April 6, 2009 VUAN minutes

[Cylia Wong]

Vancouver Urban Agriculture Network
6 April 2009 Meeting

Present: Cylia Wong, Peter Finch, David Tracey, Sharon de Souza.

Agenda review and approval – approved.
March minutes review and approval – approved.

Old business:

Guidelines on city-owned land: we have heard that the city’s
engineering department will present their proposed guidelines for
community gardens to City Council on April 7. Cylia has sent letters
from VUAN on this matter to the mayor, councilors and staff, and have
received two generic replies so far. David had a conversation in
February with engineering’s greenstreets program manager Scott Edwards
who promised the guidelines would be complete “in a month of two.”
David will try to follow up with staff/council to ensure community
gardeners have a voice in the guidelines.

Template letter for VUAN support of new gardens: has been written and
being used. Pandora Park area gardeners received it with thanks.

Proposed letter regarding use of funding saved by developers on
property tax by temporary installation of community gardens: Peter has
researched Vancouver Courier articles on this issue. We would like
some of the funds to go into a collective fund for urban agriculture
citywide. Safe and proper use of development sites is also an issue –
the Davie and Burrard garden is on possibly contaminated land that
once held a gas station. As this is a complex issue, we will continue
to discuss until we have enough info for a letter. Sharon will look
into this further.

New business:

Networking: Sharon says a west end group has met apparently to get a
new community garden in the area. There is also a social networking
website started up which several VUAN members have joined but are not
entirely clear about how/what it does. If any members from either of
these groups read these minutes and would like to contact us, please
do!

Support for Pandora Park Community Garden: We support their ongoing
efforts to get Park Board approval and see the project created.

Food for Families Food Bank: Cylia received a notice from this group
asking about possible food donations from community gardeners with
surplus produce. She circulated the message as an addition to the VUAN
minutes sent to all community gardens on the mailing list.

Backyard gardening co-operatives: Cylia received a suggestion from
someone to create a backyard garden growers co-op. Could this be a
tie-in to the proposal for the Urban Food Growers Co-op? The
possibilities remain but nothing firm has been decided.

Other business:

Logo: Peter has sketched a sample for a VUAN logo, which looks
fabulous. Modifications were suggested, including spelling out the
Vancouver Urban Agriculture Network name. Peter to refine, scan and
email around for comments.

Next meeting: Monday, May 4, 6pm – 7pm, at Strathcona Community
Gardens eco-pavilion.