Title: Food Security and Community food programs in Manitoba and Saskatchewan
1Food 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
2Community 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
3Food 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.
4Food 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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6Pay 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.
7Some 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.
8Community 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).
9Method
- 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.
10Farmers 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.
11Farmers 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.
12Community 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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16Child 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.
17CHEP
- 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.
18CHEP 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.
19The 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
20Food 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)
21TO BE REPLACED BY UPDATED SLIDE
22NIHB Expenditures In Manitoba Region by Benefit
(FY 2003/2004
2.8M
48.5M
17.3M
5.6M
53.5M
Total 127.8 M
23Food Access Model
24Projected 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)
25Making 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)
27Standard community garden plot 25x50ft
Photocredit Jessica Paley
28Photocredit Jessica Paley
29Standard size composter for community garden plot
composting enriches poor soil and reduces waste.
Testing soil
Photocredit Jessica Paley
30Northern Healthy Food Initiative
Photocredit Manitoba Food charter
31Photocredit Manitoba Food Charter
32Proposed 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
33Conclusion
- 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.
34Community 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
36Potential 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