Building relationships through food sovereignty in the Bow Valley

Photo credit: Lauren Kepkiewicz

Researcher: Lauren Kepkiewicz

This project examines how community-based groups build relationships across difference in pursuit of food sovereignty.

Uproot & Grow

is a collaboration between Avni Soma and Lauren Kepkiewicz that aims to build food sovereignty in the mountain communities we call home.

Current projects include:

Building Equity by Reimagining governance: A Non-Profit Confronts Racism, Colonialism, and Neoliberalism: 

Using participatory action research, this project aims to understand how nonprofits generally, as well as community partner the Bow Valley Food Alliance specifically, can reimagine governance structures in ways that create equitable relations within and beyond the organization. This research is supported by research assistants Asha Haywood and Amanda Meadows, collaborators Dr. Madelaine Cahuas and Dr. Annette Desmarais, and community partner, the Bow Valley Food Alliance. This work is funded by a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant.

and

Cultivating Community: Food Justice in the Bow Valley and Beyond:

This Canmore-based event aims to bring people working on different parts of the food system together from Alberta and British Columbia to share their knowledge and wisdom with each other as well as our communities in the Bow Valley. For example, while some folks are focused on addressing hunger, others are focused on creating sustainable growing conditions for food. We hope that by bringing people together that we can create more connections between people working on food, inspire different types of action, and learn from one another. This work is supported by a SSHRC Connections Grant in partnership with the Food Systems Lab and the Bow Valley Food Alliance.

Food, Fragility, and Fortitude: COVID-19 in the Bow Valley

better understanding the mechanisms that these groups use to create just food systems, challenge power disparities among constituents, and break down broader systems of oppression. Research questions include: In what ways does food sovereignty encourage community-based groups to challenge systems of oppression such as white supremacy, colonialism, and patriarchy? How does food sovereignty mitigate disparities among and between food systems actors and what does this look like in practice?

Read the report here.

In order to explore these questions

this project works with a community-based partner, the Bow Valley Food Alliance (BVFA). Recognizing food inequities across the Bow Valley, the BVFA aims to build a strong network “to create accessible, sustainable and equitable food systems” using food sovereignty as a key concept and practice (BVFA, 2017). Working with the BVFA, this research aims to understand the challenges and opportunities for creating food sovereignty in the Bow Valley using an anti-oppression framework. In doing so, this research will explore how the BVFA as an organization incorporates food sovereignty and food justice into its organizational policies, practices, and programs while at the same time better understanding what food justice looks like from a grassroots perspective in the Bow Valley, Alberta, Canada.

Browse the reports below.

 

Photo credit: Laura

Other recent work by Lauren Kepkiewicz