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Last updated
July 27/10
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Building Community Food Security
Food Security Network Newsletter - July/09
Posted July 4/09
The Manitoba Food Charter wants to know about your
community group's needs surrounding food preservation. We have a few
different ideas about how to help everyone eat locally year round and are
looking for your feedback! Please review the following initiatives and talk to
your members about them. If you are able to give us an idea of how many people
would be interested in each opportunity we can focus our efforts where there is
the most demand.
1) Canning workshops
Resources are available to host a series of canning
workshops throughout the city in August. Facilitators will pass on their
expertise in community kitchen spaces to small groups up to a maximum of 10-12
participants. Fruits and vegetables from local Manitoban farms will be provided.
If there is sufficient interest, workshops on drying and freezing / blanching
may be held as well, or in conjunction with canning.
2) Canning Collective
This is a new initiative geared towards people interested
in preserving local foods, but who are faced with time, money and storage
barriers. Members of the collective would share the time it takes to preserve a
variety of fruits and vegetables using different methods, as well as share costs
by purchasing bulk amounts of raw foods together. As an example of how the
collective may choose to operate, each member would sign up to attend one of
three canning sessions and receive a share of all three items preserved by the
entire group. Those interested will meet to discuss and work out the details
surrounding this new idea. We plan to coordinate an initial meeting before July
21st.
3) Portable Dehydrator
The idea of building a dehydrator that could be
transported by a bicycle has been floating around for some time. The dehydrator
would be available for community gardens and other groups interested in
preserving foods to rent out / borrow. We would like to know what sort of demand
exists for sharing such a tool. There are also some resources available for
workshops on how to build dehydrators if groups want to invest in having their
own on site.
4) Pressure Canner
The Manitoba Food Charter has a pressure canner that is
available. We would like to set up a schedule for renting it out to groups doing
their own canning.
Please assess your group's interest in each one of these
opportunities and get back to us as soon as possible. Let us know how many
people would be interested in participating in canning workshops and/or joining
a collective. If other ideas of how to encourage food preservation surface,
please pass them on too! The sooner we know where help is needed, the sooner we
can get everyone eating locally together. Looking forward to hearing back from
everyone soon.
Thank-you
Margo Malabar
Food Security & Greening Facilitator
NECRC
ph: 927-2342
Accessing Healthy
Foods Community Discussion
By Margo Malabar
The
Accessing Healthy Foods Community Discussion was held On March 31 at Mamawi
with 18 community service agency representatives in attendance. It was sponsored
by the North End Food Security Network in response to requests at a recent
community forum to address the lack of healthy affordable food in our community.
Some of the conclusions from the discussion were
as follows.
There has been
an erosion of the family unit as a venue for the next generation to learn how to
plan, shop, and prepare nutritious meals. Currently community places provide a
significant amount of food to children and youth in our neighbourhoods because
there is such a need to feed the hungry, and basic needs must be met before
people can improve their lives...
(Read
full article)
North End Food Security Network
By Margo Malabar (reprinted from
The Point Community News, March 2009)
The North End Food Security Network (NEFSN)
was established in October 2007 and includes representatives from a variety of
community groups. Our mission is to establish a network in the North End of
Winnipeg that is able to provide education and resources to all residents, with
the ultimate goal of creating a stronger, more sustainable and equitable food
system. To date, NEFSN has compiled an inventory of food security activities and
needs through community consultations and a forum.
The network's vision is a community where
there is nutritious, safe and culturally appropriate food available for all
residents, access to local food production, adequate and appropriate knowledge
of healthy food choices, and ongoing care and improvement of the environment.
...(Read full article)
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MINUTES OF THE
COMMUNITY GARDEN MEETING
HELD AT NORTH POINT DOUGLAS
WOMEN'S CENTRE ON MAY 7, 2009 @ 5:30P.M
Present: Yvonne Clement, Candace Nykiforuk, Tyson
Cormack, Leah Decter,
Jo Shepherd, Victor Sawelo, Travis Mawson, Grey Coulson, Elaine Bishop,
Charlotte Burch, Arron Sanduliak, Jenny Beckman, Sharon Payette, Flo,
Margo Malabar, Khalir McGiffen, Eva, Linda Williams
l
Introductions: Linda opened the meeting and
invited everyone to introduce
themselves and then have some pizza.
l Victor
from the Ross House Museum gave a short history of the Museum, which was the
first post office in Western Canada west of Thunder Bay. The Ross House
Museum is located at 140 Meade Street N. Between Sutherland and Euclid in
the Joe Zuken Heritage Park, Winnipeg.
