About VUFFF
Vancouver Urban Food Forest Foundation is an inclusive, intergenerational, cross-cultural knowledge sharing community physically manifesting as an Indigenous Food Forest called Chén̓chenstway Healing Garden in Oxford Park, a small Indigenous Food Forest in the Hastings & Kamloops Plaza and a Fieldhouse Community Activation Space in Burrard View Park that promote gathering and mutual aid as a way to address social cohesion and food justice in our neighbourhood. We provide space for mental and physical well-being that allow people to come as they are in order to transform deeply rooted social systemic issues.
A food forest is a form of ancestral food growing and land stewardship used by Indigenous and Coast Salish Nations since time immemorial. It is also a term used in permaculture to describe a food production system modelled on woodland forest ecosystems and companion planting. It involves growing a succession of layers that are found naturally in forests. It creates a regenerative and permanent ecosystem resulting in carbon sequestration. The food forests are integrated into social spaces where people from diverse backgrounds can co-learn together while honouring Indigenous and first-generation migrant plant knowledge.
VUFFF projects are safe and inviting community spaces that welcome people from all cultures, ages, genders, and levels of experience and abilities.
VUFFF projects have become a focal point for individuals and organizations dedicated to just food systems, Indigenous food sovereignty and the preservation and propagation of traditional cultural foodways.
We are a venue for community leadership to emerge and gain traction through skill-building and opportunities to deepen our social, cultural and environmental awareness.
VUFFF is co-led by local urban Indigenous knowledge-sharers and diverse folks who represent our community.
Since April 2020 we have been working closely with the Vancouver Park Board, connecting with our neighbours in meaningful ways, conducting a multitude of free workshops and events with partnering organizations such as Aboriginal Mothers Centre Society, Kiwassa Neighbourhood House, Hastings Community Centre Food and Gardens Program to name a few and spreading the word about food justice as a tool for systemic change. For three years, until 2023, we hosted an annual event called Neighbourhood Food Week boasting 24 free events delivered throughout the week to over 600 participants. It recurred each September in 14 different parks, plazas and community centres in our Hastings-Sunrise community.
his is a pivotal moment in time; parks have become a critical space in our cities during the isolating years post pandemic and from the ongoing loss of our natural environments. We are renewing our vital bond with nature that will shape Vancouver’s “green deserts” into places of gathering with endless opportunities for the community to thrive, become socially cohesive and in turn, play a critical part in creating a thriving planet.
Chén̓chenstway
our story
In the Spring of 2020 a group of like-minded community members decided to tackle the effects of COVID-19 by bringing people together with food. We realized that a crucial way to help with the alienation and food shortages we saw in our neighbourhood was to establish a collective garden and food forest.
We first came up with the idea though in 2018 when we observed there was a serious need for more community gardens in this neighbourhood of 34,000 people, but at the time our chosen park was not available. In time, our vision evolved from the allotment model of community gardening to a philosophy of sharing harvests, collective gardening and food forests, being guided by Indigenous ways of knowing, prioritizing marginalized voices and creating a hub for mutual aid. Our mission has continued to expand and deepen alongside our growing ties to this community.
In April 2020, we proposed this new community-based, intergenerational and cross-cultural knowledge sharing space to the Vancouver Park Board. It was very much aligned with their new Local Food System Action Plan so the Burrard View Park project was approved in concept in March 2021. On March 29th, 2022 the Southeast site of Burrard View Park was officially approved by Vancouver Park Board and development is likely to start in the fall of 2022 subject to an archeological investigation which was instigated by our group.
On June 21st, 2022 we planted our first Indigenous food forest, also located on Wall St. in Oxford Park named Chén̓chenstway which means “to lift each other up” in the Squamish language. This is a sister garden to the food forest in Burrard View Park.
While we waited for approval of these first sites, we spent time connecting with our neighbours in meaningful ways, conducting workshops with partnering organizations and spreading the word about food justice as a tool for systemic change. We created and facilitated an annual event called Neighbourhood Food Week which takes place at the end of September in Hastings-Sunrise!
Vancouver Urban Food Forest Foundation is a Canadian Registered Non-Profit.