Friday August 9, 2024 | LANGFORD, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Growing food in urban spaces is part of economic resilience and emergency preparedness.
On a day-to-day level it’s handy to be able to pick some fresh vegetables or fruits from your garden or indoor growing room. Not only does that offer fresh-source nutrition but it helps with household grocery expenses.
Housing developments all need to include some form of food-growing infrastructure including houses, townhomes and apartments as well as commercial and industrial buildings.
For larger community support it’s important to have produce stored in freezers for major emergencies (like earthquake or pandemic).
What UFRIS is about:
The Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society (UFRIS) is a non-profit organization that advocates for both urban food-growing and emergency storage within towns and cities, especially here on Vancouver Island where we are in a seismically active zone.
Advocating and facilitating municipal infrastructure to support the growing and storage of fresh food is a key focus for UFRIS, as well as food-growing education within community and online.
Launched in 2024:
UFRIS got launched in January 2024 and has so far been supported with grants from the City of Langford and the District of Sooke.
Information booths have been held at events this spring including Sooke Seedy Saturday (in March 2024), May Day for Mother Earth (in May 2024), and an Urban Food Panel was held this summer (July 2024).
Sponsors and donors welcome:
Sponsors and donors of any size are welcome to contribute to the ongoing educational and organizational work of UFRIS in communities around the south Vancouver Island Region.
Large-commitment donors may be interested in supporting the emergency freezer storage projects, which UFRIS will undertake with solar energy providers.
Pop-up booth on August 15:
The next UFRIS information booth will pop up at the Sooke Night Market on Thursday August 15, in the evening from 5 pm to 8 pm (on the grounds of the Sooke Region Museum, 2070 Phillips Road, Sooke). Food trucks, local farmers market. Lots of parking.
===== RELATED:
- Mid-summer UFRIS panel explores urban food growing, emergency storage (July 28, 2024)
- Emergency food storage for local emergency response (June 18, 2024)
- Urban Food Resilience group pitches new approaches for Langford (February 27, 2024)
- West shore community leaders take on urban food resilience (February 10, 2024)
- Urban food resilience requires municipal leadership (October 29, 2023)
- Urban food resilience directions in Langford (June 9, 2023)
- Growing your own food in inflationary times (July 3, 2022)