about us

CCFN is an active collaboration of community members, agencies, service providers and organizations working together to enhance the health and well-being in our neighborhoods by supporting and coordinating local food security initiatives and improving access to community health, social services and community-based programs. Join us. It's free, fun and makes a difference! Email the coordinator and receive our monthly e-newsletter.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

March 2011 newsletter

This month's newsletter includes:
March 31 deadline: East Vancouver Neighbourhood Small Grants Project
March 25 and 26: Presentation and workshop on sustainable cities by Mark Lakeman
March 20: Potato Fusion, event
April 27: Earthquake preparedness workshop at the Roundhouse
March 19 & 20: Two gardening workshops presented by Grant Watson
Pocket Market 
Date: Saturday March 19th
Time: 10am-1pm
Address: 2290 E 25th Ave (just west of the Nanaimo SkyTrain station).
Map: 

Our monthly pocket market is on again this Saturday. The range of product this week will be,

LOCAL (BC)
Lettuce, living head, $1.30 each
Russet Potatoes, $1.00 per bag

ORGANIC
Hass Avocadoes, $1.30 each
Carrots, cello organic, $1.00 per bunch

NOT LOCAL or ORGANIC
Broccoli, $1.30 per bunch
Oranges, $0.30 each
See you there!

East Vancouver Neighbourhood Small Grants Project
How would you like to make your neighbourhood a better place?
Do you live in the Cedar Cottage, Frog Hollow or Kiwassa neighbourhoods?  Do you have great ideas to improve your neighbourhood or bring people together, but need a little support to help make them happen?

Then you might want to consider applying for a Neighbourhood Small Grant!

The Neighbourhood Small Grants Project is funded by the Vancouver Foundation to support residents to initiate activities in their communities for the benefit of local people. Groups of two or more neighbours can apply for a grant of $50 to $500 to work together on small projects that benefit their neighbourhoods socially, physically, culturally or environmentally. 
All kinds of projects can receive funding.  For example, you could paint a mural, plant a neighbourhood garden, teach a cooking or art class, put up a community bulletin board, celebrate a cultural holiday, put on a music recital, hold a dialogue or talking circle, organize a community clean up, write a neighbourhood cookbook or have a block party!

Deadline for submissions is March 31st, 2011
Decisions about which projects will be funded will be made by April 30th. For more information, tips, ideas for projects or to download the Application Form from the website: http://www.froghollow.bc.ca/neighbourhood_sub3.html

Mark Lakeman: Presentation and Workshop on sustainable cities
Portland City Repair co-founder, Mark Lakeman, brings lessons from one of America's greenest cities to Vancouver. Mark Lakeman is a co-founder of the City Repair Project in Portland, Oregon and served as the Co-Director of Creative Vision from 1996 to 2008. City Repair is a multidisciplinary, non-profit organization, which works with place-based communities to creatively transform the infrastructure of the public commons where people live.

Whether converting street intersections into public squares, or organizing other forms of permanent or ephemeral place interventions, City Repair is effectively engaging citizens in the reinvention of the public landscape. All of these projects are ecological in emphasis, using natural building and Permaculture techniques. City Repair projects are underway in dozens of cities in the USA and Canada.

Mark is also the principal of Communitecture, a private design firm specializing in ecological building and planning projects at many scales. He also sits on the Board of Directors of Southeast Uplift, Portland's proactive neighborhood coalition that is undertaking numerous initiatives to remake the civic landscape.

The Village Lives
Mark Lakeman, offers an inspirational and cutting edge model for how cities can develop sustainably, powered by people at the neighbourhood level. Mark’s presentation The Village Lives provides numerous examples of urban Permaculture initiatives that are inspiring transformation across the social and political spectrum of Portland.

Mark will emphasize the benefits of broadly activated citizen vision and participation in the development of a truly sustainable culture. Mark’s presentations includes an overview of unsustainable cultural patterns, followed by examples of how urban spaces can be transformed into vital social and ecological commons.

Date: Friday, March 25
Time: 7:30 pm -  9:30 pm
Location: W2 Storyeum,
Address: 151 West Cordova, Vancouver, BC

‘Eco-Dreaming Vancouver’
Workshop with Portland’s City Repair Co-Founder Mark Lakeman and Power of Hope's creative facilitators Rup Sidhu and Sara Dent, along with Village Vancouver members, will offer a day of community building focused on how City Repair processes can be applied in Vancouver. Participants will build community, look at our city on a neighbourhood by neighbourhood basis, and learn about intersection and block repair processes.

Date: Saturday, March 26th, 2011
Time: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm,
Location: W2 Storyeum,
Address: 151 West Cordova, Vancouver, BC
Registration: http://ecodreamingvancouver.eventbrite.com

Event Supporters
Thanks to the City of Vancouver Sustainability Group for their support of the event and Car Free Vancouver! In association with W2 Storyeum. People powered by: Village Vancouver, Power of Hope, Community Arts Council of Vancouver.

Event: Potato Fusion
The World In A Garden will be hosting the Second Annual Potato Fusion event, where we will plant highly nutritious organic potatoes & lettuce in used burlap coffee sacs! All proceeds will be donated to The World In A Garden & Project Somos, an eco-village for abandoned and orphaned children in Guatemala.

Date: Sunday, March 20th
Time: 11am or 1pm
Location: West 57th & East Blvd. (across the street from Choices)
To register: Contact Alicia Baddorf via phone 604.257.5151 ext. 213 or by email abaddorf@jfsa.ca
www.theworldinagarden.com

Earthquake preparedness
We have all witnessed the recent earthquakes in Japan and have seen first hand the devastation they cause. Living in Vancouver, we too could be faced with a major earthquake, yet few of us have taken the necessary steps to ensure we and our families are prepared. This session will teach you how to be prepared for any emergency or disaster you may be faced with. You will learn personal and family preparedness, how to develop a family emergency plan, how to perform a home hazard hunt and how to prepare for your pets. Cost: Free

Location: Roundhouse Community Centre - 181 Roundhouse Mews
Date: Apr 27, 2011
Time: 7:00 PM
Registration Information: Phone: 604-713-1800

Gardening workshops
Grant Watson is teaching a series of gardening workshops this weekend. Go to www.gourmetgardens.ca/workshops/

Intensive Urban Microfarming
Date: Saturday March 19
Time:  12:30-3:30 pm
Location: Strathcona Community Centre
Address:  601 Keefer Street
Registration: Call Strathcona Community Centre at 604-713-1838
http://www.gourmetgardens.ca/intensive-urban-microfarming/

Food Crops: Selection & Care
Date: Sunday March 20
Time:  2 – 5 pm
Address: 2478 E 23 Ave
http://www.gourmetgardens.ca/workshops/food-crops-selection-care/
 
You can contact Grant Watson at 778.869.4060.
Visit his website at, www.gourmetgardens.ca