Mission
The Food Security Initiative serves as an interdisciplinary and multi-stakeholder platform for students, academics, and practitioners to collaborate in promoting food security solutions through cross-campus, regional, and national collaboration and inclusive, student and faculty-led research opportunities. We aim to create scalable solutions to further policy and advocacy work and practices as part of our effort to transform food and social systems.
Target
The target of the Food Security Initiative is to reduce the prevalence of food insecurity at UBC by 2025 (Wellbeing Strategic Framework target).
Goals
The Food Security Initiative has the following three goals and initial priority actions:
1. Deepen our understanding of food security within the University context
- Collect and evaluate food insecurity prevalence data for a representative sample of students, staff and faculty.
- Supporting student and faculty-led research: Understanding the lived experience of food insecurity on campus, including affordability and barriers to accessing resources.
- Assess “Community Food Security” components (e.g. food literacy, access to culturally appropriate foods).
2. Alleviate immediate pressures of food insecurity and enhance community food security at UBC
- Put in place short-term relief solutions for food insecure populations, including an online food hub (one-stop shop to find food and financial resources) and a stigma free digital meal donation program.
- Enable systemic and inclusive approaches to community food security: enhance food skills, increase opportunities for food growing, promote dignified access to healthy, sustainable, and culturally appropriate foods. E.g. by scoping for physical food hubs as activation centers on each campus.
3. Foster knowledge exchange and advocacy efforts within UBC and beyond
- Host a food security conference at UBC as part of activities to scale up on local, provincial, and national partnerships to foster knowledge exchange on food insecurity and advocacy work.
- Identify assets and create resources to support advocacy work internally and externally, to prevent food insecurity and address affordability.
Food Security Initiative Structure
