The first section below, called GENERAL, contains links to resources that we’ve curated in relation to Food Sovereignty as a whole, including hunger. Following this are some sections with additional resources specific to the topics of Food Sovereignty and POWER, CLIMATE and WATER. In addition we’ve included blogs, podcasts and resources local to British Columbia.
Know of a great educational resource on Food Sovereignty that isn’t listed here? Contact us and have it added to this list!
CFRAIR: Capital Regional Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable
CFRAIR is an organization committed to the celebration of, and access to, local, sustainable, and healthy food as well as healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems in the Capitol Region. This organization participates in a variety of initiatives on topics like farmland and foodland advocacy, food literacy, and Indigenous Food Sovereignty, as well as offers resources such as readings, a podcast, and a video on topics related to racism and food, and the food system. To discover their different initiatives, click on the relevant link:
- Farmland and Foodland Advocacy
- Food Literacy
- Indigenous Food Sovereignty
- For resources linking racism and the food system, click here.
- To discover the latest on COVID-19 and its impact on regional food systems, click here.
Change for Children
Change for Children is a Canadian non-profit organization that works with Indigenous communities around the world and supports projects that promote long-term solutions to poverty through more just distributions of global resources. With the goal of education, the Change for Children website includes a “Learn and Teach” page with a section specific to Food Security (the above link will lead you to this section). Here, teachers will find a number of resources such as a documentary on food waste, world hunger statistics, and “The Hunger Games” activity where students will compare food supply and resources available in Canada and the Global South, leading to an understanding of resource disparity.
- The Hunger Games activity
- Click here for statistics on world hunger.
- To show students the documentary Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story, click here.
Food for Thought and Action: A Food Sovereignty Curriculum
The curriculum is divided into four modules: one each for consumers, faith and anti-hunger groups, environmentalists and farmers. This collection of education-for-action exercises and factsheets has been developed by Grassroots International and the National Family Farm Coalition to help build the Food Sovereignty movement.
Food Secure Canada
Food Secure Canada is a pan-Canadian alliance of organizations and individuals working together to advance Food Security and Food Sovereignty through three interlocking goals: zero hunger, healthy and safe food, and sustainable food systems.
Food Share
Food Share is a Toronto-based non-profit organization that works towards food justice and an improved food system by collaborating with communities most affected by poverty and food insecurity, including the Black, Indigenous, and Disabled communities. Some middle school resources specific to food waste include:
Food Sovereignty Assessment Tool (FSAT)
The Food Sovereignty Assessment Tool (FSAT) assists Native communities in reclaiming their local food systems. It helps demystify the process of data collection about local food systems and provides tools and a framework for Native communities to measure and assess food access, land use and food policy in their communities.
Indigenous crops and small scale farms: Ruth Oniang’o on Africa’s agricultural future
The Africa Food Prize winner talks about her work with Kenya’s smallholder farmers, and how indigenous crops can be a tool in the battle against food insecurity and climate change.
InTeGrate
InTeGrate provides sustainability related activities contributed by educators. There is a plethora of individual activities for educators to work into their own curriculum, and also complete learning modules. These materials intertwine earth systems with key social issues. Find materials specifically related to water, climate and power. *Note - these are designed for undergraduate level students. Try integrating specific activities into a pre-existing curriculum.
Learning for a Sustainable Future
Founded in 1991 by a diverse group of youth, educators, business leaders, government and community members, LSF is a non-profit Canadian organization that was created to integrate sustainability education into Canada’s education system.
One Planet Saanich
The Vancouver-based nonprofit One Earth has partnered with Vancouver Island’s District of Saanich, along with three other cities (Elsinore in Denmark, Oxfordshire in the UK, and Durban in South Africa) to develop action plans focused on promoting sustainability and change. These action plans are developed by schools, businesses, and community groups within the partner cities, and utilize ten principles (health and happiness, sustainable food, zero carbon energy, and so on) to guide their plans. Teachers can explore this website and the action plans of different participants as a way of thinking about a more hands-on approach to engaging their classrooms’ in sustainable practices and mindsets.
