Friends of the UBC Farm

Community members play a vital role in the UBC Farm’s growth through advocacy and volunteer efforts. The Friends of the UBC Farm is a constituted club of the Alma Mater Society and has coordinated many student and community initiatives in support of the UBC Farm.  Although the club’s membership is primarily UBC student-based, non-students and farm supporters from the broader community are also welcome to join Friends of the UBC Farm. The purpose of the club is to:

• Promote Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm as a world-class academic resource that plays a fundamental role in fulfilling UBC’s sustainability goals.
• Providing outreach and advocacy to encourage sustainability research, education, and community-building initiatives at the UBC Farm.
• Supporting and building partnerships with other regional, national and international food system sustainability-related efforts.

Specific club activities in recent years have included farm fundraisers, liaising as a community partner for a Faculty of Land and Food Systems community-based research nutrition project, “walkabout” tours of the farm, movie nights, outreach booths at community events, parades, farm tours, farm celebrations with other campus organizations such as Sprouts and the LFSUS, farm media promotion, networking with sustainability organizations, farm advocacy through the “Save the UBC Farm” campaign, and organizing special events such as the Scarecrow Festival. In addition, Friends of the UBC Farm is represented on the Cultivating Place Steering Committee and was directly involved in the creation of the UBC Farm academic plan, Cultivating Place. For a brief overview of the Save the Farm campaign and the adoption of Cultivating Place, please see the history page.

The Friends of the UBC Farm blog is a good place to find information about ways to efforts to ensure a bright future for the UBC Farm as well as community activities related to sustainable food and agriculture. UBC Farm staff have provided guest photo gallery posts and other announcements on the Friends of the Farm blog.

Numerous other groups and coalitions have provided support to the UBC Farm over the last decade. Some of these organizations are recognized on the supporters page.