Making a Food Project Plan with my Community

Making a Food Project Plan with my Community What is the impact on food security in Aboriginal communities in Northern Manitoba? Northern Harvest Forum, Thompson, 2008 Shirley Thompson, University of Manitoba, kimlee wong, Jane Orihel, Stephanie Davis, Katherine Card, Myrle Ballard NHFI Evaluation Funded by: Institutes of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes, Population & Public Health and Aboriginal People’s Health

What is cooking in your community? a community food assessment (CFA) l l l A collaborative, participatory process to examine food issues broadly to inform change actions to make the community more food secure by looking at resources as well as needs. Its: Community-based involves diverse and key participants emphasizes community participation to empower examines a broad range of community food security issues

Steps to Involve and Empower the Community Get diverse decision-makers and community leaders talking to each other about what’s important – food. l Identify key stakeholders. l Invite the community to input at a meeting. l Get community to envision their community food system. l Develop solutions that integrate quality of life, public health, nutrition, economic development, environment, other.

Community food systems assessments can be used to: l l l l Provide a comprehensive picture of the current state of the food system Inform decision-making and public policy around the food system Establish a long-term monitoring system with a clear set of indicators. Improve program development and coordination Increase community awareness of and participation in food -related projects. Help articulate a vision of what needs to be done in the community to set priorities and goals to improve the local food system Build new and stronger networks, partnerships and coalitions.

Food security Continuum UNSUSTAINABLE Charitable (food provision) Community (empowerment) Sustainability l. Food l. Community l. Redesign banks l. Soup kitchens l. Community gardens l. Farmers markets of the social, economic and political system through sustainable CED to enhance the local food system

10 Tools for Food System Assessments 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Using Demographic Data to Identify Vulnerable populations Focus groups with food vulnerable populations Food costs assessment Food resource mapping Participatory Food mapping Rapid Market Assessment Community Garden Inventory Institutional assessment of local food Stability and Impact of Food-related Social enterprises Food miles calculation

What Northerners said: What do you need in your community to eat healthy? l l “Need community to work together and to use people who know how to farm, talk to farmers and ask them if they could help person to teach how to cultivate that land so that they can expand teach others or the farmers donate / rent tillers. We can produce our own food and that’s what we need to do. ” “I’m hearing that people need to be educated and I agree with that, our main staple is pasta there is so much sugar in pasta and macaroni, that is where a lot of diabetes starts, we need to educate. ”

What you said: What do you need in your community to eat healthy? l “Going back to traditional ways of living, eating off land gardening, we have lost that and now are recapturing it, we can teach future generations to live off land like our ancestors, this is how we started getting chronic diseases by using things we never used before, ancestors gardened, smoked meat and fish etc. Elders are passing on and are taking that knowledge with them. ”

What you said: What do you need in your community to eat healthy? “Need garden, need fertilizers for gardens (fish guts from town) at least you know what you are eating when you get it from someone you know, ie from fishermen. ” l “Important that we are educated as to what we can bring to our communities, especially when it comes to diabetes, to prevent it by gardens and to educate them. ” l

What you said: What do you need in your community to eat healthy? l l “Food intake that promotes health to your body in all aspects, not generic but individual to your body, not everybody has same needs for food, bodies are individual, we digest and adapt differently , depends how your body is, diabetes, high blood pressure, depends on individuals body. ” “In Saskatchewan we started a ‘good food box program’ in Meadowlake, provides 4 types of fruits, 4 veg, lentil and pasta , started with family and now communities involved, buying in bulk makes it cheaper. ”

Questions for stakeholders meeting: Get Cooking Who’s feeding our community and what are we eating? l How can we build a stronger community through better managing local food resources? l How should our local food system look and work in the next five years? l How should our local food system work in 2020? l

Questions for Community Meetings It’s a human right to have adequate and dignified access to healthful foods at all times. l What do community members do when they don’t have it? l What are the barriers? l What are the resources? l What should we do?

Prioritizing l What is the extent of the problem? l What is the level of concern? l What is the support? l What is the underlying cause? l What is the community vision of your food system future?

Projected Number of People with Diabetes MB First Nations, 1996 -2016 Source: http: //www. gov. mb. ca/health/publichealth/ epiunit/docs/storm. pdf

Cooking with the community: Concrete action items to meet concern around food How difficult How important Extremely Important Very Important Easy Medium Hard

Improve Existing Programs and Create New Ones l l l Consider what your community need to eat healthy. Do the programs get you there? Improve existing programs and plans and start some new ones that will make the change. Increase community participation in shaping the food system. Bring new partners in. Increase community awareness and use of existing resources (e. g. , food mail program, MAFRI training, get dieticians to help improve breakfast/lunch program, etc. ).

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Standard size composter for community garden plot composting enriches poor soil and reduces waste. Testing soil

Improve Access to Healthy Foods l l Increase availability of local, fresh produce in stores, schools, etc. Improve the selection of products available in the store in the community and/or start a gardeners/gatherers/crafts/baked goods/fishing/hunting market once a month, timed with paydays Encourage traditional activities (hunting, gardening, fishing) at school and in community Get community events and school events to eat healthy

Food. Shift and Change Public Policy l Builds community members skills to organize and advocate for policy change l Start programs l Educate media and policymakers with compelling, research-based results l Participatory video

Need to Evaluate to keep growing Keep records of participants l Get participants to write their evaluation l Take pictures l Talk to the press l Invite community members to events l Have contests to find out what kind of food is grown and how big they are growing. l

What you said: Is access better now then it was a few years ago? l l l “My community they have been involved for two years, we have received raspberry and strawberry plants, we had a giveaway of 500 each of these plants. In June people were harvesting and canning. Definitely these folks for transportation reasons can’t go to town because of economics. ” “I’ve seen positive motivation in the community. People have contacted our office to see what we are doing next year do see what we are doing in the spring. We were going to do a commercial garden but for vandalism reasons we have decided to help people do their own instead. Going to receive $1000 worth of fruit trees through NHFI and will give away fruit trees and give workshops on how to care for them, will encourage people to share produce. ” “I’ve heard about the freezer project. My community is not considered remote, I would like someone to reconsider this classification so we can be considered eligible for this project. ”