December 2020
villagevibe News and views from the heart of Fernwood
The Gift of Good Food’s impact on our community Fernwood-based fundraiser supports families with fresh food for a year
›› Melissa Faye Reid
O
ne of the biggest reasons I wanted to work with Fernwood NRG is because of Gift of Good Food annual holiday fundraiser. The aim of the fundraiser is to raise funds to support local families within the Greater Victoria community access fresh produce all year. At first I wondered how this was possible, but now, in my second year of co-coordinating this fundraiser, I realize it’s possible because of the support, kindness, and openheartedness of the community. The Gift of Good Food started six years ago as a way to directly support local families in-need who may be struggling to put food on the table for their loved ones. Families that are selected as recipients receive a Good Food Box every two weeks which is filled with fresh, healthy, fruits and vegetables. This year, our goal is to raise $100,000 to support 200 families in-need to receive the Gift of Good Food. The Gift of Good Food partners with 15 community centres, transition houses, and local First Nations to select families to receive the Gift of Good Food. The community partners support and work with individuals in the communities they serve. They have a first-hand connection with those who may be struggling, need support, and access to food security. The partners span across the Capital Regional District, from Sooke to Saanich, and include: Bridges for Women Society, Burnside Gorge Community Association, Esquimalt Nation, Esquimalt Neighbourhood House Society, Fernwood NRG, Fairfield Gonzales Community Association, James Bay Community Project, Oaklands Community Association, Quadra
Every Wednesday, a crew of staff and volunteers pack Good Food Boxes at the Fernwood Community Centre. This year, 178 families received one of these Good Food Boxes every other week for all of 2020 because of the Gift of Good Food program. Photo: Aly Sibley
Village Community Centre, Saanich Neighbourhood Place, Songhees Nation, Sooke Family Resource Society, Victoria Native Friendship Centre, Vic West Community Association, and Island Health. This year, in 2020, I believe will live in our memories for the rest of our days. I often imagine myself as an old grandmother with one of my grandchildren inquiring about life before the global pandemic. Seems a little silly, and maybe it is, but I can’t help but wonder about the lasting impacts COVID-19 will have on all our lives. Currently, at the neighbourhood level I have seen increased food insecurity, social isolation, and financial instability. I feel so grateful that I work on the Gift of Good Food fundraiser and in some small way, can lighten the proverbial load of a few families. Many families, before the global pandemic, were facing food insecurity and now it has become exacerbated. A recipient of the Gift of Good Food this year said, “I could not have gotten by without it. I
felt cared about. Since the CERB ended, it has been crucial.” One thing 2020 Gift of Good Food recipients could count on was receiving a Good Food Box every two weeks during global instability. One of the many differences of the Gift of Good Food in comparison to other holiday hampers is the continuity of food support. Rather than receiving a one-time food hamper during the holiday season, recipients receive food for all of next year. Also, families who receive the Gift of Good Food will pick up their food with all other Good Food Box customers. In this way we help minimize stigma by not singling out recipients who are picking up at community partner’s locations. This also increases food access for recipients who can pick up at a location close to home. Another 2020 Gift of Good Food recipient said, “You make the difference between someone feeling shame and isolation to feeling understood and supported.” To those who have donated to the Gift
Buzz
Feature
Buzz
The Belfry Theatre moving forward page 3
New mural celebrates local ecology page 5
A Fernwood Story page 6
of Good Food fundraiser in the past, I have nothing but gratitude for you. You have directly aided in putting a warm bowl of homemade soup on a families table, a crunchy apple for a child to enjoy, or the security of a recipient knowing food will be waiting for them to pick up every two weeks. The Gift of Good Food fundraiser has big goals to reach in a short amount of time. The fundraiser started on November 16th and runs until midnight on December 31st, 2020. Donations are accepted online at thegiftofgoodfood.ca/ donate. We need your help to support even more families in 2021 as we enter another year of uncertainty. Though, of one thing I am certain is the lasting impact kindness, openheartedness, and support has on people. “The impact the Gift of Good Food program has had in my life is the sense of community. Every time I pick it up, I feel so grateful. Reminds me that there are so many loving and caring people.”
