Toward Food System Sustainability through School Food System Change: Think&EatGreen@School and the Making of a Community-University Research Alliance

Alejandro Rojas, Will Valley, Brent Mansfield, Elena Orrego, Gwen E. Chapman and Yael Harlap
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Alejandro Rojas: Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, 179-2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
Will Valley: Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, 179-2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
Brent Mansfield: Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, 179-2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
Elena Orrego: Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, 179-2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
Gwen E. Chapman: Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, 179-2357 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada
Yael Harlap: Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, University of British Columbia, I.K. Barber Learning Centre, 1961 East Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

Sustainability, 2011, vol. 3, issue 5, 1-26

Abstract: This paper describes the theoretical and conceptual framework and the research and practice model of Think&EatGreen@School, a community-based action research project aiming to foster food citizenship in the City of Vancouver and to develop a model of sustainable institutional food systems in public schools. The authors argue that educational and policy interventions at the school and school board level can drive the goals of food system sustainability, food security, and food sovereignty. The complex relationship between food systems, climate change and environmental degradation require that international initiatives promoting sustainability be vigorously complemented by local multi-stakeholder efforts to preserve or restore the capacity to produce food in a durable manner. As a step towards making the City of Vancouver green, we are currently involved in attempts to transform the food system of the local schools by mobilizing the energy of a transdisciplinary research team of twelve university researchers, over 300 undergraduate and graduate students, and twenty community-based researchers and organizations working on food, public health, environmental and sustainability education.

Keywords: food citizenship; food security; food sovereignty; food system sustainability; school food; education; community-based action research; community-engaged scholarship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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