Back in his home country of Cuba, Ariel Reyes Antuan would sit under the mango tree, and eat the ripe fruit fresh off the branches. It's a memory he now describes as a yearning for his cultural foods.
"Our right to this cultural food is a human right," says Ariel, now a resident of Victoria, and the co-founder of Iyé Creative. "It's how we have been eating for generations. It's in our DNA, and it's critical to our health and well-being."
In 2023, Ariel surveyed communities facing marginalization, documenting the barriers they face to accessing nutritious, culturally-significant foods. From this work, a pilot project emerged. He partnered with Fernwood Neighbourhood House and several farmers to connect families with weekly produce bags, curated with veggies, fruits and herbs popular in different parts of the world.
Collard greens, epizote, garlic chives, and za'atar herbs are just some of the crops growing at the Farm at Royal Roads University, one of several farms contributing to the pilot.
"It has definitely been a learning curve for me," says Solara Goldwynn, food-systems lead at RRU. This first growing season was one of experimentation: tasting, smelling and learning under what conditions these plants thrive. The campus farm has been expanding since its launch in 2022, and this summer grew to include five rows of culturally significant food as part of the pilot.
"All the crops we grow in food gardens have cultural significance," says Solara. "For instance, many people grow collard greens in Victoria, but they might not realize their importance to Africans who were enslaved in North America. Their histories are intertwined with resilience and resistance."
The Culturally Relevant Foods Pilot is delivered through Fernwood Neighbourhood House's Good Food Box program in partnership with Iyé Creative. Every week, Fernwood NH distributes fresh fruit and vegetables across Greater Victoria. Many of the bags go to partner organizations at no cost thanks to the annual Gift of Good Food fundraising campaign.
"It's such a joy to be able to provide our recipients with really high quality, beautifully fresh produce that many families wouldn't otherwise have access to," says Jess Wallis, the Food Security Coordinator at Fernwood NH.
Since Spring, 27 newcomer families other members of the African diaspora, including African, Caribbean, and Black-identifying individuals have been receiving the Culturally Significant Good Food Box, which includes an assortment of foods grown by local farmers that were highlighted in the 2023 Culturally Relevant Crops Report.
The pilot wrapped this fall, and the next step is to survey recipients to find out how to grow and adapt the program to meet their needs.
"Lots of participants enjoyed not knowing some of the produce they received, but others gave feedback that they didn't know how to use those foods," says Jess. "One challenge is to determine how to best represent culturally-relevant food, when there are so many diverse cultures in Victoria."
The biggest challenge is funding. Until now, many of the farmers have donated the produce, says Jess. "We really need the program to be funded in a long-term, sustainable way so we can keep doing this important food-justice work and pay farmers fairly for their hard work."
