Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society

04/23/2026

Earth Day notes from UFRIS Executive Lead, Mary P Brooke:

Happy ! On this planet we have water to make life possible, air to breathe, plants to feed us and a protective atmospheric layer to protect us from radiation. Not to mention gravity that is so precise that we can walk upright without being crushed nor floating away. It’s heavenly.

On the food aspect, that become our food (whether as and fruit or further along the food cycle through animals to become dairy, eggs and meat) we can assure the healthiest possible food by growing it ourselves.

Healthy plants in healthy . Properly watered and nurtured (sunlight and compost/fertilizer), then harvested at the right time for optimal nutritional value and processed (eaten fresh or properly stored for later use), plants are fundamental to healthy human life.

Plants also provide shade in the heat, wood for building, and beautiful landscapes. Plants contain all the medicines we need — many pharmaceuticals are developed from compounds found in plants.

If you are celebrating Earth Day, plant some veggies or a tree! It’s an easy thing to do. The sense of satisfaction for self and planet is palpable.

https://urbanfoodresilience.ca/happy-earth-day-plant-some-veggies/

04/05/2026

Happy Easter Sunday! It's a nice warm day today on south Vancouver Island to get more seeds planted for your spring and summer veggie-growing!

03/25/2026

LANGFORD GARBAGE/ORGANIC WASTE COLLECTION OPTIONS SURVEY & COMPOSTING in the MIX.

There is currently a City of Langford online survey open to residents (to end of day April 8, 2026) regarding an option that Council is considering to provide garbage and organic waste pickup as a municipal service.

Currently households are to purchase on their own garbage and waste pickup. But some don’t, and this leads to some problems in the cityscape.

The survey does not mention composting options, or suggest that a municipal service would be at a lower price point than households pay to private disposal service providers.

There is no open comments section in the survey but comments can be sent by email to the City’s engineering department, even though this is more of a political issue for Mayor and Council that could be part of voter decision-making in the Oct 2026 municipal election.

Here are some thoughts to consider if you’re going to participate in the survey:
• Many Langford households/strata buildings may wish to maintain their choice in selecting a garbage/waste service provider for a range of reasons (including price-point and service-level flexibility).
• If the City goes to one provider for all households that would possibly have a negative business impact on the smaller providers in the waste pickup sector (though the City could possibly contract with different suppliers for different neighbourhoods of the City).
• The survey price range options (if the City were to contract the service and pass on that cost to households) are the same in the survey as what most households are currently paying privately; if the City were to take on the service there should be a price-break for households (in exchange for removing choice of provider).
• The City may instead wish to deliver an effective local education campaign about the importance of responsible waste disposal instead of undertaking a major cost to contract (and indirectly manage) city-wide services.
• The survey did not mention composting. The City should be encouraging household composting of kitchen waste (and overall reduction of kitchen waste by encouraging people to shop/cook more efficiently) as a way to reduce the need for curbside pickup of kitchen scraps and to improve quality of garden soil when ready; people may need to be reminded about the difference between compostable organic kitchen waste vs cooked kitchen waste which should not be put into backyard compost bins.

https://urbanfoodresilience.ca/langford-waste-management-could-include-composting/

03/24/2026

If you wish to be on the UFRIS ENews mailing list, please email to [email protected] . Same mission to encourage the growing of natural food in urban spaces but we are moving in new directions to make that happen.

01/27/2026

The Canada and Essentials Benefit announced today by the federal government is welcome news for low- and modest-income households. The program still requires legislative passage in the House of Commons, but all things indicate it will pass. The first boosted (former GST) quarterly payment, aka Canada Grocery and Essentials Benefit, will be deposited into recipient bank accounts in July 2026, and then continue quarterly for four years further.

Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society (UFRIS) of course encourages people to continue growing their own fresh vegetables and fruit. But a few more dollars to make healthy food choices at the grocery store is almost certainly welcome by all who will receive it.