- Check out what Mount Douglas High School in Victoria, B.C is doing to promote sustainability in their school and community here.
Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food
This is an interdisciplinary research project that focuses on the challenges of global Food Security and sustainability. Teachers will find a helpful explanation of the food system, as well as challenges facing the food system, which will help to build a foundational understanding of Food Security and sovereignty.
Resources 4 Rethinking
Resources 4 Rethinking offers an impressive range of educational resources that focus on the promotion of a sustainable future. All resources found on this website have been reviewed by teachers and the strengths and weaknesses of each resource are included (found under the “General Assessment” tab of a lesson page). With the provided URL, you will find a search engine where you can find resources based on theme, subject, and grade. Note that High School resources can be found under Climate resources, below.
Some middle school resources specific to climate crises and Food Security include:
- Global Food Security: How can we feed a growing population?
- Food Miles: Growing Local Food Collections
- Fishing for the Future
Via Campesina Europe publishes an in-depth guide to Food Sovereignty
In this publication, the European Coordination Via Campesina delivers a thorough account of the concept of Food Sovereignty, an approach and process developed by the people most threatened by the processes of the consolidation of power in food and agricultural systems: peasant farmers. Instead of being destroyed by the forces of history they are offering a proposal to solve the multiple crises which humanity is facing.
Below find further information and statistics on hunger in the world and in the settings under study. These sites are particularly useful if you are doing the Questions Researchers are Asking Student Activity found in the Settings Pathway.
Global
Voices of the Hungry
See Appendix 1 page 36-39 for prevalence of food insecurity by country. Students may be interested to see where Canada sits in relation to other countries around the world.
Red Cross Guide to Assessing Food Security
Developed for use in Africa, this tool has helpful graphics and suggestions for how to conduct a Food Security assessment, along with suggestions for interventions to reduce food insecurity. Students might be inspired to develop their own Food Security assessment tool for where they live based on the tools found in this document.
Policy Brief: The Impact of COVID-19 on Food Security and Nutrition
South Africa
Towards Measuring the Extent of Food Security in South Africa
Statistics South Africa General Household General Household Survey 2018
See pages 66-88.
Colombia
National System of Population Health Studies and Surveys
In Spanish, but website has a translation option; if students speak Spanish there are downloadable infographics on this site that help to explain nutritional situations of various age groups in Colombia.
Jordan
FAO/WFP Rapid Food Systems Assessment Jordan April 23 2020
This document gives an assessment of what was happening in Jordan during the time of Covid-19 on April 23, 2020.
The State of Food Security in Jordan (2013-2014)
See Food Security questionnaire page 36.
Jordan - Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Assessment, 2018
See the Syrian refugees questionnaire starting on page 177 and the results factsheets by region, starting on page 167.
California Academy of Sciences
The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum committed to biodiversity research, environmental education, and sustainable action. Their website includes a section for educators. At the link above you will find a lesson plan entitled “How Much Water Do You Eat” which will teach students about the importance of water conservation, the link between water and food production, and the need to better understand the environmental impact of one’s own food choices.
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
The CCPA creates online, multimedia and print materials that make ideal resources for teachers, with a specific focus on British Columbia.
- Try these infographics, specifically the one on water and First Nations.
Institute of Chemical Engineers
- Check out this blog with infographics on how much water goes into agriculture.
Institute of Food Technologists
- Here is a great infographic on how much water is used to produce various foods.
Personal Water Footprint Calculator
- Above is a link to a basic water calculator. For a more detailed calculator, click here.
Resources 4 Rethinking
Resources 4 Rethinking offers an impressive range of educational resources that focus on the promotion of a sustainable future. See above in GENERAL for a full description of this site. For resources related to Food Sovereignty and water, see here:
The Robertson Program
The Robertson Program for Inquiry-based Teaching in Mathematics and Science creates, demonstrates, and disseminates inquiry-based teaching models for mathematics and science by focusing on teacher and student inquiry. See below for a link to materials for an inquiry-based, water-focussed lesson.