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editorial:
villagevibe Editorial Committee
The COVID Experience
Mila Czemerys Shonna Bell
Change, transition,
Published by Fernwood Neighbourhood Resource Group Melissa Faye Reid Brett Gaylor Founding Editor Lisa Helps Contributors
Melissa Faye Reid Shonna Bell Brett Gaylor Mark Dusseault Laura Benoit Alieda Blandford Kayla Siefried Kevin Yee-Chan Lauren Gaultier CarrolAnn Smedley Susan Sanford Blades Art
Aly Sibley Lauren Gaultier
Don Craig
Production Mila Czemerys Contact us
1240 Gladstone Avenue Victoria, BC V8T 1G6 T 250.381.1552 F 250.381.1509 info@fernwoodnrg.ca www.villagevibe.ca To enquire about advertising in the Village Vibe, please contact ads@fernwoodnrg.ca The views expressed in the Village Vibe do not necessarily reflect the views of Fernwood NRG.
declaration of principles & values ››
We are committed to creating a socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable neighbourhood;
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We are committed to ensuring neighbourhood control or ownership of neighbourhood institutions and assets;
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We are committed to using our resources prudently and to becoming financially
We are committed to the creation and support of neighbourhood employment;
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We are committed to engaging the dreams, resources, and talents of our neighbours and to fostering new links between them;
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We are committed to taking action in response to neighbourhood issues, ideas, and initiatives;
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›› Shonna Bell Creativity, responsiveness, compassion. It feels constant, exhausting and maybe sometimes invigorating. It feels humble, impossible to predict: make plans, adjust, make plans, adjust, settle in, adjust. Really, it’s amazing we continue to get out of bed. Maybe we don’t, that’s ok too. We show up, we watch the news, we interpret the guidance to our individual circumstances, we carry on. We explain, we try to understand, we research, we proceed the best we can.
We are committed to governing our organization and serving our neighbourhood democratically
We ask for help. We look for resources. We apply for assistance. We respond. We persevere. We cry. We’re afraid to cough. We laugh. Is there humor in the overwhelm? Did you put the milk in the cupboard? Lock you keys in the car? Forget a word midsentence? Forget the word to describe something? Establish a meeting place and then go to another place? We find things to look forward. We create. We get creative. We decorate. We rearrange the house (if we are lucky enough to have one). We wait. We wonder. We proceed.
faces of fernwood:
Rik Leaf ›› Brett Gaylor Over the last 20 years, Rik Leaf has produced CDs, TV shows, short films, a travel series, podcasts & worked on productions for Metallica, Bryan Adams, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Whose Line is it Anyway?. He is the Creative Director for Tribe of One and the author of Four Homeless Millionaires How One Family Found Riches By Leaving Everything Behind. A hilarious adventure of the year he and his wife sold their house and traveled the world with our two kids. He is currently producing a video series for The Entertaining World of Wine. Tell us 3 things about yourself, one that is a lie.
self-reliant;
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adaptation
We try to not judge, we try to have empathy. We get angry, feel frustrated, feel unjust, we understand. The experience is individual and universal. Our individual circumstance contributes to the different impacts each new or resumed regulation has. We know it is harder for some than others. We know seniors, individuals and families are impacted. We provide support, we connect. We are here. You are there. We ask ourselves: what can I do? How can I help? How do I stay safe? At varying degrees, we are coping OR not. It depends on the time of day.
1. Professional Dancer 2. Professional Recording Artist 3. Professional Sommelier Why do you choose to live in Fernwood?
I wanted to live in a neighbourhood where the people walking down the street screaming at 2:00am waking me up out of a sound sleep really felt like they had something to say. And had an explosively profane way to say it... and honestly, Fernwood really came through for me on that one. What has changed in Fernwood since you’ve been here?
Beyond COVID and the Vic High reno dorking up the community hang out vibe... I’d have to say surprisingly little. It’s just little things. Like we used to walk three blocks to Wellburns and now we walk four blocks to Save On. The pandemic seemed to invigorate a lot of folks to try their hand at growing food in backyard and boulevards— our household as well. Hopefully our neighbours fared better than we did. At the end of the season, we were pretty much just guilty of crimes against raised beds. What has most surprised you during the pandemic?
