LUSH Valley Food Action Society

There are a number of ways the Comox Valley can increase our food security by producing, processing and distributing more food locally.

• The Vancouver Island Health Authority - Food Security web pages have definitions, descriptions of initiatives and helpful links to other sites.
• Every Lawn a Garden - Their objective is to help persons increase their capacity for gardening so that everyone can reach the stage of growing some of their own food supply and to work with communities to support and encourage local food systems and increase food security.
• BC Healthy Communities - supports communities and community groups that are working on Healthy Community-related initiatives in a number of ways:
  

1. Providing information on resources, tools and other Healthy Community initiatives
2. Making referrals to relevant resource materials and organizations
3. Facilitating/co-facilitating community meetings that engage diverse sectors
4. Developing educational materials and resources
5. Publishing the BCHC Healthy Communities newsletter
6. Working in partnership to develop/maintain databases and resource inventories
   

• Find locally grown farm fresh produce at: localfarmlink.com
• Making Food Matter - a regional e-newsletter produced and distributed by the Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable (CR-FAIR) and the CRD Roundtable on the Environment – Healthy Communities Subcommittee. You can view the latest issue HERE or have it emailed to you.
• The BC Food Systems Network - formed in September, 1999, to link people all over the province involved in community-level action related to food. In keeping with the holistic perspective of the local food security and food policy organizations, the Network emphasizes the way in which food issues cross cultures, sectors and age groups. Through an email network and annual meetings, we share insights, initiatives, strategies and critical analysis of events in the food system and our own work. 
• Vancouver Food Policy Council - in 2004 Vancouver City Council adopted a motion to promote and create a just and sustainable food system through the creation of the Vancouver Food Policy Council. 
• Foodlink is a non-profit organization in the Waterloo area that creates partnerships with food producers, processors, retailers and consumers to promote the sale and consumption of locally grown and produced food. In building a “food localism” movement, Foodlink is expanding and creating new markets for local farms and farm-based businesses while also building a demand for local food products. The Local Harvest Newsletter is an electronic publication featuring seasonal food, local farms and agricultural issues. Back issues are available for download on their website. 
• Seed Map: Food, Farmers and Climate Chaos - The Seed Map is a teaching and advocacy tool designed to show the state of global agro-biodiversity. It identifies threats to the world’s seed and biodiversity systems and highlights regions where people are fighting to protect biodiversity – and winning! To order your copy, visit www.usc-canada.org or call 1-800-565 6827 ext.228 (or 613-234 6827 in Ottawa). 
• The Children’s Health & Nutrition Initiative - launched on January 17, 2007 to build a broad-based coalition of diverse stakeholders that are passionate about Canada becoming a world leader in making safe and healthy food available to all children and reshaping social, cultural, economic and environmental influences to optimally support child health.
• Health Canada’s Food and Nutrition pages
• The Community Food Security Coalition - the (CFSC) is a non-profit North American organization dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local and regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate food for all people at all times. We seek to develop self-reliance among all communities in obtaining their food and to create a system of growing, manufacturing, processing, making available and selling food that is regionally based and grounded in the principles of justice, democracy and sustainability.
• The Association for the Study of Food & Society (ASFS) - is a multi-disciplinary international organization dedicated to exploring the complex relationships between food, culture and society.