Food for Generations

01 · The Problem

We Have Forgotten How to Feed Ourselves.

Something has gone profoundly wrong in the relationship between British Columbians and their food. In two generations, we have moved from a culture where most families had some direct relationship with growing food — a garden, an allotment, a grandparent who farmed — to one where the knowledge of how food is produced has all but disappeared from urban life.

The numbers tell a stark story. 80% of BC's population now lives in urban centres. Yet less than 2% work in primary food production. The average bite of food travels over 1,500 kilometres before it reaches a Vancouver plate. The grocery supply chain that feeds us is four or five corporate decisions wide — and extraordinarily brittle. Meanwhile, prime agricultural land across the Fraser Valley is being carved up for industrial, commercial, and residential development, and the knowledge of how to farm — the craft, the ecology, the seasonal intelligence — is being lost with each generation that chooses not to inherit it.

This is not an accident. It is the predictable outcome of a food system designed to commodify and financialise what should be a commons. And it is the system our children are inheriting.

The most important infrastructure we own is the soil beneath our feet. And we have forgotten it exists.

Food for Generations · A 12-Year Journey to Food Sovereignty

The Root Cause

Three Separations. One Generation.

The urbanisation wave and the industrialisation of food did not just change where we live — they severed three relationships that human communities have depended on for ten thousand years. Understanding these breaks is the first step to repairing them.

🌱

Separation I

People ↔ Land

Eighty percent of us now live in cities, the majority with no direct access to soil. The embodied knowledge of how land behaves — its seasons, its needs, its rhythms — has been replaced by a supply chain. We have become consumers of a geography we no longer know.

🌾

Separation II

People ↔ Food

Commodification and financialisation have made food a product to be traded, not a relationship to be tended. The average person cannot name the farm that grew their last meal, the variety of apple in their bag, or the region that produced the grain in their bread. Food has become anonymous.

🌳

Separation III

People ↔ Future

Short-termism — the defining logic of extractive capital — has eliminated generational stewardship thinking. We no longer plant orchards we will not live to harvest. We no longer hold land in trust for grandchildren. The future has been financialised out of our field of vision.

02 · The Vision

Plant the World's Biggest, Boldest Food Forest — One Classroom at a Time.

What if every child in BC spent their entire school life learning to grow food, and graduated with their own guaranteed plot of farmland? What if every school had a living Food Forest that belonged to it — a Class Farm that each grade planted and passed forward, growing richer with every cohort? What if the act of sending your child to school also meant investing in their food future at fifty cents a day?

That is the proposal at the heart of Food for Generations — a K–12 programme built on the Block Share platform that combines ecological education, community micro-investment, complementary currency, and the Permanent Land Trust to give every graduating student something no university degree currently offers: a Basic Community Food Guarantee.

Note: "Food for Generations" is the working programme title. A dedicated programme name — one that carries its own identity beyond Block Share — may be established as the initiative matures and its community of stewards takes ownership of it.

¢50

per school day — the investment that builds a food future

Square Metres

of Farmland Credits per graduating student

888

Acres

of commons farmland per graduating BC class

03 · The Core Offer

The Basic Community Food Guarantee

At the centre of this programme is a simple, radical promise: every child who passes through the K–12 system accumulates 1 square metre of Farmland Credits per year of school. By graduation, they hold 12 square metres of access rights to community farmland — rights that are portable, inheritable, and permanent.

Twelve square metres is enough to largely sustain a committed DIY farmer. Two partners combining their allotments (24 m²) can support a small family through a growing season. At full participation across BC's 300,000 students, the programme adds 74 acres of community farmland to the commons every single year.

m² at graduation

Every K–12 graduate holds Farmland Credits for 12 square metres of community farmland access — their Basic Food Allotment for life.

¢50

per school day

$100/year or $1,200 over 12 years of school — less than a weekly coffee — acquires 1 m² of Farmland Credits per year.

ways to participate

Work your own plot as a DIY Farmer. Receive a 5–10% Crop Share from the managing farmer. Or gift your allotment to the Community Food Pool.

∞

generations

Farmland Credits are portable within the network, inheritable by family members, and held in Permanent Land Trust — removed from speculation forever.

This is not a scholarship programme. It is not a subsidy. It is a stake — a direct ownership interest in the community food commons, earned through twelve years of learning how to tend it.

04 · The Programme

From Terrarium to Farm: The Classroom-to-Land Pipeline

Food for Generations is not a one-time event. It is a twelve-year journey with four deepening stages of engagement, each age-appropriate and each building on the last.