I was surprised how often walking my dog through the neighbourhood involves stopping to talk with folks. I hadn’t really appreciated that before. Fernwood’s a pretty friendly place. The pandemic exposed how natural it is to connect with people... or was. Now stopping to chat has everyone fumbling with masks shuffling around awkwardly trying to social distance while our dogs do the leash-weaving ‘sniff & spin’. What have you missed most about preCovid times?
Hanging out. Giving and getting hugs. FernFest. Backyard parties and BBQs. Lately the best conversations I’ve had have been screaming out the window at
Rik Leaf performing. Photo courtesy of Rik Leaf.
2:00am to the guy walking down the street swearing at the racoons. What will you miss most in post-Covid times?
There is an unfiltered honesty on the street right now that I’m appreciating. People feel free to admit things aren’t great when someone asks, “How’s it going?” It’s like we’re all in this s#% time together. There’s something bonding about that in a weird way. Also, I really like the vibe of the tables and chairs on the street outside the pub. I’ll miss that if they disappear. What is your hope for Fernwood in 10 years?
I hope I’m still living here. I hope it’s still a friendly, relaxed neighbourhood where people stop to chat when they’re walking their dogs. And I hope the power poles are still covered in art. And the Belfry is still producing fantastic shows.
with a maximum of openness, inclusivity and kindness;
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We are committed to developing the skills, capacity, self-worth, and excellence of our neighbours and ourselves;
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We are committed to focusing on the future while preserving our neighbourhood’s heritage and diversity;
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We are committed to creating neighbourhood places that are vibrant, beautiful, healthy, and alive;
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and, most of all, We are committed to having fun!
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villagevibe
December 2020
News and views from the heart of Fernwood
buzz:
Moving forward ›› Mark Dusseault,
The Belfry Theatre
Like many, the Belfry has had to adapt to our unusual circumstances and reimagine our work going forward. Since March of this year we have run through several options and schedules while trying to maintain our presence. Throughout the fall we have presented weekly online events including our perennially popular storytelling series, The Flame and a host of play readings and conversations. There are some wonderful stories being told and you can catch most of them on our website. On December 23rd at 7:00pm, we will be presenting a free online reading of A Christmas Carol featuring the original cast (all but one) from our 2017 production. Our hope is that starting in March we will produce three shows with a socially distanced audience in-house and live streamed to your house. We’ll start with the world premiere of Being Here - The Refugee Project (March 9th - 21st). This is a piece of verbatim theatre that chronicles the lives of Syrian refugees as they start their new lives in Canada. Creator Joel Bernbaum interviewed new refugees and their sponsors from across
Tom McBeath (Ebenezer Scrooge) and Brian Linds (Charitable Gentleman) will reprise their roles in a free online reading of A Christmas Carol. Photo: Don Craig
Canada to create this compelling look at ourselves. If you are a fan of the Netflix series, The Crown, then you’ll want to see Marcia Johnson’s new play, Serving Elizabeth (April 20th - May 2nd). Politics and pop culture collide with unexpected twists as this fascinating new play moves between 1952 Kenya—when an anti-monarchist cook challenges Princess Elizabeth in the moments before she becomes queen—and 2015 London— when a Kenyan-Canadian film student
clashes with convention and custom while working on a TV series about the Royals. Our Spring Season will conclude with the premiere of Same Old Same Old, a brand-new collaboration from actor Jan Wood and director James Fagan Tait. In this charming and funny new play, an aging couple reveal the moments that make up their lives. The mundane and the meaningful. The small but profound. And the real—yet unspoken love. For tickets and more information, please visit our website belfry.bc.ca.
THE LOCAL GENERAL STORE An old-world 21st century general store carrying unique local artisan foods and organic produce, sustainably-sourced household goods and gifts.
