Building Community Food Security

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

Announcement from Abra Brynne, Project Coordinator, Building Community Food Security

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

Updates

January 18/11 - Fruit Share is dedicated to picking, sharing and enjoying fresh fruit growing in backyards throughout Winnipeg, Manitoba. We connect fruit owners with volunteer fruit pickers to make good use of all that delicious, nutritious local fruit.

How Does It Work?

Fruit owners make their fruit available for picking by registering with Fruit Share. Volunteers, who have also registered with Fruit Share, are coordinated and dispatched to pick the fruit. Once picked, the fruit is shared three ways. One third goes to the homeowner (if desired), one third is split between the volunteers and one third is given to community organizations that can use the fruit (eg. Winnipeg Harvest, Siloam Mission, seniors at Fred Tipping Place, etc.). Everyone benefits!

If anyone is interested in joining fruitshare or receivng further information on their 2011 plans please click on the following link:

http://fruitsharewinnipeg.blogspot.com/p/program-overview.html

January 18/11 - A friendly reminder to you all that there are some interesting events happening soon!

The Growing Local Conference, February 24-26

General information can be found at the following link, including workshop topics and registration.
http://www.foodmattersmanitoba.ca/content/growing-local-conference

YOUTH!
On Friday, February 25, the conference will feature a Youth Gathering http://www.foodmattersmanitoba.ca/content/youth-gathering

The Conference is being held at the University of Winnipeg, registration information is available through the links provided. Youth can attend at an exceptionally reasonable rate! A buffet lunch is included in registration and the workshop topics for Youth look fantastic: Beekeeping, Cheese Making demonstration, Food Sculptures and Aboriginal Foods.

Edibles Workshop: Saturday, February 19th, 9am - 3:30pm

Right in the North End, at the William Norrie Center at 485 Selkirk!
Come spend a wintery day learning about the plants we eat: foods, teas and medicines. Share what you know, learn something new, and find information and support for eating and living healthy in your community! We are honoured to have Audrey Logan, Dave Daniels and David Neufeld to share with us that day. Lunch provided.

More Spring and Summer Workshops to come...stay tuned!

Alexis and Margo
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Alexis Nazeravich
Food Security and Greening Assistant

Margo Malabar, Food Security and Greening Facilitator

North End Community Renewal Corporation/North End Food Security Network
509 Selkirk Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2W 2M6

Phone: 204.927.2342; Fax: 204.582.2801