Each year at the summit, we look back at what we accomplished and celebrate our collective impact. We also take the chance to acknowledge some special individuals, projects and programs that have made significant strides to benefit the growth of our local food system - through their knowledge and wisdom, hard work and passion, dismantling oppressive systems… or all of the above!
This year, there are so many excellent grassroots led initiatives that emerged in response to the pandemic and some important nominations for the Good Food Champions.
Food Literacy Category |
Ariel Reyes Antuan & Jess Reyes Barton
Palenke Greens Initiative
Palenke Greens is an educational initiative, empowerment tool, and an opportunity to foster long-standing relationships and mentorship while fulfilling the most basic need to feed oneself and one’s family with healthy, organic food. Palenke Greens prioritized all persons of African-descent, those facing food insecurity and have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and supported 50 barrier-facing families in Victoria with burlap-sac gardens, in addition to creating a food sharing network.
In September 2020, Jess and Ariel began the Palenke Produce Box; a farm-fresh food box program, sourced locally from Vancouver Island, offering free, fresh produce bi-weekly. This initiative is aimed at supporting our communities' access to nutritious, fresh, and delicious food while also re-invigorating our connection to the lands we live on, our relationship to where our food is grown, the resilience of our communities, and the vitality of our bodies.
Recognizing the pandemic had exacerbated systemic pressures for many BIPOC communities, who have been historically under-represented in our local food system food security initiatives, Ariel and Jess took bold action and launched Palenke Greens, the burlap sac gardens and educational initiative wherein over 54 gardens were created, and resources shared to care for these plants!
Food Access Category |
ISSAMBA Centre
La Teranga Culturally Relevant Food Baskets
This new project from the African Arts and Cultural Contribution Society, has been distributing culturally appropriate food baskets weekly, since the start of the pandemic, to 120+ black families of African descent in the Greater Victoria area. The baskets are individually tailored, depending on where that recipient is from, providing them food from their homeplace.
Food Economy Category |
Amarjit Dhariwal, Oceanview Estates
Amarjit Dhariwal
The South Island Farmhub nominated Amarjit Dhariwal of Oceanview Estates for a Good Food Champion award. Amarjit has been a supporter of creating a robust local food economy for many years. He is always willing to attend meetings such as Farmer Focus Groups, Vision Viewfield and was an anchor farmer for Closing the Supply Gap Demonstration Project. Farmhub is especially grateful for his generosity in offering his farm as the Saanich aggregation point for South Island Farmhub. Since last May, Saanich farmers have been delivering the harvest twice weekly meeting the Farmhub truck at Oceanview Estates. The economic efficiencies gained are substantial!
"Amarjit has followed through on his interests and projects every step of the way, has linked many farmers together and has become an important part of the network" - SIFH Production manager
Significant Contribution Award |
Rudi Wallace
Rudi is recognized for making a significant contribution to the goals of the Good Food Network, from supporting greater access to healthy food, to supporting local farm viability to advancing critical work to decolonize and create new pathways for trust based philanthropy through the ŚW̱,ȻENEṈITEL indigenous foods initiative (skwa-nung-nitel)
He has been part of the Good Food Network, worked as the Assistant Director of the Mustard Seed and was instrumental in his leadership in the development of the FoodShare Network as well as with the Food Rescue and Recovery initiative. His leadership brought many partners together to support the Warehouse purchase and launch this initiative that is distributing over 10,000 pounds of rescued and donated food each day to over 70 agencies in the community. He then went on to join the Victoria Foundation as part of the grants team and supported the distribution of the Rapid Relief fund to support food efforts in well grounded, strategic ways. His leadership has made a big difference in our community and we want to thank him and wish him well on his next steps as he relocates to Hamilton.
2020 good food summit sponsors
We want to thank our generous sponsors for whom without the 2020 Good Food Summit would not be possible.
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