We note that the federal government is also intending to follow a new strategy to tackle food insecurity, support producers, and strengthen as a way to help producers and suppliers keep from increasing unduly.

https://urbanfoodresilience.ca/federal-government-announces-grocery-benefit-starting-mid-2026/

01/19/2026

In case you're wondering, Porcher Park (PPCG) is a service run by the City of . Providing food-growing space in the city centre is a way to help residents with the .

Our organization Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society (UFRIS) was pleased to have designed and launched the city's first food-growing garden in 2025 -- working hard for the garden and the gardeners. Now it's up to the City of Langford to fund the PPCG operations properly in their 2026 budget (not just physical infrastructure but with a paid Garden Manager).

As anyone knows, with any project -- including spaces -- it takes consistent management, integrated communications and also foresight (all the things UFRIS did and provided leadership for) to keep things going. As a caring act of community service, we did that in 2025 without targeted grant support.

But now it's in the City's hands to properly fund their own project and keep it going. We hope they honour the hard work of UFRIS and the three dozen gardening households who worked hard on PPCG in the first year.

Feel free to contact us at [email protected] if you have questions.

01/19/2026

In case you're wondering, Porcher Park (PPCG) is a service run by the City of . Providing food-growing space in the city centre is a way to help residents with the . Our organization Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society (UFRIS) was pleased to have designed and launched the city's first food-growing garden in 2025 -- working hard for the garden and the gardeners. Now it's up to the City of Langford to fund the PPCG operations properly in their 2026 budget (not just physical infrastructure but with a paid Garden Manager). As anyone knows, with any project -- including spaces -- it takes consistent management, integrated communications and also foresight (all the things UFRIS did) to keep things going. As a caring act, we did that in 2025 without targeted grant support. But now it's in the City's hands to properly fund it and keep it going. We hope they honour the hard work of UFRIS and the three dozen gardening families who worked hard on PPCG in the first year. Feel free to contact us at [email protected] if you have questions. | Background in this article:

Langford's first community garden needs sufficient Budget 2026 funding to cover both physical and social infrastructure.

01/02/2026

The minimum piece rates for hand harvesting of specified farm crops increased in BC by 2.6% on December 31, 2025.

The increase applies to 15 agricultural crops harvested by hand, as specified in the Employment Standards Regulation.

The hand-harvested crops are peaches, apricots, brussels sprouts, daffodils, mushrooms, apples, beans, blueberries, cherries, grapes, pears, peas, prune plums, raspberries and strawberries.

Fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers are key components of healthy diets and the BC economy.

Increases in food production of course likely lead to increases in food prices at grocery stores and for wholesale use for hospitals, school food programs and restaurants.

[Excerpt from article as first published at IslandSocialTrendsDOTca]

Also see: https://urbanfoodresilience.ca/cost-of-fresh-produce-continues-upward-in-2026/

12/30/2025

Langford’s first community garden needs sufficient funding in the city's Budget 2026

::: [This article was first published on Dec 29, 2025 at IslandSocialTrendsDOTca] :::

Porcher Park Community Garden was launched in 2025 — the first community garden in the City of Langford.

Designed, constructed and operated this year by a local non-profit called Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society (UFRIS), as of year-end PPCG is now back in the City’s domain for operations going forward.

This was a decision made by UFRIS who determined that garden-specific grant funding was not forthcoming in this economy but also that the City also needed to take a more fulsome view of their role in operations.

UFRIS has recommended to the City that — instead of relying on a non-profit and the volunteer goodwill of overworked Langford residents to support garden operations — that the City of Langford have a new position of volunteer coordinator to undertake the people-side of the community garden and other Langford projects that may have to rely on volunteer effort.

MORE FULSOME FUNDING:

The City will also need a Budget line item (secure, reliable funding) for all aspects of the PPCG operations.

In Budget 2025 an amount of $10,000 was shown over the five-year plan (i.e. for each of 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 after the $40,000 startup line in 2025).

The $10,000 per year going forward is evidently only for Parks Department operational expenses, not for daily management of the space or administration of the gardening community that pays for use of the space. More than 31 families rely on that space for access to health food-growing as well as families who receive food donations from the garden.

Adequate management of PPCG is about people as well as physical infrastructure. The City of Langford budget needs to reflect that.