Terrarium — The Classroom (K–Gr. 3)

Every class begins with a living terrarium — a sealed ecosystem that models the basics of soil, water, and plant life. The permanent class version becomes a historic relic passed forward to each cohort. The take-home version goes to the family.

Outdoor Classroom — Class Food Forest (Gr. 4–7)

Each school works toward its own Class Food Forest — a 1-hectare polyculture plot tended by the class and a permanent Teaching Farmer employed on-site. The forest planted in Grade 4 is more mature by Grade 7, and richer still when a new cohort inherits it.

Field to Table — Prepare, Plant, Tend, Harvest, Preserve (Gr. 8–10)

Field trips to Class Farms, riverside plots, and community sites complete the full cycle: seed selection, soil preparation, planting, tending, harvesting, preserving, and contributing to the Seed Bank. Surplus is gifted to the Community Food Pool.

Farmland Credits & Graduation — The Guarantee (Gr. 11–12)

By graduation, each student holds 12 m² of Farmland Credits — registered on the Block Share network as a permanent, portable, inheritable micro-asset. The Basic Community Food Guarantee is fulfilled.

Food for Generations: Reclaiming the Commons — infographic showing the Classroom-to-Land Pipeline, three stages from Living Terrarium to Farmland Credits & Graduation, and the 3rd Way Infrastructure

Food for Generations · Reclaiming the Commons — The Classroom-to-Land Pipeline

05 · The Scale

What 300,000 Students Can Build

BC's K–12 system enrols approximately 300,000 students. Even at modest participation rates, the cumulative farmland commons this programme can build over a generation is transformative.

Timeframe	Farmland Added	What It Means
Year 1 — full participation	~74 acres	300,000 m² added to commons
First graduating class (12 yrs)	888 acres	Per cohort — a living, working food commons
7–10 generations	BC-wide Commons Land Base	A province-wide network of community-stewarded farmland

The land planted in Grade 1 is a mature food forest when today's students become grandparents. Food for Generations. Land for Generations. Resilience for Generations.

Food for Generations: Building a Lifetime Food Guarantee — infographic showing the 12-year journey to sovereignty, the Power of the Commons (¢50/day, Permanent Land Trust, 12m² Foundation for Life), and Transformative Scale over Generations

Food for Generations · Building a Lifetime Food Guarantee — Transformative Scale Over Generations

05b · Beyond Food

The Commons Land Base Extends Further Than Food.

Farmland is the foundation — but the programme's land-commons logic applies equally to forest cover and recreational land. These are parallel streams within the same Permanent Land Trust framework, acquired at different cost points and serving different but complementary community needs. Together, they build a BC-wide commons that feeds, breathes, and gathers.

🌾

Farmland

Food Production Land

888 ac

Per graduating BC cohort. Polyculture strips, riverside plots, and Class Farm plots — held in PLT, tended by graduates and their communities for life.

🌲

Forest Acreage

Carbon & Biodiversity Land

~10%

Approximate cost of farmland. Acquired in parallel — buffers, hedgerows, and woodland reserves that sequester carbon, shelter wildlife, and protect the watershed alongside every farm.

⛺

Recreational Land

Seasonal & Heritage Land

For all

Hiking trails, camping sites, and seasonal gathering places — acquired under the same PLT framework, accessible to all community members as a shared commons for rest, play, and connection to the land.

The same ¢50/day logic that builds a food commons can, over time, build a complete land commons — food, forest, and freedom to roam.

06 · How It Works — For Schools

The Tools That Make the Guarantee Real

Food for Generations is powered by two interlocking systems already built within the Block Share platform — brought together in a school-facing programme for the first time. Both are designed specifically to serve the student and family experience.

Community Credyts (CC)

Community Credyts is the complementary currency that denominates everything: Farmland Credits, plot rentals, labour exchange, and Crop Share payments. Every ¢50/day family contribution, every hour of farm labour, every harvest shared with the Community Food Pool — all accounted for in CC. Credyts are not speculative: they are backed by the 33/33/33 formula — one third cash reserve, one third community labour, one third community assets — so the currency is always grounded in real productive capacity.

The Permanent Land Trust (PLT)

The legal vehicle that holds the farmland forever — outside the speculative market, outside government ownership, outside corporate reach. No administration can defund it. No developer can acquire it. No individual can speculate on it. The PLT is the reason the Basic Community Food Guarantee can be made at all: land that cannot be bought cannot be taken away. For school communities, the PLT also offers a residential model — affordable urban living for teachers, parents, and community members — as a natural extension of the same stewardship ethic.

