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Click on this link to visit: The Manitoba Food Security Network website http://food.cimnet.ca
Contact:
Amy Yonda
Northern Healthy Foods Initiative, Project Coordinator
Northern Healthy Foods Initiative (NHFI)
As a Northern Association of Community Councils Inc. pilot project five communities were randomly selected:
South Indian Lake
Brochet
Sherridon
Granville Lake/Leaf Rapids
Berens River
The main objective of the project is to increase healthy living, promote diabetes awareness and increase community involvement.
One phase of the project is to create community gardens in order to increase accessibility to healthy foods, increase physical activity and involvement within the community.
The main role of NACC is to readily provide and obtain resources according to the needs voiced by the communities. Such as expertise, tools, soil, frames, seeds etc….
In order for 100% success, and increasing the health in our north, NACC will incorporate community visits, to and from communities, including costs for community leaders, and facilitate workshops with fellow community members to map a success route particular to each community.
The goals of this project are to decrease the epidemic of preventable disease such as type 2 diabetes, decrease the cost of healthy living, involving Elders and Traditional Healers in order to integrate old and new ways of healthy living. The project also hypothesizes to bring down costs of purchasing food in northern communities.
Once the needs of the communities are determined NHFI will facilitate community development and process training:
a) Gardening and planting
b) Identify ongoing issues with communities
c) Provide Communities with the information and contacts on suggested inquiries
d) Speculate with communities with positive outcomes and regular agendas regarding NHFI and related issues of social, physical and economical growth.
The theme of creating community gardens is to reduce cost of healthy eating and thus leave spending money for other community needs, also to have healthy foods readily available to community members. Raised beds or above ground gardens, are productive for colder temperatures and are easier for younger gardeners and Elders to be physically involved. Community involvement is the main key for NHFI ongoing success, and the trigger to bond members in a capacity building manner.
Growing for Health!
NACC serves to provide a unified voice for 52 northern communities residing in the Aboriginal Northern Affairs Jurisdiction. We lobby to improve economic, physical and social situations for the communities and their members.
In the past decade diabetes has sky rocketed in remote communities, along with other chronic illnesses. These statistics, such as Aboriginal males are twice as likely to have diabetes compared to non-Aboriginal counterpart, Aboriginal women are three times more likely.
Due to limited or lack of accessibility of nutritious food and high food prices, the health of the communities has been compromised and chronic illnesses have reached pandemic proportions.
In 2003, the Government of Manitoba, Federal Government and non-profit organizations collaborated on a document called the Northern Food Prices Report 2003. This report discusses the multi-faceted issues related to high food prices in northern Manitoba and more importantly discusses strategic options to address economic sustainability in northern communities.
From this report, the Northern Healthy Foods Initiative was derived, and assigned to 3 regions, Bayline Regional Roundtable, Four Arrows Regional Health Authority and NACC. Together there are 18 communities that have the opportunity to start gardens, greenhouses and seed germination.
From next to none, the project implemented over a hundred gardens in the north. With the extensive help from Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Initiative in providing agricultural and technical supports, such as testing soil, advising on type of equipment to purchase for communities, food preservation workshops at harvest time and selecting the best type of vegetables for the northern soils.
In partnership with Frontier School Division seed germination curriculum was implemented for grades 1-8 as part of sciences. A hands on workshop was held in April 2006 in Thompson for teachers from the division learnt soil and vegetable types, were given diabetes activities books, healthy living activities, curriculum handouts and light systems, peat soil and raised beds provided by Aboriginal and Northern Affairs, the projects sole funding.
In closing the project has implemented the following into the NHFI communities:
1) Involved youth by implementing gardening curriculum in schools
2) Sent resources, information, and gardening equipment
3) Sent in vegetables seeds and seedlings compatible to northern soil
4) Soil tested and garden sites and taught champions to do so
5) Visited communities through process to lend advice
6) Allocated resource lists including gardening information, grant and funding information
7) Held community feasts, for success stories and workshops
8) Held food preservation workshops on topics such as dilling, making baby food, cold storage, freezing and canning.
Gardening in actuality is a 2-3 year process; it takes several seasons to work in soil. It is also excellent to begin to save on grocery bills, implement active living and reduce probability of diabetes.
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