Attendees at the 2022 Food and the City Candidate Briefing at The Stir. (Image Credit: Kamloops Food Policy Council)

By Fauve Smith and Jess Payette

Sound Off

SOUND OFF: Relaunching Food and the City to address food security in Kamloops

Oct 14, 2024 | 1:00 PM

THE KAMLOOPS FOOD POLICY COUNCIL (KFPC) has been working on our relaunch of Food and the City, a citizen-led policy research initiative aimed at addressing key community concerns regarding food security in Kamloops. This project was originally introduced in 2022 before the municipal election, and resulted in the creation of seven co-created, impactful policy recommendations, which focus on helping shape food and sustainability dialogues within Kamloops. Now, as we approach the 2024 provincial election, we’ve dove back into these important conversations with a renewed focus.

In this year’s Food and the City project, our network has investigated critical issues that intersect with food security, including land use management, experiences of vulnerable populations, community engagement, and affordable housing. Exploring these topics further is a critical step toward ensuring that our communities can sustain themselves.

The challenges facing Kamloops are not isolated. From vulnerable populations lacking access to nutritious food, to the pressing need for affordable housing, these issues intersect in complex ways. Food and the City 2024 aims to bring these connections to light and advocate for policies and elected representatives that ensure a just and resilient future for all.

As the provincial election nears, we encourage our community to research the candidates in their districts, think about what issues matter to them and our wider community, talk to their district candidates, and read our Food and the City articles.

Below is an overview of the policy recommendations that came out of our research articles

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Vulnerable populations and Food Security policy recommendations:

Increase Funding for Food Support Services:

● Ensure consistent government funding for food service programs to reduce reliance on donations, volunteers, and short-term grants. Shift from a charity model to sustainable public funding.

Enhance Collaboration Between Service Providers:

● Encourage and support partnerships between food support services to share resources, fill service gaps, and improve distribution and aggregation of food supplies.

Include Frontline Workers and Vulnerable Populations in Policy Discussions:

● Create spaces where grassroots workers and people with lived experience can influence policy making processes. This will help design more effective solutions based on real community needs.

Address Systemic Oppression in Food Policy:

● Develop policies that tackle intersectional issues such as poverty, housing, transportation, and disability support, recognizing that these factors exacerbate food insecurity.

Provide Public Amenities Like Washrooms and Drinking Fountains:

● Reopen, build new, and maintain public washrooms and drinking fountains to ensure access to water and hygiene for all, particularly vulnerable populations and individuals experiencing homelessness.

Tackle Stigma Around Food Support Services:

● Implement public education campaigns to reduce the stigma associated with accessing food banks and other social support services, and to advocate for the dignity of those seeking support.

Expand Access to Social Assistance and Housing Support:

● Strengthen social assistance programs and housing policies to prevent vulnerable individuals from falling through systemic gaps, particularly those transitioning out of healthcare, prison, or welfare systems.

Housing Affordability policy recommendations:

Invest in Non-Market Housing:

● All levels of government should be investing in building more non-market housing as a permanent solution to the housing crisis.

Build Capacity in the Community Housing Sector:

● The Community Housing Sector, including local governments, Indigenous communities, land trusts, cooperatives and non-profit organizations are important partners for the operation of non-market housing. These organizations need support to build capacity to deliver more affordable housing, including support for growing development management expertise, access to technical resources such as accounting and legal services, and early stage development funding.

Foster community food assets and green spaces:

● Introduce requirements and incentives to increase the frequency/size of community food assets, green spaces and other common spaces.

Incentivize walkable neighbourhoods, small businesses and plazas:

● Create the environment for walkable neighbourhood grocery stores to thrive, with the goal of having fresh, healthy food, attainable by foot, reachable by all income groups.

● Incentivize more plazas, parklets and public commons spaces.

Change zoning and development regulations to support diverse housing options:

● Continue to promote zoning changes to allow for increased density in core, walkable neighbourhoods, such as a reduction in lot size required for a home, required space between homes, etc.

● Create incentives for developers that include more shared spaces or amenities in multi-family buildings—especially practical, commonly used spaces, like wide corridors with seating areas, laundry rooms next to play spaces or lobbies, or a common kitchen or root cellar. Expand the current definition of social spaces and provide guidelines for developers about new definitions.

● Create policies that increase security of tenure and affordability such as streamlined approval processes, tax exemptions and fee waivers for projects that produce affordable homes.

Reduce Parking Requirements:

● Further reduce mandatory requirements for parking spaces for new housing developments, particularly non-market developments.

Increase alternative transportation options:

● Invest in more public transportation, active transportation routes, and car share programs.

Land Use and Local Food Production policy recommendations:

Extend the concept of “complete neighbourhoods” to include:

● Generous, integrated greenspace for recreation, natural processes, and gardens,

● The incorporation of ecosystem services into every aspect of a neighbourhood.

○ Ecosystem systems include natural and cultural dimensions of 1) providing resources (e.g., fresher air, shade, sound barriers, productive trees and gardens), 2) regulating natural functions (e.g., heat, water cycling, and nutrient cycling, 3) cultural resources (e.g., recreation, meaningful places, such as sacred spaces, and 4) supporting functions (e.g., soil formation, pollination, and migration between ecosystems).

● Access to recreational and productive greenspace, and to healthy food in retail stores and restaurants as a necessary component

Update all existing land use policies to explicitly address their impact on ecosystem

services:

● Non-built-up land should not automatically be seen as non-urban land.

● Urban agriculture within and near the built core should be seen as urban activity. Specifically highlight the resource provisioning and cultural role of ecosystem services to include food and other agricultural production for personal and small-scale commercial use:

● Biodiverse gardening and urban agriculture should be seen as ecosystem services.

● Preserve green space access, sunlight access, and dark night sky access.

Protect current agricultural/ecological land:

● Tax benefits/subsidies for farmers and traditional stewardship

Promote new agricultural development and infrastructure:

● Offer tax incentives similar to those for commercial/residential developments

● Offer tax incentives for single and multi-family dwellings that grow food instead of lawns

We also conducted a Community Engagement project as part of Food and the City 2024. Involving community in research and policy development is crucial to creating supportive and healthy communities.

Want to get involved? Reach out to us at info@kamloopsfoodpolicycouncil.com to learn more about community engagement opportunities, and the work that we do to help create a food system that is regenerative, sovereign and just.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.