VIU Webinar Addresses Food Security During COVID-19

The start of the COVID-19 pandemic saw job losses, empty food shelves, and a rise in food level insecurities.

A VIU press release stated that since the start of COVID-19, grocery stores ran out of certain products, and there “were interruptions in food supply chains as virus outbreaks affected producers, processors, and transport systems.” COVID-19 became a wake-up call for how precarious the food supply can be.

To help VIU students, the university will be hosting the “Food Security in the Age of COVID-19: Toward More Resilient Regional Food Systems” webinar on October 8, 2020.

The webinar will be hosted by Dr. Evan Fraser, the director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph. He will be discussing what he thinks can be done to make the food system more sustainable and resilient.

Fraser will be joined with three other local food system experts: Jennifer Woodland, the CEO of Nuu-chah-nulth Seafood LP; Jen Cody, the Executive Director of Nanaimo Foodshare Society; and Christopher “Farmer” Brown, a permaculturist, agricultural activist, and farming educator.

They will be exploring topics about the impacts of COVID-19 on North American food security, the implications on regional food systems, and the pathways to more resilient regional food systems.

The evening will be divided into three shorter presentations, followed by a Q&A with the guest speakers.

The webinar is a part of the much bigger “Engaged Citizens Speaker Series,” that launched last fall. The series encourages intellectual, meaningful, and engaging conversations about social challenges while advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

You can register for the free event on the Zoom webinar website.