1440 Haultain Street, Corner of Belmont and Haultain (778) 265-6225 Hours: Mon-Fri 9:30am-6pm, Sat 9:30am-5:30pm www.thelocalgeneralstore.ca
www.fernwoodnrg.ca
December 2020
villagevibe
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villagevibe
December 2020
News and views from the heart of Fernwood
feature:
New mural celebrates local ecology ››
Laura Benoit
I
f you’ve strolled down Gladstone Avenue by Fernwood Road recently, you may have noticed something new sprawled across the brick wall next to Studio 1313. This mural from self-taught Victoria-based artist Collin Elder was completed at the end of September. Elder, who studied wildlife biology, made the transition to art after working in ecological conservation. “I am mostly inspired by wildlife,” Elder says. “I do a lot of landscapes. I started doing murals a few years ago, mostly private commissions to start with. It has been great to get a piece for the public, with the help of the Fernwood Neighbourhood Resource Group.” Fernwood NRG conducted an online survey to incorporate community feedback on the design of the mural. “The overwhelming majority of people wanted a mural focusing on local biodiversity,” says Elder. “Having worked in restoration here on the island, I got to know the local plants and animals that are here. I wanted to incorporate these small flora and fauna that aren’t really seen much, to make them large and bring them into public awareness.” If you visit the mural, you might recognize some of these elements—and you may notice some you have never seen before. “The barn owl is obviously a rare, endangered owl,” Elder remarks. “The moth I put up is a rare moth that only exists in Garry Oak meadows. The turkey tail mushroom is inspired by a type of fungi that lives in the forests here. And the camas flower was a staple of First Nations land use, pre-colonization.” Elder hopes that, upon viewing the mural, visitors are reminded that we have the ability to decide the future of these plants and animals. “We are at this point where the way we focus our attention on conservation and development has an impact on these things,” he says. The next time you visit your favorite local Fernwood business, stop by to see the mural—and keep an eye out for these rare flora and fauna around the island. Thank you to the local businesses who donated materials to this mural, including Sunbelt Rentals and Cook Street Castle, and special thanks to the City of Victoria My Great Neighbourhood Grant for providing funding for the mural.
www.fernwoodnrg.ca
Next time you visit Fernwood Village, check out this new mural featuring local flora and fauna by artist Collin Elder. Photo: Aly Sibley
mark your calendar:
All-Candidates Debate and Municipal By-election ›› Alieda Blandford The Fernwood Community Association, together with North Park, Burnside Gorge, Downtown, Vic West, Oaklands, South Jubilee, and Hillside Quadra, are collaborating to host an All-Candidates Debate ahead of the Victoria By-Election. The debate will take place on Tuesday, December 1st, at 7:00pm via Zoom and Facebook Live. Scan this QR code to get the link to the event:
Municipal By-Election 2020
Victoria’s 2020 By-Election will be held on December 12th, 2020. In this municipal by-election, 1 councillor will be elected. There are many ways to vote. You may vote in person on General Voting Day on Saturday, December 12th from 8:00am to 8:00pm at any of the six voting places or at any of the eight advance voting opportunities at Crystal Garden. The six voting places open on General Voting Day are: 1. James Bay Community School, 140
Oswego St 2. Oaklands Elementary School, 2827 Belmont Ave 3. Sir James Douglas Elementary School, 401 Moss St 4. Da Vinci Centre, 195 Bay St 5. Crystal Garden, 713 Douglas St 6. Victoria High School at SJ Willis Education Centre, 923 Topaz Ave Learn about the 11 candidates running for City Councillor and find more info about the election at victoria.ca/EN/main/ city/2020-municipal-byelection.html
December 2020
villagevibe
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garden gleanings:
buzz:
Build new beds early
A Fernwood Story
›› Kayla Siefried
›› Susan Sanford Blades
Winter is a fantastic time to create new garden beds using an in-situ composting technique called sheet mulching. Sheet mulching is a fantastic way to replenish depleted soils in a garden, turn grass easily into a garden bed, use free ‘waste’ materials to build organic matter, create soil that mimics natural soil layers, and suppress weeds! Here’s a quick “How to sheet mulch” guide: 1. Lay down 5-10 cm of nitrogen rich materials in the area you want to have a garden bed (e.g. fresh chicken or horse manure, green garden clippings) 2. Cover that with thick overlapping cardboard, to act as a weed barrier. Water this layer (or just do the project before a good rain!) 3. Lay down 5-10 cm of carbon rich materials on top of the cardboard. Dry brown leaves or straw are best for this layer. 4. Repeat with another nitrogen rich layer, then another carbon rich layer, until you have no more materials left. 5. Finish with a carbon rich layer. For more info, check out the Compost Education Centre’s Mulching Factsheet at compost.bc.ca. The materials will decompose and sink
