Northern Healthy Foods Initiative Evaluation Canadian Public Health Association 2009, Winnipeg Shirley Thompson, Paul Fieldhouse, kimlee wong, Asfia Gulrukh, Shauna Zaharuik, Myrle Ballard Funded: CIHR

OVERVIEW  What the heck is the NHFI?  What evaluation?  What results so far.

Northern Food Prices Report 2003 mandated by the Healthy Child Committee of Cabinet Northern Food Prices Report 2003 mandated by the Healthy Child Committee of Cabinet Summary Recommendations 1. Northern Food Self-sufficiency (building community capacity for greater food self-sufficiency) 2. Milk Price Review 3. Northern Food Business Development 4. Northern Community Foods Program (food sharing programs) 5. Northern Greenhouse Pilot Project 6. Northern Gardens Initiative 7. Northern Food Prices Survey

Applause for lack of jurisdictional boundaries  A CBO representative commended the lack of jurisdictional boundary and funding of Provincial northern affairs communities and federal First Nations and credited this largely to the late MLA Oscar Lathlin and Eric Robinson’s insistence on making a difference by putting food on the table in all northern communities.

Service Delivery Model Service Delivery Model Healthy Child NHFI TEAM Healthy Living Conservation Aboriginal and Northern Affairs MAFRI Other Depts FNIH PHAC Regional Health authorities Regional Health authorities Communities Community based organizations

Operationalizing the Report  Commenced 2005 Cabinet approved priorities: 1.Northern gardens 2.Local food self-sufficiency 3.Nutrition awareness 4.Local food business development

NHFI Community Based Organizations Bayline Regional Roundtable -Chicken production -- community gardens --greenhouses -- Freezer loans COMMUNITIES: Cormorant, Wabowden, Thicket Portage, Pikwitonei, Ilford and War Lake FN,Bunibonibee FN & Nelson House LOWER PRICES Northern Association of community councils -gardens -Greenhouses -COMMUNITIES: South Indian Lake, Brochet, Sherridon, Granville Lake/Leaf Rapids and Berens River Four Arrows Regional Health Authority -Gardens -- Freezer loans -- Cold storage at airports --hunting program? -COMMUNITIES: Wasagamack, Garden Hill, St. Theresa Point, and Red Sucker Lake including Stevenson Island Frontier School Division -Veggie Adventure Curriculum -Germination kits in schools -- Greenhouses -Gardens in the Community

NHFI community grants budget 2005/062006/07 Description($ 000) Regional projects "Grow North" grants 4767 Agricultural support 3067 Education grants 990 Special community projects 5 90 Program administration Total$179K $479K

Evaluation methods to date  Six hour focus group followed by a feast with 25 NHFI community members  interviews with community members  3 hour focus group with NHFI team  6 interviews with NHFI and government  8 Interviews with CBO staff or board  Community visits  Workshops with Frontier School Division and Burntwood Regional Health Authority

Evaluation Methods in Future  Household food security surveys (CCHS 2.2 method)  Community visits  Food costing in local northern food stores (healthy food basket) – 2 carried out to date

Household food insecurity rates in Manitoba  Manitoba average 9.4% (First Nation reserves not included), close to the Canadian national average (Health Canada, 2007).  Sub-population groups much lower  Lowest income adequacy quintile (55%), social assistance recipients (62%) and Aboriginals off-reserve (33%) (Health Canada, 2007; Shields, 2005).

COMMUNITY PRIORITIES Food system change to sustainable local food production Local production (GROW NORTH) LOWER PRICES Better access to healthy foods Education

Community Champions Local Capacity  BRRT pays community champions to “pass on the gift” of gardening: “Ag Tech funds pay community experienced gardeners to mentor new gardeners in the community. We just have to engage experienced gardeners, offer them some supports and let them teach. That is what we did with our Ag Tech resources again this year.”

Community Gardens  “We were going to have a community garden but for vandalism reasons we have decided to help people do their own garden instead. Going to receive $1000 worth of fruit trees through NHFI to give away. Workshops will be given on how to care for them and will encourage people to share produce.”

CBOs pushing for Policy changes  “We are still trying to work with Family Services and Housing to have freezers identified as an essential appliance for northern families.”  “We also took the initiative from the BRRT to get permission from CMHC and Manitoba Housing to cultivate the land, to put up gardens on these [rental} units. And they gave us the permission. Where before people were scared and weary to garden on land that wasn’t theirs – they were just tenants.

Importance of Community Champions  One representative from a CBO stated that “some people want us to do the entire garden” and “unless people take responsibility the gardens are bound to fail”. Although most communities have a community champion, if it is only one person, an illness or family issues can result in progress halts or reverses.  Volunteers versus non-volunteers

Growing Gardening Clubs: Mel Johnson school, Wabowden  The gardening club grew from ten students in the first year to 45 in  Each student received an 8 foot by 4 foot garden box complete with plants and soil built at the school.  Each week over these summers, Ms. Woitowicz visited the children’s homes to encourage children to care for their gardens and found the children and their family had lots of questions and positive experiences.

Leaf Rapids student’s harvested from school garden and made a soup they shared.

NHFI accomplishments  Communities :28  Gardens: 420  Freezer loans:160 (95 being processed)  Greenhouses: 8  Refrigeration Units:3  Other: Chicken & Goat Farming:15 families  Education events: 3 Veggie Adventure workshops, 3 Northern Harvests, local food preservation and gardening workshops in most communities 

“Grow North” – Activities 8 Communities This is year one “Best practices” Frontier schools Germinating in 22 schools Communities Large knowledge Deficit 4 Communities Chickens Goats 15 Families TotalTotal Freezers in Communities 3 Refrigeration Units Northern Greenhouse “Veggie Adventure” Curriculum “Veggie Adventure” Curriculum Gardening Other Local Agriculture Special Projects

Healing and Motivating CED  “Doing gardening is very healing for the community, because they’re seeing something positive, something that grows, you can put a seed in the ground and it will grow… and that’s a positive thing. And if people start working together and that’s what we’re talking about with community development.

Increasing Community Cohesion  “The program is really popular in the communities…I think that it brings a lot of community togetherness in the program because they’ve developed their own kinds of programs based off gardening. They do community feasts, community meals on wheels. They’ve really expanded and come together.”

What are people from communities saying?  “Need community to work together and to use people who know how to farm, talk to farmers and ask them if they could help person to teach how to cultivate that land so that they can expand and teach others or the farmers donate / rent tillers. We can produce our own food and that’s what we need to do.”  “I’m hearing that people need to be educated and I agree with that, our main staple is pasta there is so much sugar in pasta and macaroni, that is where a lot of diabetes starts, we need to educate.”

Sustainable food: Back to traditional ways  “Going back to traditional ways of living, eating off land and gardening, we have lost that and now are recapturing it. We can teach future generations to live off land like our ancestors, this is how we started getting chronic diseases by using things we never used before. Ancestors gardened, smoked meat and fish etc. Elders are passing on and are taking that knowledge with them.”

Not only gardens were being grown but the expertise of gardeners  “NHFI has been operating for four years and we now have a couple of local experts in gardening… I can see progress. I have spoken to people who will till the ground and will garden in spring. There is progress, which will mushroom over the next few years… Will only go forward not backward.”