The Ross House Museum is open
10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Wednesday Through Sunday, June 1 – August 31. There
is no admission fee and it is operated by the Manitoba Historical Society in
Co-operation with the City of Winnipeg. The following is an excerpt from
the pamphlet of the very rare Museum situated right in this
neighborhood:
“Ross House was originally
built on the shores of the Red River at the foot of Market Avenue behind the
place where the Museum of Man and Nature now stands. At one time in its
history it was used as an office for a construction company. In 1949, the
Manitoba Historical Society, in conjunction with the City of Winnipeg, took
possession of Ross House and moved it to Higgins Avenue, across from the
Canadian Pacific Railway passenger station.
The Museum was moved to its
current location in Joe Zuken Heritage Park in 1984. Ross House plays an
important part in the overall interpretation of the park. The construction
of Ross House is a prime example of a Red River frame building. The
building itself is as much a part of the Museum as the artifacts it
contains. It is made almost entirely of oak timber obtained downstream.
All the logs used for construction were hand carved.
The Museum hosts an
interpretation exhibit as well as rooms set to reflect the life of the Ross
family when their home served as the post office.
l
Charlotte and Victor explained the work that
had been done in the past at the Ross Museum garden in North Point Douglas.
Basically, Charlotte and and Sara tended to the garden with some youth when
available. They more than welcome greater participation from residents,
youth, and everybody.
l
Elaine described food security as a basic
right to have healthy, affordable food locally grown rather than importing
it from across the world, and/or depending on food banks. Growing your own
food saves you money for other things.
l
Linda discussed some of the work she and
others had done in gardens in the West Broadway neighborhood when nobody had
ever heard of a community garden. The community garden movement has grown
exponentially and it is fantastic to meet so many people at the meeting
today interested in gardening in Point Douglas. Growing your own food not
only saves money, but, gardens such as Butterfly Gardens helps the survival
of the urban ecosystem.
The North Point Douglas
Women's Centre has been granted two Urban Green Team positions from May –
August, 2009. Hopefully, two new people will be at our next meeting. Their
grant is to develop community gardens in the area and regular neighborhood
maintenance, which includes safety audits and clean-ups of streets,
parks, boulevards and Main Street. We have some funds for garden equipment,
soil, etc. but she is planning to secure some funds to hire local teenage
youth to assist in the gardens, too. Linda also had a meeting with Karen
Dueck from Boys and Girls Club and she is very interested in developing
gardens in the area and having her Rotary youth work with us as much as
possible.
l
Tyson and Leah marked the garden plots on a
map that they have been working on with Carl from the City of Winnipeg. The
City now has a policy in place which allows neighborhoods to garden on empty
lots without being disturbed during the entire growing season. The lots
they have identified are:
-
Norquay Community Centre,
-
across the street from 83 Euclid,
-
95
Euclid,
-
159
Euclid,
-
beside 77 Granville,
-
empty lot end of Higgins,
-
and
another lot suggested by Wendy Reger which is owned by Dakota Ojibwa –
next door to 121 Hallet.
Community Garden Meetings are every Tuesday @ 5:00
p.m. at North Point Douglas Women's Centre, 221 Austin St. - 947-0321
Tyson will
post notices on poles before next meeting and Linda will send a notice about
regular Community Garden meetings on Tuesdays @ 5 p.m. to websites in North
Point Douglas.
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Manitoba Food
Security Network
The City That Ended Hunger
Announcement from Abra Brynne, Project
Coordinator, Building Community Food Security
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Building Community Food Security "Bits & Bytes" website
I am delighted to announce the launch of the "Bits & Bytes" website:
http://www.bitsandbytes.ca/
The Building Community Food Security with Bits & Bytes Project, in
collaboration with Food Secure Canada, has created an online food security
resource database. It will be a living, ever-growing cornucopia of
freely-accessible, community food security resources.
An intuitive user-interface ensures that people with minimal computer
skills or on slow-speed internet will still be able to navigate the site and
locate the information they are seeking. Fashioned after Wikipedia, the
database will grow through the submissions and comments of the food security
community who use it. In this way, it will continue to expand in richness
and content, with a focus on credible, practical, accessible information
that will be of use to community activists, academics, policy makers,
farmers and anyone interested in food security. Content covers a range, from
community kitchen recipes to the use of comfrey in compost tea, from food
miles to nutrition, from food charters to farmers markets, from food
sovereignty to hunger...
The database hosts a range of media, from various document types to video
and audio files. All database content will be searchable. Anyone can search
the site but to post comments or upload your own material - which we
encourage whole heartedly! - you must register on the website.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of Interior Health and the funders.
This project is funded in part by the Community Food Action Initiative and
the Government of Canada’s Social Development Partnerships Program.
Please share this information widely with your colleagues, friends and
networks. in good food, Abra
Abra Brynne
Project Co-ordinator
Building Community Food Security with Bits & Bytes
PO Box 684
Nelson, BC Canada V1L 5R4
250.352.5342 (GMT - 8)
info@bitsandbytes.ca
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