Vancouver Food Conversations: What’s With the Ethnic Aisle?

#VanFoodConvo

Join us for the first in a series of free Vancouver Food Conversations about issues relating to our Food System.

Topic: Why is the food movement so white? & What’s with the ethnic Aisle?
Moderator: Lily Grewal
Panelists: Niki Sharma, Kevin Huang, Alejandra Lopez, Jason E. Blackman-Wulff and Stephanie Lim.

Why is the food movement so white? And what’s up with the ethnic aisle?

On May 19th attendees of the Vancouver Food Summit gathered to discuss the issue of “Why is the food movement so white?” during one of the panels. Panelists spoke passionately about the history of oppression in Vancouver, how people of colour have been systematically and intentionally excluded by policies, and shared lived experiences.

Diving deeper into this conversation, together we’ll explore the systemic factors that reinforce and maintain the whiteness of the food movement, as well as ideas about how to counter and call out racism where we see, and direction for what allies can do.

We will also, of course, discuss how societal cues, like the “ethnic aisle” serve to keep many people in Vancouver feeling like “the other” and not included even at a very basic interaction with the food system like purchasing food.

Hosted by:

Gordon Neighbourhood House**
Heartwood
Museum of Vancouver
Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House**
hua foundation

** Members of the Association of Neighbourhood Houses BC – ANHBC

Menu Options at Heartwood:
– Soup for the People http://www.heartwoodcc.ca/soup-for-the-people.html
– Dinner menu: http://www.heartwoodcc.ca/weekday-menus.html.

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Accessibility Info:
The Radical Accessibility Mapping Project has kindly done an accessibility audit for the space, which you can find at http://www.heartwoodcc.ca/accessibility-info.html. Heartwood’s washrooms are currently not wheelchair or scooter accessible. The neighbouring Starbucks kindly welcomes our patrons to use their fully physically accessible washrooms without the need to purchase anything. Please note that Starbucks washrooms are not a scent-free space.

Heartwood is a child-friendly space with a play area for little ones to romp and play in. Feel free to bring kids to the event!

Seating: Heartwood has wooden chairs in addition to some plastic folding chairs, both with no padding. There is one two seater couch in the space. Please let us know if you need us to reserve a certain kind of seat for you.

If you have specific accessibility needs or questions please feel free to email our Community Development Manager, Melanie at melanie@heartwoodcc.ca.

The organizers of this Vancouver Food Conversation acknowledge that this event takes place on the unceded, occupied, ancestral and traditional lands of the Musqueam, Skxwú7mesh, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. We encourage everyone to think about the historical and ongoing colonial genocide against Indigenous peoples.