Energized, passionate and not afraid to speak her mind, 80-year-old Elizabeth Ward has become the face of a campaign aimed at addressing food accessibility and affordability issues for seniors living in Vancouvers Westside.
The South Granville Seniors Centre and the Westside Food Collaborative have partnered to create the Westside Mobile Market for seniors and low-income residents.
The program offers low-cost fresh fruits and vegetables in whats being called a food desert.
When I first came to this area in 1998, there was a baker that had been there since the 1920s, a butcher and grocery store with fresh produce. All of a sudden they disappeared. Then we had designer dress shops and shoe stores, Ward says.
An IGA on Broadway also recently closed shop to make way for a new highrise development.
A study by the West Side Food Collaborative discovered that many seniors in the area were malnourished or going hungry.
Zsuzsi Fodor, then a Masters student and now the food facilitator and community developer at Kitsilano Neighbourhood House, long ago envisioned the mobile market.
The South Granville area faces the same issues as Cedar Cottage and other Eastside neighbourhoods, that is poverty and access to affordible food markets and vendors. The food is not necessarily organic. The goal is to provide affordible produce within a short distance so seniors with less mobility can have access, said Fodor.
Many seniors, especially women, face the choice of whether or not to spend money on bus fare to get to a grocery store or possibly go hungry because of lack of money and or mobility.
How many people do you think are sitting behind a closed door and cant get out., Ward asks. Our goal is to make it easier to get what you need without going on the bus.
Somehow the women seniors get left by the wayside. Seniors deserve some respect. Its only them, maybe their husband is gone. I personally am all by my self, says Ward whose work with the program has helped her cope with the loss of her dog a month ago.
She sees the mobile market as a way to give some dignity back to people who are struggling with old age and basic survival needs. Many seniors only have pensions, of which a majority goes towards rent and have only a small amount for food.
The mobile market is just one solution to a widespread food security problem throughout the city. For Fodor, the mobile market is a band-aid solution and that the ideal situation would be everyone being able to live in a place walking distance from the food they need.
Let this be a starting point to a conversation about this issue. The city needs to address food deserts in the city, she said.
Fodor thinks the city depends too much on non-profits to pick up the slack and that most of the time they are starved for money. Whose job is it to provide food for people, she asks.
That is where the mobile market steps in.
Now through Sept. 26, inexpensive produce will be purchased and sold at two locations: the seniors centre, 1420 West 12th, every Thursday from 11am to 1pm, and at Marpole Place Neighbourhood House, 1305 West 70th, Thursdays from 2 to 4pm.
As well, in collaboration with the market Planted: A Community Food Network has launched a Plenty Campaign to raise awareness for Westside seniors experiencing food insecurity. The campaign pledge is that no senior should ever go hungry. Signatures are being collected in order for the market to access more grant money.