SOCIAL CONTRACT:

Community gardens are part of both physical and social infrastructure in urban communities.

Langford has shown leadership in providing the City's first community garden as a way to support primarily those who live in condos who (usually due to the cost of living) no longer have a yard in which to set up their own food-growing.

This is a recognition of social contract to allow for the human right to grow food, says UFRIS Executive Lead Mary P Brooke.

CITY SUPPORT OF UFRIS:

"Thanks for all your hard work to make the Porcher Park Community Garden a huge success! The fall harvest potluck was wonderful, I saw the pumpkin compost bin overflowing, and I'm looking forward to seeing the greenhouse," says City of Langford Councillor Mary Wagner in a statement to UFRIS.

UFRIS contributed the bulk of input for the garden policy, entirely created the design, devised the operational framework, made contractor arrangements and hosted social events this year.

UFRIS also established discount arrangements for PPCG gardeners with various retailers, helped the City set up more purchasing accounts with appropriate suppliers, and set up a working system to deliver food donations to the west Shore Living Edge food market.

As UFRIS Executive Lead, Ms Brooke was the leader behind all this, as well as attending on-ground and in-garden all year to ensure a smooth year one PPCG and its direction of growth in the years ahead.

UFRIS CORE MISSION:

The core mission of UFRIS has three planks:

> To facilitate food-growing capacity in urban spaces across the south Vancouver Island region and other urban areas across BC.

> To establish systems for nutritious food supply in disaster response.

> To help support pregnant moms with fresh nutritious food throughout their pregnancy and while breast-feeding.

UFRIS also pays attention to the use and development of good quality soil for optimal growing of fruits and vegetables with an eye to soil handling and management in municipal and provincial legislation and regulations.

Ms Brooke has a Bachelor of Science in foods and nutrition. Based on this, there is an overriding UFRIS guideline that fresh food (preferably grown without pesticides or herbicides) is the healthiest option for people's food intake.

12/24/2025

Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas ... may all your veggie garden dreams come true! https://urbanfoodresilience.ca/happy-a-merry-veggie-christmas/

12/04/2025

UFRIS continues our work to guide more communities to include (and require of developers) food-growing capacity in all urban infrastructure.

We are also working on food supply as part of seismic disaster response.

And if you or your organization want to support our program to help pregnant moms get more fresh nutritious food, please be in touch. https://urbanfoodresilience.ca/new-program-boosting-nutrition-for-pregnant-moms/

New UFRIS members are welcome (wherever you live in BC). Membership is $5. Donations in any amount are always welcome, to help fund our larger programs. Please contact us at [email protected]

11/29/2025

Yes, some of you may have heard that the Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society (UFRIS) is stepping back from hands-on operation of Porcher Park Community Garden (PPCG) in Langford. Our last day there as the Operator will be December 24, 2025.

UFRIS is truly pleased with PPCG -- a flagship community garden that the City of Langford now has as a result of the dedicated, professional, insightful and attentive work that Mary P Brooke (UFRIS Executive Lead) provided in designing, building and launching it including creating a community of gardeners.

Up to April of this year, the intended PPCG at 828 Wren Place was fenced bare land; now PPCG is a built-up vibrant food-growing space with 33 growing boxes and plenty of care and attention to healthy experiences.

Many thanks to the current insightful Langford council and their amazing Parks Dept staff who opened the gates for a creative new development in the city for residents who appreciate the opportunity to grow their own fresh produce. PPCG also donated fresh produce to the Living Edge Westshore food bank.

UFRIS got the City rolling with their first community garden, and now it's up to the City to operate and maintain the garden as a municipal service for the benefit of downsized families that (as a result of housing inaffordability) no longer have ground-space to grow natural food.

UFRIS continues our work to guide more communities to include (and require of developers) food-growing capacity in all urban infrastructure. We are also working on food supply as part of disaster response, and a program to help pregnant moms get more fresh nutritious food.

New UFRIS members are welcome (wherever you live in BC). Membership is $5. Write to [email protected]

See full article: https://urbanfoodresilience.ca/ufris-creates-flagship-community-garden-for-the-city-to-carry-forward/