How is Victoria tackling food insecurity?

An ice cold drink after a hard day’s work, fresh vegetables from the local farmers market, a comfortable place to sit down and eat dinner—some people take these pleasures for granted, considering them basic needs.

But for the unhoused and the food insecure, access to any of those things is limited; and the number of people who fall into those categories is growing.

Since last summer, demand for food banks in Greater Victoria has grown by more than 25%, and UVic’s student food bank has fallen into a steep deficit as a result. An annual report from Food Banks Canada cited rising inflation and housing costs, in particular, as contributing factors in the lack of food security across the country.

It’s a tough situation, and the future may look bleak; but there are options for those in Victoria dealing with food insecurity, either by the province, local government, and Victoria organizations.

Community Fridge Victoria, for example, recently celebrated its third anniversary. It started with a food-delivery program at the beginning of the pandemic, in response to food-bank closures.

This volunteer-based organization now also provides a free fridge in the Rock Bay neighbourhood on the same property as Rock Bay Market, operating on a no-questions-asked, take-what-you-need, give-what-you-can model. Its first fridge opened in June 2021, and there are plans for more of them.

“We were seeing a lot of barriers going up to access free food at a time when people really needed it,” co-founder Wren Shaman told Capital Daily.

Community Fridge’s food-delivery program helps send out 85 food hampers per week, but Shaman says there are barriers to that program too, including needing an address or a phone to organize a pickup location.The fridge was established to remedy that.

“People can drop off food at any time, if they’re able to,” co-founder Nicola Watts said. “And there’s less coordination [needed], since there’s a central physical place people can come to.”

Community Fridge Victoria is a more or less decentralized organization, with people stepping in and out to keep the fridge stocked and ready—though Shaman and Watts say there is an infrastructure that helps keep it going, including people who work to secure grants and do administrative work to make sure the fridge is running smoothly.

And it doesn’t always run smoothly.

“I was doing a food drop,” Watts said. “The door was physically off the fridge, it was a late evening, and we weren’t able to get it back on its hinge.”

Community Fridge Victoria took to social media for help, and, in the flurry, multiple businesses and individuals offered assistance. “One person offered to buy a new fridge and coordinate the delivery,” Shaman said.

The fridge was replaced within a few days, and after the incident, it was clear to Community Fridge just how wide a net they had cast, and how much larger the network really was.

The same can be said on the other side of town in Esquimalt, with another organization, Rainbow Kitchen, providing healthy meals to the food insecure since 2018.

About 4% of British Columbians experience severe food insecurity, and 15% cannot afford a nutritious diet.

Rainbow Kitchen in Esquimalt provides nutritious meals, no questions asked, to anyone who can come through the doors. Photo: Ryan Hook // Capital Daily

So, Rainbow Kitchen provides nutritious food to anyone who shows up. Its executive director, Patrick Johnstone, told Capital Daily he hopes Rainbow Kitchen can be a welcoming, safe space, void of the stigma that such places can elicit.

“We are a community kitchen, but if you had to boil us down, we’re a soup kitchen,” Johnstone said. “But there’s a lot of stigma to that word.”

Located beside the United Church, the organization is bright, with a large rainbow mural, and offers classes almost every day; it also has its own garden and donated kitchen equipment you’d find in any large-scale operation.

While there are plenty of organizations hoping to fill in the gaps, food isn’t getting cheaper—and that’s putting people more at risk of homelessness and food insecurity.

Johnstone says he’s noticed a significant increase in the number of people showing up to Rainbow Kitchen.

“We’re happy to welcome everyone,” he said. “But the more people we feed, the more we realize there’s a larger issue at play—and we can only do so much.”

According to the BCCDC, the average monthly cost in 2022 for a family of four in the Island Health region to eat healthily is $1,366; in the Southern Vancouver Island region it was $1,386—the second highest in BC.

Sheila Malcolmson, the minister of Mental Health and Addictions, told Capital Daily that a combination of the impacts of pandemic and the exponential increases to the cost of food is leading to more people who aren’t sure where, when, or how their next meal will come.

Rainbow Kitchen has a take what you need table full of vegetable either donated or grown in its garden. Photo: Ryan Hook // Capital Daily

“The climbing cost of rent and pressure on mortgages, and increased cost of food because of global inflation and supply chain impacts, means people have less [money] at the end of the month,” she said. “That means [the province’s] poverty reduction strategy is that much more important.”

Last year, the province invested $200 million to fight food insecurity, and Malcolmson said $49 million of that is going to direct aid for places that support the food insecure in high volumes, like Food Banks BC.

Victoria Coun. Krista Loughton, a documentary filmmaker whose films have covered the unhoused in Victoria, told Capital Daily that homelessness and food insecurity is a humanitarian crisis. “It’s across the country,” she said. “And municipalities need help from the other levels of government.

“We can’t let it go any longer, it’s like the homelessness crisis has become normalized—it’s not a normal thing.”

The City of Victoria offers a program called Get Growing, Victoria! that pairs experienced gardeners with new ones, to help people learn to grow their own food. The program is run in collaboration with community associations across town.

Loughton said it provided more than 100,000 seedlings last year.

As the cost of living continues to increase, it’s hard to see an end to food insecurity in sight; but at the very least, there are communities trying to combat it—one fridge, pantry, and meal at a time.