Locally-grown food and how it can help low income families was the focus of an afternoon seminar hosted by the Centre Wellington Social Justice Group.
The March 29 seminar attracted about 80 people to the Aboyne hall to discuss food-growing options related to poverty in the township, with a goal of establishing two programs members would concentrate on in the community.
Paul Holyoke, chair of the group, said the intent of the meeting was to find priorities on which the group can focus.
“We’ve had a lot of great ideas about food and the community,” he told the Advertiser.
Stephanie Toohill, a member of the Wellington Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, which supports the “food school” at Centre Wellington District High School, also attended the seminar.
“The event was a valuable opportunity in starting an important conversation between many local food growers, producers and suppliers and giving them the opportunity to create new relationships and ideas for building a more resilient community by supporting and sharing local food together,” said Toohill.
“I am looking forward to seeing all the ideas bring positive change for food sharing in Centre Wellington.”
It was a sentiment shared by Anita Macfarlane, Community Program Director of Food and Friends, who was one of the speakers at the seminar.
Food and Friends is one of five programs of the Children’s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington, Macfarlane said.
“We support student nutrition programs in local schools in Wellington, Dufferin and Guelph. The programs supported by Food and Friends provide a good start to the day by serving healthy food in a safe and inclusive environment,” she told those attending the seminar.
“Many children go to school unprepared to learn – they have not had the right nourishment, which makes it difficult for them to focus.
“Food and Friends helps children reach their full potential by making sure that children hunger for knowledge and not food.”
In Centre Wellington the group operates 11 student nutrition programs serving 2,850 students.
“That’s almost 10% of the population,” Macfarlane said.
The Ministry of Children and Youth Services provides 15 per cent of the funding for the nutrition program.
The ministry has really taken a lead in encouraging local food procurement, Macfarlane said.
One of its guiding principles for student nutrition programs is “to offer Ontario grown and/or produced foods when available and practical, and to purchase food locally where possible,” she added.
Throughout the guidelines, choosing Ontario first and looking for the Foodland Ontario symbol when shopping are encouraged, she added.
“There are challenges that present themselves for purchasing local food, especially for our rural programs. Distance is the number one reason why student nutrition program coordinators find it difficult to purchase local,” Macfarlane said.
“Markets are located quite a distance from some of the schools, and with many of our coordinators being volunteers, it is just more practical for them to go to the grocery store close by.
“Another challenge for our programs is that they are on a very tight budget and sometimes local food is more costly.”
As part of the Healthy Kids Strategy, the province is investing an additional $3 million in developing new student nutrition programs over the next two years.
The funding will go toward the hiring of food distribution and logistics coordinators across the province.
The role of the coordinator is to focus on local food procurement, storage and distribution of food produced locally.
“I cannot tell you how excited we are at Food and Friends that the province has taken this initiative to support local food procurement in our communities,” Macfarlane said.
“We look forward to seeing what this will look like and how this will affect our local programs in a positive way.”