My debut novel, Fake It So Real, was conceived around the same time I moved to Fernwood nine years ago and I think this is no coincidence. How could I not be inspired to create in this land of painted hydro poles; this place where a man is lauded simply for blowing bubbles? I arrived here a single mother with three young boys. I spent what spare time I had writing at the Cornerstone with my friend Garth, a poet who could agonize for hours over a single word. Garth taught me the importance of diction, drip coffee, and adjacency to electrical outlets. Some days, I’d wake up early to score a booth at the Parsonage and drip breakfast sandwich juice over my keyboard as I attempted to get one good paragraph down before work. Nine years later, these bits of writing have come together as a whole—a community of words, if you will. My book is about a girl who meets a guy in a punk band at the OAP Hall in Victoria in 1983. They have two accidental daughters, and six years later, he plays a show in Vancouver and decides not to cross the ocean back home. My book is about how this girl and her daughters become women, how they learn to love and to trust—or not. My writing has been affectionately labelled
Kayla’s mulched boulevard. Photo: Kayla Siefried
down to about half their height so don’t be shy to layer high! The late autumn or winter is the perfect time to do this, because the cooler temperatures, slow growth period and abundant rains mean the materials will nicely decompose over the winter and you’ll have beautiful soil to plant in to come spring. This autumn, I sheet mulched my tiny boulevard in anticipation of planting pollinator attracting plants come spring! It’s a small narrow boulevard, but I’m so excited to bring in more beauty to my street, attract beneficial pollinators, all while meeting my fellow Fernwood neighbours as I’m out gardening. If you are keen to sheet mulch your boulevard and start a garden, just be sure to read over the Boulevard Gardening Guidelines put out by the City of Victoria, available at victoria.ca.
Tattoo of Fake It So Real book cover done by Zara Leaf at Fly the Cage in Fernwood Square. Photo courtesy of Susan Sanford Blades.
Domestic Antithesis, Crust Fiction, or Scuzz Rearing. I call it punk-rock Alice Munro. What it’s really about is how we perform the impossible task of living our best lives without hurting those we love. Sometimes, we have to fake it a bit. Fake It So Real (Nightwood, 2020) can be found at Munro’s Books or Bolen Books in Victoria. For more info, visit susansanfordblades.com.
buzz:
Freedom is alive ››
Kevin Yee-Chan, Fernwood Yoga Den
And it’s right here, in your heartbeat and your community. With words like restriction, quarantine, mandatory, and closure becoming part of our everyday vocabulary, it’s no wonder that many are feeling a tightening of fear or anxiety: a contraction. Initially, it’s easy to perceive this contraction as a force that binds us… an impingement to our freedom. But when we look at the physiology of the body, we might see through a different
lens. As the lungs contract, they push out waste in the form of carbon dioxide. As the heart contracts, a rush of fresh, oxygenated blood courses through our arteries. As contractions of labour intensify… new life is born. These natural contractions of the body are quite literally the movements of life—enabling us to let go of waste, receive nutrients, and be alive in this world. And as our world continues to move through great change, I wonder: Am I willing to welcome contraction as a force of freedom for new life? When we start to consciously direct the energy of contraction toward the pulse of letting go and receiving, we fall into our
power of inner alchemy. It is the power that makes us both resilient and empathetic: better able to nourish ourselves and help others with the simple act of noticing the contraction of every breath and the beat of every heart. Able to feel freedom in how we choose to breathe and be—just as we are. Amidst the waves of contraction and expansion, we at Fernwood Yoga Den and Maya Health Clinic are committed to being present for you just as you are. We recognize that life is changing—we are changing—very swiftly these days, and hope to offer ways for folks of all colors, sizes, backgrounds, and stories to feel welcome in this community we call home.
This commitment is present in a range of community offerings. We are fortunate to share these on a sliding scale. All profits from these offerings are directed toward local charities that rotate throughout the year. They are offered in continual respect and regard for public and community health, either on-site or online via our Den @ Home virtual platform. We hope that wherever and however you are, you can rest and know that someone’s got your back. We’ll be here, providing the tools we can to offer you a space to drop back into the rhythm of your breath, your body… the freedom of being uniquely you.