Be the Change Earth Alliance (Vancouver Based)
BTCEA’s flagship program, SLC: Student Leadership for Change offers a suite of eco-social educational resources and programming fully updated with climate justice and Indigenous perspectives. These action-oriented resources use integrated learning approaches and pedagogies of hope to empower youth in engaging with today’s greatest environmental and social issues. BTCEA also delivers inspiring classroom assemblies and workshops, and offers professional development workshops to teachers to bring game-changing eco-social education into their classrooms.
Climate Change Education Across the Curricula, Across the Globe
This project is an international initiative that provides citizens with the tools necessary to enact positive action towards reducing the effects of climate change. With the link below, teachers will find a lesson plan on climate change and Food Security, and climate change and agriculture. Utilizing two video lectures and follow-up activities, the lesson plan explores the reciprocal relationship between food production on climate, and the location-specific effects of climate change on agricultural production.
- Find lesson plans on “Climate Change and Food Security” and “Climate Change and Agriculture” here.
Oxfam
Oxfam Education offers a wide range of resources and support for classrooms in order to promote global learning and provide ways to affect positive change amongst students. Included in these resources is a page of downloadable lessons for young students that focus on the complexity of the global food system, by exploring topics such as global supply chains, challenges faced by small-scale farmers, and the fairness of food. These resources are organized into six “sessions,” plus an introduction to global food challenges, thus turning the individual resources into a curriculum that teachers can follow.
We recommend starting with:
Sessions for young students are as follows. These might be able to be adapted for older students, as well.
- Session 1 Why Are People Hungry?
- Session 2 Where Does Our Food Come From?
- Session 3 Who Produces Our Food?
- Session 4 What Are Global Supply Chains?
- Session 5 Is Food Fair?
- Session 6 Taking Action
Resources 4 Rethinking
Resources 4 Rethinking offers an impressive range of educational resources that focus on the promotion of a sustainable future. See above for a full description of this site. For High School resources related to Food Sovereignty and climate, see here:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
The CCPA creates online, multimedia and print materials that make ideal resources for teachers, with a specific focus on British Columbia. These are especially good for teachers of Social Justice 12.
Imagine Action: Human Rights Toolkit
The Canadian Teachers’ Federation and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights have worked in partnership to bring together a rich digital selection of human rights education resources for Kindergarten to Grade 12 in English and French. The resources in this toolkit were carefully reviewed by teachers and will link you to a variety of literature, media and lesson plans that can be used in the classroom.
Oxfam
Oxfam has many resources that look at aspects of the ways power asymmetries shape those crises (eg. reports on land access, Indigenous peoples and COVID-19). We recommend starting with this:
State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World: Annual Report
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World is an annual flagship report jointly prepared by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO. It informs on progress towards ending hunger, achieving Food Security and improving nutrition, as well as provides an in depth analysis on key challenges for achieving this goal in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The report targets a wide audience, including policy-makers, international organizations, academic institutions and the general public.
Teaching for Change
For resources on inequities and inequalities, these resources draw on real world issues to encourage teachers and students to question and re-think the world. Teaching for Change offers professional development, develops lessons, and curates resources to help classroom teachers supplement pre-K–12 curriculum.
The Four Stories About Food Sovereignty project includes small-scale farmers and food producers, food-security workers, and researchers from four countries: Canada, Colombia, Jordan, and South Africa.
To better understand the geographic locations and meet some of the project participants, review the OVERVIEW pathway. See the participants and the settings by looking at the video clips and playlists on YouTube. You can find additional information via the links below.
Indigenous Canada
Welcome to T’sou-ke Nation
By T’sou-ke First Nation
T-sou-ke First Nations
By Vancouver Island Wilderness and Historical Conservation
Canada
By Nations Online. General overview.
Indigenous Colombia
Learn about Colombia
From Scholastic. A general overview.
