Eat West Coast (EWC) is a regional food security initiative of the CBT. Food security exists when everyone in a community can afford and access enough of healthy, safe, and culturally-appropriate food. As a CBT priority, food security encompasses many of the things that lead to health: a clean environment, employment, cultural relevance, education, and self-esteem. This program aims to help local communities and organizations develop effective, community-based responses to food-access challenges and increase the understanding of healthy, affordable food choices.
EWC builds partnerships across organizations and communities to support local priorities and increase local capacity. Priorities include strengthening food access networks and addressing food issues for children, emergency food planning for natural disasters. EWC bridges the CBT’s biosphere reserve and community foundation mandates. Moving forward, there is potential to make greater connections between regional food initiatives and research on the environment, climate change, and sustainable development.
With support from the Feed Opportunity Fund, EWC has launched a new capacity building program to support the increasing local interest and activity in community sharing of local and indigenous food knowledge, access, preparation, and preservation techniques so that our families can learn more about each season’s abundance and access a variety of healthy and traditional foods year-round.
In 2018, the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District (ACRD) published the Coastal Addendum to the Alberni Agriculture Plan to support agricultural production on the west coast. In order to support the implementation of the plan, the CBT and the ACRD partnered to co-host the first meeting of the Coastal Foods Roundtable (CFR) in November 2019, a committee that is open to participation from all biosphere region communities.
Read the most recent April 2024 CFR meeting minutes. Stay tuned for the next meeting taking place in November 2024.
To learn more about Eat West Coast please email Erika Goldt at erika@clayoquotbiosphere.org. The terms and references can be accessed with the link below.