The 3rd Way: not government-owned, not privately-owned. Community-stewarded — for generations.

06b · The Broader Block Share Ecosystem

Food for Generations Is One Programme in a Larger Platform.

While schools and families interact primarily through Community Credyts and the PLT, Food for Generations sits within the wider Block Share community economy platform. Two additional tools connect the school programme to neighbourhood-scale action:

Block Budgeting

Each city Block and Super-Block runs its own micro-budget for plot development, food tower installation, and community site activation. Families who are already Block Share participants can invest CC through their Block Budget into their child's Class Farm — a micro-investment that follows the child through school. Riverside plots and demo sites are collectively funded at the Block level, with PLT bequests of corner lots, full lots, and river strips building a permanent neighbourhood asset base that outlasts any individual family's involvement.

The Rent-to-Own Commons Model

Beyond the school programme, any Block Share participant — parent, grandparent, neighbour, or farmer — can pay a monthly fee in CC to gradually acquire Farmland Credits as a Commons Asset. This is the adult pathway into the same land commons the school programme builds from the other direction. Farmland Credits are portable within the network and inheritable: credits can be transferred to family members or gifted to the Community Food Pool, ensuring that no allotment is ever wasted.

07 · The Rollout

Four Phases. Four Seasons of Growth.

Phase 1

Seed

Now → 6 months

Game of Towers at John Oliver Secondary (April 5–8). Terrarium kits. Cypress St. demo site. First Allot-Me pilot. BCFG framework ready for school board presentation.

Phase 2

Sprout

6–18 months

Class Farm pilots at 3–5 schools. First Farmland Credits cohort launched. False Creek Elementary as first urban PLT integration. First 1-hectare Grade 1 planting.

Phase 3

Root

18 months → 7 years

City-wide school network. Riverside plots planted in Grade 1 waves. 74 acres/year added to commons. First cohort graduates with 12 m² Farmland Credits.

Phase 4

Forest

7–70 years

Grade 1 orchards mature as students become grandparents. 888 acres per graduating class. The PLT holds all land in perpetuity. The 3rd Way is operational.

Support These Projects

Every contribution plants something that outlasts us.

Food for Generations, the Block Share platform, and the Permanent Land Trust are community-built and community-funded. There is no corporate backer. There is no government grant. There is only the growing number of people who believe the 3rd Way is worth building. Find your level.

🌱

One-Time Gift

Plant a Seed — Contribute What You Can

A one-time donation directly funds programme development, terrarium kits, school presentations, and the first Class Farm pilots. Every dollar goes into building the infrastructure, not into overhead.

Donate →

📅

Monthly Pledge

Become a Sustaining Supporter — From $5 / Month

A monthly pledge is the most powerful form of support — it gives the programme the predictability to plan, hire Teaching Farmers, and expand school by school. Start at $5/month and scale as the movement grows.

Pledge Monthly →

🎙️

Book a Talk, Workshop, or Presentation

Bring Food for Generations to Your School, Block, or Group

Ward Stirrat and the Block Share team are available for talks, lectures, workshops, and presentations — for school assemblies, PAC meetings, neighbourhood groups, community centres, university classes, and professional associations. We bring the terrarium. You bring the curiosity.

Book Now →

🌳

The Ultimate Contribution

Pledge Your Land — For Generations.

If you own farmland, a corner lot, a riverside strip, or acreage — and you want it protected from speculation forever — the Permanent Land Trust is ready to receive it. Vest your land (retain income during your lifetime) or bequest it (gift it on your terms). Either way, it becomes part of a community commons that cannot be bought, sold, or developed. It feeds families and stewards the land for seven generations and beyond.

Start the Conversation →

Not ready to commit just yet? That's fine — this is a long game, and you found your way here for a reason.

The most useful thing you can do right now is stay connected and pass it on. Join the mailing list for updates as the programme takes shape — no noise, just progress. Or simply send this page to someone you think should read it.

✉️ Forward to someone who should know →

Stay Connected

Join the Mailing List

Programme updates, school activations, and ways to get involved — when there's something worth saying, we'll say it.

🌱 You're on the list. We'll be in touch as the programme grows — and never more than that.

The best time to revive the Community Commons was a generation ago.
The second best time is now.