If you’re a Burnaby Resident – you may have heard about Burnaby Food First, or not. Regardless, we at Canadian Mattress Recycling think the organization is truly impressive – one that we should blog about!
What is Burnaby Food First?
Working together with local agencies and community members, Burnaby Food First is ‘bringing food security to Burnaby’. (Website).
Food security is important for all residents, but there are not a lot of groups advocating for it at the community level. Enter Burnaby Food First – making sure that everyone in Burnaby has access to fresh, healthy food.
In addition to making sure residents have access to fresh food, the organization provides resources for residents to prepare healthy meals using fresh food, and ensures that people can find locally grown food is available.
What does Burnaby Food First do?
Workshops are a fantastic way to bring passionate individuals together. That’s why Burnaby Food First hosts a variety of workshops and community initiatives to get people more involved in their local food system.
Educational Workshops
Once a month, they host workshops teaching people about healthy eating, showing them how to do it. They also host workshops on a variety of food security related topics include food waste, canning/fermenting basics, and community gardening.
Sharing Backyards
One of the organization’s other programs is helping Burnaby residents share their backyards for growing food. At the community level, not every resident have access to a backyard to grow food. Therefore, Burnaby Food First helps link up residents with backyards and those that don’t have them, in order to create community gardens! We think that this is an ingenious way to utilize unused spaces, and incorporate private properties into a local food system.
Why are local food systems important?
You may be wondering – why are local food systems important? Well, for starters, local food systems are more sustainable! Local food systems mean that food are grown, sold, and eaten within the community. Instead of relying of food grown outside of the community, which needs to be shipped in, and then sold and distributed locally, locally grown food eliminates a lot of unnecessary waste. Also, it reduces the reliance on cheap fuel.
Here are other reasons why we should consider local food systems:
- They foster a tighter community
- Many crops can be grown here at home
- We can reduce food waste by planting only what we need
- We gain respect for the environment and nature
Do you have a local food system where you live?
It’s the sad truth that not many cities have organizations such as Burnaby Food First. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t one. Many Metro Vancouver communities have developing local food systems because the benefits outweigh the negatives. From community gardens to cooking workshops hosted at neighbourhood houses, your city will have some ways to get involved with your local food system
As for Burnaby Residents, we are delighted to help share the work they do, so that they can continue to support food security in Burnaby!
Canadian Mattress Recycling Inc. is a proud supporter of community organizations. We truly believe in supporting the communities that support us, especially the ones working to improve local food systems, preserve the environment, and foster community engagement. Read about the other organizations we have supported in the past. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more.