Growing connection
CFCC’s Good Food Principles inform programming – from gardening to food skills – at South Vancouver Neighbourhood House, one of the 350 Good Food Organizations that are part of our cross-country movement.
There’s a rooftop garden on the tall, narrow building that houses South Vancouver Neighbourhood House (SVNH). Young people, newcomer adults, and other community members gather to plant and harvest veggies used in community meals and cooking programs. The garden also acts as a kind of lab, where people experiment with growing culturally relevant food like bok choy and different lemon tree varieties.
“We use food as a connector in all our programs,” explains Joey Liu, Food Security Manager at SVNH. “Becoming a Good Food Organization (GFO) solidified this for us. Now we bring the Good Food Principles into everything, and ask questions about all the food we offer. Is it healthy? Local? How can we increase the quality to nourish everybody?”
“We bring the Good Food Principles into everything, and ask questions about all the food we offer. Is it healthy? Local? How can we increase the quality to nourish everybody?”
Such care and attention to detail shapes everything from communal dining and gardening to food skills for youth at this long-time CFCC partner. “There’s a huge amount of food insecurity in our community,” says Joey. “But we keep returning to the Principles as a way to check in with ourselves. Knowing other GFOs are doing the same work gives us energy. We’re all creating communities of care— for people, for the land.”
CFCC’s Good Food Principles
Forged through front-line experience and inspired by community, the Good Food Principles are the philosophy at the core of our movement:
- Take action from the individual to the systemic level.
- Invest in the power of good food.
- Create an environment of respect and community leadership.
- Meet people where they’re at.
- Aim high for our organization and our community.
Note: The photo above shows volunteers at the South Vancouver Neighbourhood House.
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- Take action from the individual to the systemic level.
- Invest in the power of good food.
- Create an environment of respect and community leadership.
- Meet people where they’re at.
- Aim high for our organization and our community.
There’s a rooftop garden on the tall, narrow building housing South Vancouver Neighbourhood House (SVNH). Young people, newcomer adults and other community members gather to plant and harvest veggies used in food programming. The garden also acts as a kind of lab, where people experiment with growing culturally relevant food like bok choy and different lemon tree varieties.
“We use food as a connector in all our programs,” explains Joey Liu, Food Security Manager. “Working with CFCC as a Good Food Organization (GFO) solidified this for us. Now we bring the Good Food Principles into everything, and ask questions about all the food we offer. Is it healthy? Local? How can we increase the quality to nourish everybody?”
Such care and attention to detail shapes everything from communal dining and gardening to food skills for youth at this long-time CFCC partner. “There’s a huge amount of food insecurity in our community,” says Joey. “But we keep returning to the Principles as a way to check in with ourselves. Knowing other GFOs are doing the same work gives us energy. We’re all creating communities of care— for people, for the land.”
CFCC’s Good Food Principles are our organizational values, forged through front-line experience and inspired by community. They guide all the work of this movement, whether it’s at the national level, or in neighbourhood-based CFCs and GFOs across the country.
- Take action from the individual to the systemic level.
- Invest in the power of good food.
- Create an environment of respect and community leadership.
- Meet people where they’re at.
- Aim high for our organization and our community.
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