Transcript Slide 1

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
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
MAFRI
Healthy
Living
NHFI TEAM
Healthy
Child
Conservation
Aboriginal and
Northern Affairs
Community
based
organizations
Communities
FNIH
PHAC
Other
Depts
Regional
Health
authorities
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
Northern
Association of
community
councils
-gardens
-Greenhouses
-COMMUNITIES: South
Indian Lake, Brochet ,
Sherridon , Granville
Lake/Leaf
Rapids and
LOWER
Berens
River
PRICES
Frontier School Division
-Veggie Adventure Curriculum
-Germination kits in schools
-- Greenhouses
-Gardens in the Community
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
NHFI community grants
budget
2005/06
Description
($ 000)
2006/07
($ 000)
Regional projects
66
135
"Grow North" grants
47
67
Agricultural support
30
67
Education grants
9
90
Special community projects
5
90
22
30
Program administration
Total
$179K
$479K
Evaluation methods to
date
 Six hour focus group followed by a feast with
25 NHFI community members
 25-30 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)
BetterLOWER
access
PRICES
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 2008.
 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
Northern
Greenhouse
“Veggie
Adventure”
Gardening
Other Local
Agriculture
Special
Projects
Curriculum
8
Communities
This is year
one
“Best
practices”
T
o
Frontier
schools
28 - 30
Communities
Germinating
Large
knowledge
Deficit
in 22
schools
4
Communities
Chickens
Goats
15 Families
160 +
Freezers in
Communities
3
Refrigeration
Units
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
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.”