Food Security and Community food programs in Manitoba and Saskatchewan - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Food Security and Community food programs in Manitoba and Saskatchewan

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Title: Food Security and Community food programs in Manitoba and Saskatchewan


1
Food Security and Community food programs in
Manitoba and Saskatchewan
  • Is CED making a difference in food security?
  • SSHRC Congress, Saskatoon 2007
  • Shirley Thompson, University of Manitoba,
  • Paul Fieldhouse, Healthy Living, MB gov

2
Community Food Security
  • a condition in which all residents obtain a
    safe, culturally appropriate, nutritionally sound
    diet through an economically and environmentally
    sustainable food system that promotes community
    self-reliance and social justice!
  • Hamm Bellows

3
Food Insecurity
  • Food insecurity rates across Canada are 9.1
    (9.4 in Manitoba and 8.1 in Saskatchewan)
    (CCHS, 2004).
  • Much higher among households in sub-population
    groups such as
  • - lowest income adequacy quintile (55)
  • - social assistance recipients (62)
  • - Aboriginals (33)
  • Source CCHS, 2004, Shields, 2007.

4
Food Insecurity Interventions
  • Social policy (healthy minimum wages, healthy
    social assistance rates, etc.)
  • Food healthy policy (food charters, ACTNOW! in
    BC requires food security be considered by PH)
  • Community food programs CED (farmer markets,
    community shared agriculture (CSA), buying clubs
    or good food boxes, school breakfast programs,
    community gardens, NHFI, food co-ops, subsistence
    hunting subsidies ).

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6
Pay the Rent or Feed the kids?
  • Table 1 Maximum allowable rent rates allowed by
    Manitoba Family Services on Welfare Cheque
  • According to Canada Mortgage and Housing
    Corporations October 2003 figures, the average
    cost of a 2-bedroom apartment in Winnipeg was
    645.
  • Even the toilet bowl in our place had ice frozen
    over it and I was getting sick of living like
    thatbeing cold and running away from mice For
    this house, lacking in basic sanitation and heat,
    Louise paid 500 per month, 70 over her rent
    budget, with the extra money extracted from her
    food money. I was living on 225 for food with
    3 kids and 2 adults.
  • Miko and Thompson, 2004.

7
Some considerations for Community food programs
  • 1. Production and use of local food and food
    services (e.g., make it, bake it, grow it)
  • 2. Establishment of stable social enterprises
    that foster grassroots decision-making, active
    participation and long term employment for
    community residents.
  • 3. Healthy and affordable food access reach
    many low income people and affordable/marketed to
    low income.

8
Community Economic Development (CED), of Women
and the Economy project, UN Program for Action
Committee (2006).
  • Using local resources to meet local needs while
    at the same time creating healthy and
    economically viable communities.
  • CED is about working with communities to develop
    positive and sustainable processes, not imposing
    a system from outside the community. CED looks
    at all aspects of the economy, not just
    commercial, and is a powerful tool in working
    towards happy, healthy communities (UNPAC, 2006).

9
Method
  • Interviews with people from CBOs,
    observations/tours and 4 workshops with community
    based organizations and 2 government.
  • Consider impact of CED on food security based on
    scale, access to low income, job generation,
    sustainable food systems and government support.

10
Farmers Markets in Saskatchewan
  • Year round or extended period (4-7 months in
    Regina and many other locations and year round 5
    days/week in Saskatoon)
  • Premium prices enable farmers (including urban
    gardeners) and food producers to decent incomes.
  • Funding and support (e.g., 30 million River
    Landing Development funded by all levels of
    government and owned by Saskatoon City.

11
Farmers Markets in Manitoba
  • No markets operate more than 3 -4 months (14 day
    permit for food vendors ( Brandon market shut
    down) has sent out the message that seasonal
    weekly markets only allowed.
  • 2007/08 started to have a Manitobas farmer
    market association.
  • - Limited or no financial support from
    government. St. Norbert market infrastructure
    funded through St. Norbert Foundation wanting to
    revitalize their community.

