Mapping UBC Food Assets Final Report
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Mapping UBC Food Assets Final Report August 2018 Wendee Lang, UBC Wellbeing Scholar, 2018 Prepared for: Dr. Tara Moreau, UBC Botanical Garden Leadership Team: Liska Richer, SEEDS & David Speight, UBC Food Services Source: UBC CCM Executive Summary A leading education institution, the region’s largest employer, and a pseudo-municipality, the University of British Columbia (UBC) boasts a complex campus food system. Achieving sustainability in this sector is key not only to achieving the institution’s own health and environmental goals but afecting change at other levels of government. However, understanding the breadth of this system is challenging. Using an asset mapping methodology, this project visualizes UBC’s food landscape, focusing on what it has and in the process, illuminating gaps. The project’s final output, the UBC Food Asset Map for the Vancouver campus, identifies 318 assets across 10 thematic areas as demonstrated in Chart A. Chart A Campus Food Asset Distribution Note: Numbers indicate the amount of recorded food assets in each layer. Whereas many food asset maps are centred around food security, this map difers in that its primary use is as an evaluation tool. This means that it must touch upon all aspects of the campus food system, from food outlets to courses and programs and beyond. As a result, the map is a resource for those interested in UBC’s food landscape and a tool of collaboration for asset managers and stakeholders. i Though the main purpose of this project was to build the map, doing so has identified strengths and weaknesses in the campus food system. While future research would complement this work, a preliminary analysis illustrates the importance of policy in driving asset creation as well as areas for future development. UBC promotes land-based teaching and learning in a variety of policy documents, allocating space, funding and institutional support for related initiatives. As a result, the university is home to a diversity of food system-focussed research, courses, and programs that interface with key learning hubs such as the UBC Farm and the UBC Botanical Garden. Similarly, promotion of nutritional wellbeing through the institution’s commitment to the Okanagan Charter and subsequent development of the Action Framework for a Nutritionally Sound Campus has resulted in a growing diversity of nutrition-focussed food assets. Gaps exist around food programming for international and Indigenous students. As UBC grows enrollment in both groups, opportunities exist to develop initiatives that reflect the unique food security needs of each. Additionally, food recovery programs and those that support food workers could help the university achieve its goal of developing a sustainable and integrated food system. Future research should seek to comprehensively analyze the campus food system and develop a series of clear objectives that can help achieve the vision contained in UBC’s 20-Yr Sustainability Strategy. As UBC has the potential to afect change at diferent levels of government, it may also want to explore creating a virtual food hub. This hub could centralize food system-related work and focus on communicating it to an external audience. The food system is a meeting point for sustainability and nutrition goals. This project builds upon a desire to visualize UBC’s work in this area, and future research should seek to use this tool to evaluate the landscape and determine future opportunities. Doing so will help UBC achieve its ambitious sustainability and wellbeing goals while potentially inspiring other levels of government to do the same. ii Table of Contents 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Asset Mapping Framework 1 1.2 Asset Mapping Approach 2 2.0 BACKGROUND/LITERATURE REVIEW 3 2.1 Literature Review: Campus Food Systems 3 2.1.1 Why are campus food initiatives important? 3 2.1.2 What are common campus food initiatives? 3 2.1.3 What is necessary to ensure initiatives are successful? 3 2.2 Literature Review: Student Food Security 4 3.0 CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS 5 3.1 Demographic Analysis 5 3.2 Policy Review: UBC Policy Scan 6 3.2.1 Theme 1: Land-based Learning and Knowledge Development 6 3.2.2 Theme 2: Health and Nutrition 7 3.2.3 Theme 3: Food Services 7 3.2.4 Theme 4: Landscaping and Community Gardens 7 3.2.5 Theme 5: Sustainable Food Systems 8 3.2.6 Theme 6: Food and Container Waste Management 8 3.2.7 Theme 7: Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Reduction 8 4.0 RESEARCH APPROACH (METHODOLOGY) 9 4.1 Food Asset Definition 9 4.1.1 Background Research 9 4.1.2 Key Conversations 10 4.1.3 Online Survey 10 4.2 Food Asset Mapping 10 5.0 FINDINGS 11 5.1 Food Asset Definition Survey 11 5.2 UBC Food Asset Map 13 5.2.1 Consultation 13 5.2.2 Final UBC Food Assets 14 5.2.2.2 Waste Reduction, Management and