to produce, distribute and consume food. To tackle the root of the environmental problem, we must re-imagine the education system within our society as a means for hands-on, practical, and conscious learning that emphasize “values and human beings over concepts and abstraction” [2].
3. Internships & Job placements
1. Self-exploration & Empowerment 2. Develop ownership & values 3. Build student capacity
INTERDISCINPLINARY CURRICULUM INTEGRATION ~ importance placed on inter-related knowledge of food and envirnoment will enable ability to act upon gained knowledge - learning outside the classroom
Fig 1. Issues addressed by VSB’s Youth Food Policy Committee
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Cassandra Ly & Annie Liang University of British Columbia, Canada