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villagevibe
December 2020
News and views from the heart of Fernwood
community eats:
mark your calendar:
Stage Wine Bar
Calling all Fernwood based artists & artisans ›› CarrolAnn Smedley
Stage Wine Bar has great tapa style dishes. They change their offerings often so there is always something fresh for you to try. Photos: Lauren Gaultier
A COVID-19 date night
›› Lauren Gaultier If you are anything like me, this pandemic has put a real damper on your culinary experiences. Dining out has become equally as rare as it is intimidating. In an uncertain fall where BC’s cases are continuing to rise and new lockdown measures were looming, I decided to take advantage of Grandma’s offer to babysit and convince my spouse to go out on a Fernwood date night not knowing if it would be the last for a while… In case you haven’t heard, last summer,
www.fernwoodnrg.ca
Stage Wine Bar changed ownership and their menu has been evolving ever since, so we decided to go and check out the current offerings. We weren’t able to participate in their prix fixe three course dining adventure offered Thursday to Saturday with a 7pm seating, so we opted for their a la carte menu instead. With almost everything on the menu listed for $6, it was a pretty exciting to proclaim to the server, “We’ll have one of everything please.” It was a bit of an adventure as their simplistic menu labels had us intrigued to find out how things would be prepared and flavoured. Another adventure was ordering beverages to accompany our
dishes. Gone are the days of typical wine lists and cocktail menus and instead the staff at Stage encourage you to tell them what you’d like and allow their capable bar staff to suggest and/or prepare something for you. Our meal consisted of pickles, olives, cheese, bread, frisée, chicken egg, bavette, fois gras, cabbage, bone marrow, and chocolate for dessert. If you find yourself needing a taste of normalcy in your life and want to try out Stage, my top selections from the menu (if still available) are the frisée salad, bone marrow (with bread), and the chocolate mousse. Check them out at @stage.fernwood or stagewinebar.com.
The Fernwood Art Stroll Group has begun organizing for the 2021 Fernwood Art Stroll. It will be held during the month of June in our Fernwood community. If you are interested in opening your yard, or studio for showing, or selling your work, or if you are a performance-based individual or group, we would love to hear from you. If you do not have a yard or a studio, but live in Fernwood, we can help you find a spot to show, tell stories, play music, or sculpt on-site. Please access the membership page of our website for contact information. Find us at fernwoodartstroll.ca or give us a call at 250-414-4186. Come turnout for Fernwood!
December 2020
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Scene in Fernwood : Meet a few Fernwood NRG staff
Liliana Perez, Bookkeeper, 5 months with Fernwood NRG
Mila Czemerys, Director of Community Development, 10 years with Fernwood NRG
Ruben Anderson, Good Food Box Coordinator, 3 years with Fernwood NRG
Hollis Thorau, Community Programs Outreach Worker, 2.5 years with Fernwood NRG
Hobbies: I love cooking, especially Mexican food. Come to see me and I’ll share some recipes from my home town!
Hobbies: I’m into painting, dyeing things with plants, and gardening.
Hobbies: Fermenting, sauerkraut, and pickles
Something you might not know about me: I am a huge Stephen King fan.
Laura Palmer, Family Support Worker & Team Lead, 3 years with Fernwood NRG
Jesse Douglas, ECE 3-5 Child Care Program, 7.5 years with Fernwood NRG
Patrick Gleeson, Cook, almost 2 years with Fernwood NRG
Michael Drimmel, ECE 3-5 Child Care Program, 1.5 plus years with Fernwood NRG
Something you might not know about me: I am absolutely obsessed with Christmas time.
Something you might not know about me: I am very spiritual, I am an energy vampire, and I play hockey competitively.
Something you might not know about me: I love biking, I did 2000km last year!
Something you might not know about me: I’m a coparent to two teenage kids and look forward to putting down some root in funky Fernwood.
Matthew Sales, Inclusion Support Worker, 1.5 year with Fernwood NRG
Fathima Shazana Azmee, ECE 3-5 Child Care Program & Team Lead, 1.5 years with Fernwood NRG
Cole, maintenance, with Fernwood NRG for a while
Shonna (and Anna) Bell, Acting Executive Director/Director of Community Programs, 10 years with Fernwood NRG
Something you might not know about me: Early to invest/lose my money in the stock market - before I come to work each day
Hobbies: I love to dance and create art with kids and make felt stories for younger kids.
Hobbies: Lake swims and historical fiction
Photos: Aly Sibley Photography