Recovery^tt16 5.2.2.3 Cook, Eat and Share^tt16 iii 5.2.2.4 Emergent Food Assets^tt17 5.2.2.5 Grow Food^tt17 5.2.2.6 Retail Stores, Markets, CSAs and Low Cost and Emergency Food Items^tt18 5.2.2.7 Campus Food Outlets^tt19 5.2.2.8 Research Libraries, Projects and Centres^tt19 5.2.2.9 Food-related Academic Expert Hubs^tt20 5.2.2.10 Courses, Programs and Career Opportunities^tt20 5.3 Emerging Gaps 20 5.3.1 Programming for International Students 20 5.3.2 Programming for Indigenous Students 21 5.3.3 Food Recovery Initiatives 21 5.3.4 Programs Supporting Food Workers 22 6.0 EVALUATION OF FOOD ASSETS 23 6.1 Strategic Planning Process 23 6.2 Learning, Evaluation and Planning (LEAP) 24 7.0 LIMITATIONS 25 7.1 Timeline and Consultation 25 7.2 Google MyMaps 25 7.3 Resources and Maintenance 26 7.4 Project Scope 26 8.0 SUMMARY 27 9.0 RECOMMENDATIONS 28 9.1 Additional Map Detail and Assets 28 9.2 Improved Map Usability and Maintenance 28 9.3 Comprehensive Food System Analysis 28 9.4 Virtual UBC Food Hub 29 REFERENCES 30 APPENDIX A APPENDIX B APPENDIX C APPENDIX D APPENDIX E iv 1.0 Introduction The University of British Columbia (UBC) has a strong reputation as a sustainability leader, a quality that integrates closely with its goal of becoming a health promoting university. Both of these areas influence and are influenced by the campus food system, and comprehensive knowledge of the University’s food assets and system gaps can help move UBC’s goals forward. This is the intention of the UBC Food Asset Map for the Vancouver campus. By visualizing and baselining what the University has, the project seeks to reveal what it does not and where potential for actions in support of health, justice and sustainability goals exist. The project also seeks to build connections and networks between asset managers and stakeholders, who may use the map as a tool of collaboration, revealing synergies and interactions between programs, initiatives and resources. Created in collaboration with the UBC Botanical Garden, UBC Food Services, and Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS), and funded through UBC Wellbeing as a Wellbeing Scholars project, the map provides insight into the unique nature of campus food systems. Incorporating direct and indirect feedback from more than 40 individuals, the map identifies 318 assets across 10 thematic areas. This map difers from others of its kind for its integration of academic teaching, learning and research resources, specific to the university. Though many food asset maps (e.g. Vancouver Coastal Health, North Shore and Squamish-Lillioet food asset maps) speak to a food security audience, the UBC Food Asset Map aims to inform a broader group of students, faculty, staf and residents interested in supporting the institution’s sustainability and health goals. Hosted by sustain.ubc.ca, this is a living object and continuous input will be sought by UBC Botanical Garden and SEEDS afer the oficial project end date of August 10, 2018. 1.1 Asset Mapping Framework Asset mapping is a positive and community-based way of understanding an area’s sectoral capacity by identifying what is valuable to that community (Freedgood, Pierce-Quinonez & Meter, 2011). The methodology originally emerged from Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) and Sustainable Livelihoods approaches, and typically rests on the philosophy that “all individuals, physical structures, natural resources, institutions, businesses, or informal organizations can play an efective role in addressing important matters in the local community” (Briggs & Huang, 2017, p. 195-196). Assets themselves are identified relative to the sector being examined, as well as the map’s purpose and audience (Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance, 2016). Based in an area’s strengths, asset mapping can also be used to initiate dialogue between community members, fostering a network of collaboration among participants (Briggs & Huang, 2017) (Freedgood, Pierce-Quinonez & Meter, 2011). Understanding the asset base can help community leaders define strategies that work with what they have, rather than building programs from the ground up. Though this methodology may not lend well to academically-rigorous uses, it is an efective way of baselining and increasing awareness about the size and scope of a sector or system and may also be useful for attracting new business and opportunities, revealing the breadth of stakeholders, and increasing public knowledge (Centre for Community Health and Development, 2011) (Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance, 2016). Food asset mapping is an increasingly popular tool in food system work and can be used to inform strategic planning exercises. Mapping UBC Food Assets | Introduction 1 1.2 Asset Mapping Approach Parill, White, Vodden, Walsh and Wood identify four steps to creating an asset database, which can then be geolocated and mapped (2014): 1.