12
Community Shared Agriculture (CSA)
  • System linking local farm to local consumers who
    purchase subscription shares of the years
    harvest from a local organic farm. CSA
    shareholders provide the start-up capital
    necessary for farmers to purchase seeds, supplies
    and soil amendments and share the risks for
    farming (e.g., poor harvests).
  • EXAMPLES
  • Earthshare CSA (out of business in 2007) provided
    jobs for refugees and immigrants and 150 boxes
    for 12x.
  • Weins farm in Winnipeg -- 400 for 100 boxes,
    12-14x of fresh organic vegetable with work for
    food option.

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16
Child and Health Education Program (CHEP) Good
food box
  • VISION Community where good nutritious food is
    always available for everyone no matter what
    their circumstances, where there is care for the
    environment, support for farmers, access to local
    food production, and knowledge about making
    healthy food choices.
  • Karen Archibald, Executive Director of CHEP
    explains Poor people have less money to risk
    and so the CSA model wont work as if the years
    farming failed people would lose all their food
    money. They need to get good value and every week
    we show how much more the produce would cost if
    bought in a regular store. Delivery with respect
    is provided when there is need due to lack of
    transportation. The box is meant to balance out
    food bank use, which is a lot of starches and no
    fresh fruit/vegetables. A CED approach requires
    that we listen respectfully and are responsive to
    our members needs.

17
CHEP
  • Buys legumes, fruits and vegetables in volume to
  • fill 1000-1800 good food boxes a month,
  • community kitchens and
  • provide 35 schools/organizations breakfast and/or
    lunch programs daily.
  • Delivered bi-monthly to 75 volunteer drop-off
    locations, having a
  • 17 regular fruit and vegetable box,
  • 12 small fruit and vegetable box,
  • 30 organic box.
  • 5 boxes to three aboriginal communities
    Mistowassis, White Cap and Beardee in the
    Saskatoon area and
  • mini stores in seniors apartments.

18
CHEP funding
  • Income from good food box sales provides about
    two thirds of good food box funding.
  • The Province of Saskatchewan has granted core
    funding since 1991, and now provides about
    400,000 annually, almost one third of CHEPs
    budget of over 1 million.
  • Other funding comes from the City of Saskatoon
    and the United Way, as well as private
    fundraising, donations and partnerships.

19
The Northern Healthy Foods Initiative (NHFI)
  • Community-based intervention funded by the
    provincial government of Manitoba, which is
    designed to increase access to affordable
    nutritious food in Northern Manitoba communities.
  • NHFI team includes
  • Aboriginal and Northern Affairs
  • Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives
    (MAFRI)
  • Healthy Living
  • Manitoba Conservation
  • Healthy Child Manitoba

20
Food security issues in Northern Manitoba
  • High costs
  • Decline of hunting and fishing
  • Trading of traditional foods limited by Indian
    Act
  • Freight costs
  • High diabetes and obesity rates
  • Treaty Land Rights
  • Northern Store monopoly
  • (Northern Food Prices Steering Committee, 2003
    Usher, 2004, Thompson, 2006)

21
TO BE REPLACED BY UPDATED SLIDE
22
NIHB Expenditures In Manitoba Region by Benefit
(FY 2003/2004
2.8M
48.5M
17.3M
5.6M
53.5M
Total 127.8 M
23
Food Access Model
24
Projected Number of People with Diabetes MB First
Nations, 1996-2016
Source http//www.gov.mb.ca/health/publichealth/
epiunit/docs/storm.pdf Diabetes treatment
prevalence is 4.2 times higher for First Nations
people compared to all Manitobans (18.9 vs
4.54)

25
Making it work the Community-based organizations
(CBOs)
  • 1) Bayline Regional Roundtable
  • 2) Northern Association of Community Councils
    (NACC)
  • 3)Four Arrows Regional Health Authority Inc. and
  • 4)Frontier School Division.
  • CBOs build capacity in local production of food
    for local consumption, choose nutritional foods,
    implement strategies to lower the cost for
    healthy foods, leverage funding for projects, and
    create food based economic development
    opportunities.

