Student Food Security Project Advances ISP Actions in the Okanagan Valley
The Indigenous Strategic Initiatives (ISI) Fund has begun allocating money to successful Stream 3: Student-led Projects that will further the implementation of the Indigenous Strategic Plan (ISP). $500,000 was set aside to fund Student-led Projects intended to advance at least one of the ISP’s 43 actions.
The following article explores details about a successful Student-led Project: Seven Generations of Food: Indigenous Food Systems Reinvigoration in the Okanagan Valley.
| Funding Cycle | 2021-2022 | |||
| Campus | Okanagan | |||
| Faculty | Graduate Studies |
The project centres on a practical, community-engaged examination of an Indigenous community group’s food story. The overarching shape of this work is to collectively define their food security and food sovereignty priorities and bring one of these priorities to life as a series of community workshops. The socio-economic realities of rising food prices and increasing urbanization across the Okanagan Valley mean this work is coming at a crucial time for our community members.
Project Team
Sarah Buffett, Project Lead, is a Cree Métis graduate student researcher completing a Master’s of Interdisciplinary Studies at UBC Okanagan. Sarah has been a visitor on ancestral and unceded Syilx/Okanagan territory for twelve years. Sarah became involved with local food systems and community food security as a lynchpin to creating positive change.
BA, MA Student
Faculty supporting this project are Dr. Rachelle Hole of UBC Okanagan and Dr. Leyton Schnellert of UBC Vancouver. Each has worked intensively alongside partner communities within their respective fields, to co-create and support meaningful and lasting opportunities.
Project Overview
This project will determine a collective understanding and opportunities for action through a workshop series focusing on food security in the Okanagan Valley. The project will contribute to a growing body of research through community-led engagements that assert the value of traditional food knowledge to modern contexts.
Food is a common denominator; we all value it, and it has the power to either benefit or disadvantage almost every area of our lives.
-Sarah Buffett
Food security and sovereignty have changed for Indigenous communities in an unconscionably short period. The project team is acting in recognition that now is the time to stop to ask why things are how they are, what can be done to change them for the better, and support action from the grassroots up.
Indigenous Strategic Plan (ISP) Alignment
By providing opportunities for student research and leadership, this project helps advance Indigenous knowledge and ensures all partners are engaged with in a respectful manner.
| Action 12 | Support research opportunities for students to become global leaders in the advancement of Indigenous knowledge systems in health, governance, education, law, business, the sciences, the arts and Indigenous languages. |
| Action 13 | Co-develop research protocols and community-specific ethical research guidelines with interested community partners to ensure students and Faculties are approaching research opportunities with communities in a respectful and formalized manner. This includes the imperative of free, prior and informed consent and protocols on the ownership, control, access and possession of Indigenous data. |
| Action 14 | Provide Indigenous people who are engaged in research with equitable and timely compensation that recognizes the significant value of their participation to the research process and outcomes. |
Impact
This project will create an opportunity for community reflection on a critical issue. As the project relies on community engagement, its impacts will unfold with time. In the short term, Sarah envisions the project will have holistic benefits for the community while also building practical skills and knowledge. In the long term, the project will provide tools to build capacity towards increased food sovereignty.