Photo © Courtesy of Association of Neighbourhood Houses BC
Hundreds of thousands of British Columbians are in the midst of food insecurity. Our neighbours are pulling each other out—through the Association of Neighbourhood Houses BC (ANHBC).
It’s true that we provide food pantries for immediate support through Frog Hollow, Gordon, Kitsilano, and South Vancouver Neighbourhood Houses. But aren’t ingredients just the beginning? Neighbourhood houses follow through on food justice, from garden to table.
We grow gardens together, because everyone has a green thumb. We learn to create nutritious, satisfying meals together, because a chef is inside us all, longing to nurture our friends and family. And from babies to seniors, we eat together at every one of our eight houses and outdoor camp, because the steam of a hot meal melds our social fabric together.
Who faces food insecurity? You’d be surprised. In British Columbia, more than one in every ten people you cross paths with is food insecure.
- As seniors develop a changing palette, lower energy levels, and disabilities that change the cooking tools they can use, they may struggle to learn accessible recipes. They also may not find interest in eating alone. ANHBC neighbourhood houses bring seniors together to make eating accessible and pleasurable again.
- In this province’s housing crisis, many students pay exploitative rents and run out of money for food. Since they may move multiple times within a decade, they miss out on the benefits of rent control. ANHBC connects youth with food, as well as mental health services to mitigate the turbulence that goes hand-in-hand with their experience of food insecurity.
- British Columbia is currently welcoming thousands of Ukrainian refugees. They are courageously facing a new continent and culture with very little. With so many of ANHBC’s participants being newcomers, we need your support now more than ever to provide familiar, culturally appropriate food to our new neighbours.
- We operate on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, Semiahmoo, Kwantlen, Tsleil-Waututh, Kwikwetlem, Tsawwassen and Sto:lo Nations, which have long stewarded this territory to produce an abundance of nutritious food. Much of these food systems are being challenged by climate change, poor management of marine resources, development and industry. As part of our commitment to decolonization, ANHBC works with Indigenous partners to share knowledge about local Indigenous Food Systems and what we can do to ensure the health and vitality of this place for generations to come.
A donation today to Association of Neighbourhood Houses of BC is the best, most immediate way for you to help solve food insecurity for your neighbours. And second—and perhaps most important—your financial support today will fuel our heavy lifting with other partners to address the systemic issue at the heart of food insecurity—poverty.
With your support, we will come out stronger in a changing world, with neighbourhoods that are more food secure than ever. Donate at anhbc.org/donate
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The Association of Neighbourhood Houses of B.C. (ANHBC) oversees eight neighbourhood houses and an outdoor centre, through which we operate more than 300 community-based programs and services for a diversity of participants.
