Community developer Vanessa Sparrow has been hired to manage a regional food security program.
David Parkinson, who has been coordinator of the Powell River Food Security Project (PRFSP) for the past seven years and the first coordinator of the program, announced he was stepping down through his regular email newsletter earlier this month.
Parkinson thanked everyone for the support for the program’s workshops and initiatives over the years saying that he was pleased to be a part of the “unbelievable upsurge in energy around food and farming in and around Powell River.
“The time has come to move on and look for new challenges,” he wrote, adding that he is not moving away from Powell River. “I don’t know where I’ll end up, but I’m taking some time to find or create a job.”
Parkinson plans to stay connected to some of the food-related groups and activities that he currently participates in.
Sparrow steps into the job with a lot of experience in food security and health promotion. Up until earlier this month, she worked as a Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) community developer with a focus on food security and school gardens. The health authority cut the program this month over budgetary concerns, believing some of the work did not contribute directly to clinical health care.
“I remember saying to someone when I first lost my job that there was only one other in the region [that I would want] and that was David’s job and David was doing it—then he stepped down two weeks later,” said Sparrow. “It’s really big shoes to fill.”
PRFSP operates out of Powell River Employment Program Society and is funded by VCH, she said. The position is for 10 hours per week.
Sparrow, originally from Sydney, Australia, moved to Powell River three and a half years ago from Vancouver where she helped build community vegetable gardens and taught children how to grow their own food at the University of British Columbia Farm.
“There’s no doubt it will take me a while to get on top of all the things David was doing,” said Sparrow.
She is a member of Powell River Farmers’ Institute, a director of the Society for the Advancement of Local Sustainable Agriculture (SALSA) and has worked in the area’s food-related programs. Sparrow also heads up the Young Adult Community Kitchen (YACK) program which runs out of Powell River Community Resource Centre and helps young adults who may be socially isolated to make community connections. The group meets every Friday afternoon.
Sparrow is concerned about the low level of resources for young adults in the community. “We cook together and we eat together,” she said. “It’s pretty low key with teaching going on in a very unstructured kind of way.”
Sparrow intends to keep working with teachers in School District 47 to create school gardens, organize workshops for people to learn more about gardening and composting, and work closer with local governments on changes that can be made with regard to genetically modified crops and the agricultural land reserve.
She also hopes to include more people in the conversation about regional food security.
“I think there are those who tend to get left out due to economic considerations and cultural assumptions around food,” she added. “I’d like to extend the food security program to people who might not see themselves as having a place in that discussion.”