26
Solutions that are working NHFI Pilot project
in 17 communities?
  • 1) community gardens (273)
  • 2) greenhouse pilot projects (3-5 )
  • 3) increasing access to nutritious commercial
    food (direct buy, retail, federal food mail
    subsidy, co-ops, etc).
  • 4) school nutrition (healthy lunch/breakfast,
    education)
  • 5) increasing access to country foods (hunting,
    fishing, berries, production, etc).
  • 6) food preservation (freezer, cold cellars,
    canning)
  • Other (poultry production, etc)

27
Standard community garden plot 25x50ft
Photocredit Jessica Paley
28

Photocredit Jessica Paley
29
Standard size composter for community garden plot
composting enriches poor soil and reduces waste.
Testing soil
Photocredit Jessica Paley
30
Northern Healthy Food Initiative
Photocredit Manitoba Food charter
31
Photocredit Manitoba Food Charter
32
Proposed Evaluation Components.
  • Collect indicators for each of 17 communities
    through CBOs, community assessment and/or by
    observation in 10 communities.
  • Day of Focus groups at Harvest Forum 2008 for
    20-40 people divided into two to four different
    focus groups.
  • Interviews, document analysis and SWOTs carried
    out with NHFI team and CBOs about NHFI.
  • Surveys provided to participants in different
    programs (school breakfast/lunch program, school
    greenhouse education, community garden, freezer
    projects, etc).
  • Community-based assessment with 3 to 10
    communities
  • Household food security survey randomly chosen
    carried out with 50-100 people in at least 3
    communities AND 50-100 people in 3
    non-participating communities

33
Conclusion
  • CHEP and NHFI programs provide regional models of
    how CBOs can focus efforts on access to healthy
    affordable food that reduce population level food
    security. They benefit all BUT need some external
    on-going supports/funding.
  • Food programs at neighbourhood scale have little
    reach and are often short-term .
  • Farmers markets and CSAs provide limited or no
    benefit to low income consumers while being a
    business incubator and providing local, more
    sustainable food to middle/high income.

34
Community Food AssessmentSteps
  • Organize
  • Identify a group of key stakeholders
  • Organize initial meeting(s)
  • Determine the groups interest in conducting an
    assessment
  • Identify and recruit other participants,
    representing diverse interests and skills
  • Plan
  • Determine assessment purposes and goals
  • Develop an overall plan and decision-making
    process
  • Recruit and train staff and volunteers as needed
  • Create evaluation plan

35
  • Research
  • Determine appropriate research methods
  • Collect and analyze data from existing and
    original sources
  • Summarize assessment findings
  • Report
  • Develop recommendations and action plan
  • Develop communications strategy
  • Clearly frame and articulate the message
  • Disseminate findings to residents and
    policymakers through meetings and materials
  • Develop specific policy recommendations
  • Evaluate and celebrate assessment outcomes

36
Potential Benefits of Community Food Assessments
  • Involve and Empower the Community
  • Engage residents in collaborative learning about
    food-related needs and resources
  • Build capacity for effective, collaborative
    action to improve the community
  • Improve Existing Programs and Create New Ones
  • Identify gaps and potential for improvement
  • Increase community awareness and utilization of
    existing resources
  • Develop Advocacy Skills and Change Public Policy
  • Build residents skills to organize and advocate
    for policy change
  • Educate media and policymakers with compelling,
    research-based results
  • Improve Access to Healthy Foods
  • Increase availability of local, fresh produce in
    stores, schools, etc.
  • Improve the selection of products available in
    neighborhood stores
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