La Guajira Peninsula: Desert Landscapes in Northern Colombia
https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/the-wayuu-colombias-most-famous-weavers
Jordan
Jordan country profile
From the BBC
Jordan
By Scholastic
South Africa
South Africa country profile
From the BBC
History of Limpopo Province
From South African History Online.
South Africa
Contains general information about South Africa’s different provinces, tourism attractions, wildlife, etc. A section on Limpopo province can be found here.
5 Facts about poverty in South Africa
A brief survey of some of the most pressing economic issues in South Africa today.
Your local community will have various resources for education about Food Security, sustainable agriculture, and working toward Food Sovereignty.
Do you live on the south coast of British Columbia and want to make a difference? Here are some food-related organizations to connect with locally. Consider inviting these organizations to come and speak to your class. Your class might also want to partner with them to make a difference in your community.
Is this list missing an organization from your neighbourhood? We would like to include all of British Columbia on this list. Please contact us and let us know your suggestions!
VANCOUVER ISLAND
Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable
CFRAIR is an organization committed to the celebration of, and access to, local, sustainable, and healthy food as well as healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems in the Capitol Region. This organization participates in a variety of initiatives on topics like farmland and foodland advocacy, food literacy, and Indigenous Food Sovereignty, as well as offers resources such as readings, a podcast, and a video on topics related to racism and food, and the food system.
Food Rescue Project
Launched in 2017 and partnering with a number of local grocery retailers, the Food Rescue Project has been redistributing over 2000kg of fresh food daily through the Food Security Distribution Centre feeding 35,000 food insecure individuals per month
FoodShare Network
A collaboration of over 40 non-profit agencies and stakeholders that offer Food Security initiatives in the Capital Region District. Overseeing projects such as the Food Rescue Project, Give Food Get Food, and Food Literacy program.
Gift of Good Food – FNRG
A program run by the Fernwood Neighbourhood Resource Group partnering with transition houses, community centres and indigenous communities, providing a biweekly supply of fresh fruits and veggies for a whole year to 200 food insecure families across greater Victoria. Every year, funds are raised for this program through a holiday fundraiser.
LifeCycles
A volunteer run organization that focuses on sharing food knowledge and practices in Greater Victoria. Projects include farm gleaning where unpicked farm produce is harvested by volunteers and donated to the Food Rescue Project, the Fruit Tree Project – unpicked fruit trees are maintained and picked with produce being divided between volunteers and food insecure community members, as well as maintaining the Victoria seed library where seeds are collected and swapped free of charge among community members. LifeCycles also maintained the Urban Learning Garden in downtown Victoria.
Lush Valley Food Action Society
My FED Farm
In response to the COVID-19, the Food Eco District (FED) provided 514 start up garden kits free of charge to individuals and families affected by the pandemic. The start-up kit included 2 - 5 round planters, soil, starter plants, seeds, initial consult and assistance and access to a gardening web-series. FED also maintains 31 urban gardens throughout downtown Victoria.
Nanaimo Foodshare Society
One Planet Saanich
One Planet Saanich provides a simple framework of ten simple principles, from health and happiness and sustainable food to zero carbon energy, to help create sustainability and drive change. OPS works with municipalities, organizations, businesses, schools and other community groups in Canada (Saanich), Denmark (Elsinore), South Africa (Durban) and the UK (Oxfordshire).
Red Cedar Cafe
Started in April 2020 to meet the rising needs of COVID-19 and the associated economic hardship. Red Cedar café is a non-profit, community meal program run by volunteers offering a pay-what-you-can meal service to seniors, those in self-isolation or home bound and other people in need. Meals are available for delivery or pick up and either frozen or fresh.
South Island FarmHub
Created in March 2020 with assistance with the Rapid Relief Fund as a means for local farmers, whose supply chain had been disrupted due to the pandemic, to redistribute their produce via an online platform. Local charities and non-profits purchase local produce for it then to be redistributed to food insecure individuals in the community. Approximately 1500 individuals have benefitted from this program. Individuals and families can also order local produce boxes similar to a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model.
