Pursuing its goal of strengthening the capacity of voluntary sector organizations to contribute to agri-food policy development, Growing Green consulted with almost 40 voluntary sector organizations.

The project set aside budget resources to facilitate policy dialogues at the request of specific voluntary sector partners:

• BC Food Systems Network — to support attendance at provincial food security conferences in September 2002 and 2003
• Certified Organic Associations of BC — to support attendance at its February 2003 Annual General Meeting
• POLIS Project on Ecological Governance — for a workshop in March 2003 on farm ecological services, in particular freshwater systems (see Ecological services)
• Your Local Farmers’ Market Society — for a workshop in June 2003 regarding formation of a community-based food council in Greater Vancouver (see Community-based food councils)
• Small-Scale Food Processor Association — for a workshop on small-scale value-added farm/food businesses at the BC Co-operative Association’s inaugural AGM in June 2003
• The Land Trust Alliance — to support attendance at its July 2003 Annual General Meeting
• Derek Masselink — to facilitate development of a proposal for a farmland trust pilot project on Salt Spring Island with the Salt Spring Island Farmers’ Institute, The Land Conservancy, the Salt Spring Island Monetary Foundation and others (see Farmland trusts)

Growing Green also hired a member of its Reference Group with extensive experience in the voluntary sector to recommend tools and resources the project could produce that would be of particular use to voluntary sector organizations that want to work with government on policy matters. These included:

1. An information roundup on how to contact and work with local government. This was offered in seminar form at the March 12, 2004 wrap-up event.
2. A manual on "next level" practices, tools and resources for community-based food councils, drawing on experiences in Vancouver and Victoria and other jurisdictions (see Community-based food councils).
3. A seminar on how to enhance policy input, to capture and share successful voluntary sector efforts to influence policy development.
4. A "mind map" of sustainable food systems: a visual description of how the pieces of food systems fit together can help people make more sense of the many connections. Growing Green helped collect some materials and begin work on a sample for the Vancouver Island and Gulf Islands region.

Link to PDF documents

• Mar 2004 Local Government 101 (to come)
• Mar 2004 Growing Green Project Contacts
• Sep 2002 BC Food Systems Network conference report
• Sep 2003 BC Food Systems Network conference report