Food Charter

Caryl Harper, Manager Disease Prevention & Health Promotion, VIHA, presented a preliminarily draft VIHA Food Charter. The idea for VIHA to develop a Food Charter came from the 2006 Social Determinants Confererence held in Victoria.

This workshop was interactive and resulted in valuable feedback, including,editing the Charter document and identifying various processess for engaging a diverse range of organization, community and people groups. The group also supportthe idea of a VIHA Food Charter. There was recognition that the potential outcomes from food charters are diverse and identified increasing local food purchasing by institutions and agencies as one of the target policy areas for consideration.

The group also discussed local Food Charters that are currentely in various stages of progress such as the Regional Districts of Nanaimo, Comox Valley and the Capital. The opportunity to glean learnings from previous food charter development and outcomes was discussed and seen as important - specifically mentioned were Kaslo, Manitoba, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver and the Capital.

Should you wish to contact VIHA regarding the process of preliminary Draft Food Charter please contact Caryl Harper at caryl.harper@viha.ca