VANCOUVER
Burnaby Food First
Grandview Woodland Food Connection
Quest Food Exchange
Vancouver Neighbourhood Food Networks
Be the Change Earth Alliance
BRITISH COLUMBIA
BC Food Security Gateway
BC Food Systems Network
Indigenous Food Systems Network
Have a look at these blogs related to Food Sovereignty. We are always adding to this list. Connect with us on social media and let us know your favourites! #FourStoriesUvic
Four Stories About Food Sovereignty blog
Follow us as our project develops!
Food Secure Canada
Has a search engine that serves posts from food bloggers across Canada.
Food Sovereignty: A “Re-Peasantization” of Food Systems
More food-related posts from this Colby College (Maine, USA) website can be found here.
BC Food Security Gateway
Blogs from an online resource that provides BC communities with up-to-date Food Security information.
UBC Sustainability
How climate change is taught in Canadian high schools and how it can improve.
e-Agriculture Blog from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
- Various topics: have a look at The Role of Technology in Food Sovereignty, for example.
Podcasts can be a great research alternative to reading and they often address contemporary topics. Here are some suggestions for Food Sovereignty (and related) podcasts to try.
Food Tank: The Think Tank for Food
A global community pushing for food system change.
You can also access Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg (by Food Tank) podcasts here on Apple Podcasts. Specific to Food Sovereignty, have a listen to the following episode:
- Ep 137: Nate Kleinman and Albie Miles on Community Food Sovereignty During COVID-19
What do community food systems look like during COVID-19? On “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg,” Dani talks with Nate Kleinman, an activist and farmer who co-founded the Experimental Farming Network (EFN). EFN allows seed breeders and growers around the world to share techniques and calls-to-action, which Kleinman believes can help address climate change social injustices. He describes to Dani how community gardens can help restore local Food Sovereignty during COVID-19. Later, Dani speaks with professor Albie Miles, who researches and teaches in the Sustainable Community Food Systems Program at the University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu. He explains how COVID-19 is worsening the existing vulnerabilities in the Hawai’ian food system, and calls for greater support for sustainable family farms, well-paying agricultural jobs, and indigenous traditions.
Heritage Radio Network: A Taste of the Past
Linda Pelaccio, a culinary historian, takes a weekly journey through the history of food on A Taste of the Past. Tune in for interviews with authors, scholars and culinary chroniclers who discuss food culture from ancient Mesopotamia and Rome to the grazing tables and deli counters of today. Each week Linda explores the lively link between food cultures of the present and past.
The Racist Sandwich
Food and the ways we consume, create, and interpret food can be political. Covers discussions about racism in food photography to interviews with chefs of colour.
Future of Food
The following episode suggestions are available on Apple Podcasts:
The Lunch Table: Food Secure Canada Youth Caucus
- Ep: Youth Food Activism
Join us at the Lunch Table with Emma Tamlin from the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council as we explore how youth in Canada are changing and shaping the food systems around them, and the role youth can play in making food an elections topic. Visit tyfpc.ca to learn more about the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council. - Ep: Young Farmers and Political Activism
Farming is turning into a form of political activism for many youth in our country. In this episode, we talk with Stuart Oke from the National Farmers Union about what it means to be a young and new farmer in Canada. Visit nfu.ca to learn more about the National Farmers Union.
CBC: Unreserved
- Ep: How Indigenous Leaders are Changing the Future of Food
The food industry is being hard hit by COVID-19. And the pandemic is impacting the Food Security in Indigenous communities. This week on Unreserved — from Indigenous chefs cooking up comfort, to a community freezer stocked with seal — we’re talking with Indigenous leaders working to change the future of food.
The Experimental Leader
- Ep: Community Shared Agriculture: Achieving Food Sovereignty In Crisis Times
It is the people in the food supply chain that are really the unsung heroes who keep us going as we wait out the COVID-19 crisis in isolation. With community shared agriculture, people can assure themselves of Food Sovereignty by relying on locally-farmed produce as border closures make it hard to secure food from big, cross-country suppliers. Alvaro Venturelli Luchsinger joins Melanie Parish to talk about how Plan B Organic Farms manages to support its community of 750 families as the current crisis makes it hard for consumers to procure food conventionally. Alvaro’s story is a touching narrative of a person who genuinely cares for his community and uses his abilities and resources to be proactive in the midst of crisis. Make sure to stick to the end and hear about Alvaro’s favorite vegetable!
All My Relations Podcast
- Ep #2 Food Sovereignty: A Growing Movement
This episode explores the ways communities, activists, and researchers are working towards Food Sovereignty and revitalizing indigenous foods systems. Our conversation with Valerie explores our connection to traditional plant systems, feeding ourselves traditional foods when our hunting and gathering grounds are now the supermarket, and her own journey back to her culture through foods.
MEDIA INDIGENA: Indigenous Current Affairs
- Ep: The Crime of Being Indigenous; Food Sovereignty Starved of Support
On this week's Indigenous roundtable: Do growing calls for tougher laws deliberately target some more than others? A look at the apparent push to increasingly criminalize Aboriginal behaviour by non-Aboriginal interests. Plus, how a disproportionate number of Indigenous people throughout Canada struggle with severe food insecurity. Returning to the roundtable are Danika Billie Littlechild and Robert Jago.
Deconstructing Dinner
- Ep: Indigenous Food Sovereignty
Food Sovereignty is the human right of all peoples and nations to grow food in ways that are culturally, ecologically and economically appropriate for them. The idea of Food Sovereignty as it applies to Western cultures, is one best illustrated through the many recurring topics covered here on Deconstructing Dinner: control of resources, control of agricultural practices, control of production/distribution/retail, and the inability for Canadian communities to viably reclaim and create food systems that better serve the needs of the people within those communities. Indigenous Food Sovereignty is a much different concept, and as broadcasts of Deconstructing Dinner often explore the food systems of the Western world, and how they impact health, environment and people, there is much to learn from the foodways of North America's indigenous people. The modern food system of today could not have been made possible without the destructive forces of colonialism, and its impact on the food supply of this continent's earliest inhabitants. This destruction continues today.
Local Bites
- Ep 14: Food Sovereignty in the Global Economy
In this episode we speak with Judith Hitchman, the president of Urgenci, an international network of community-supported agriculture groups (CSAs). The conversation touches on decommodifying food, ISDS clauses, local food policy councils, and many more topics related to local food.
Green Dreamer: Sustainability and Regeneration from Ideas to Life
- Ep 147: Ending settler colonialism to reclaim food justice and sovereignty
Rosalinda Guillen is a recognized farm worker and rural justice leader. She's also the Executive Director of Community to Community (C2C), a women-of-color led, grassroots organization redefining power in order to end settler colonialism, capitalism, and patriarchy in their external and internalized forms.
Fueled by inspiration from her parents growing up and fed up with the systemic oppression in our food system, Rosalinda is working to build support for rural communities and sustainable agriculture policies that ensure equity and healthy communities for farm workers. On this podcast episode, Rosalinda sheds light on how settler colonialism continues to play out in our food system today; how the lack of work authorization for undocumented farm workers—which make up 48%-70% (or more) of our total number of farm workers in the U.S.—impacts labor standards; how food justice is related to immigration issues; and more. - Ep 159: How urban farming may be key to reclaiming our Food Sovereignty
Greg Peterson is a green living and sustainability innovator and the Creator of the Urban Farm, a real-world environmental showcase home in the heart of Phoenix, Arizona. Open periodically throughout the year to offer classes, lectures, and tours, The Urban Farm features an entirely edible landscape and the extensive use of recycled and reclaimed materials. On this podcast episode, Greg sheds light on how urban farming may be the answer to addressing the affordability and accessibility of healthy grown foods; why we should get inspired to grow some of our own foods even if we have the convenience of being close to supermarkets; and more.
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Do you live in Victoria? We offer workshops on Food Sovereignty issues and the pathways seen here. Contact us for more information and to book your workshop today.