Introduction€¦ · Web viewEVALUATION REPORT 2008-09. Tammy Horne. WellQuest Consulting Ltd....

Sustaining the Growth: Action on Food Security Across Alberta

EVALUATION REPORT 2008-09

Tammy Horne

WellQuest Consulting Ltd.

(Edmonton)

(780) 451-6145

[email protected]

Prepared for Growing Food Security in Alberta and Dietitians of Canada (Alberta)

June 25, 2009

mailto:[email protected]

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents....................................................................................................................2Introduction............................................................................................................................5

Vision..................................................................................................................................5Mission................................................................................................................................5Description..........................................................................................................................5

Methods and Analysis.............................................................................................................6Key Lessons............................................................................................................................7Detailed Findings....................................................................................................................8

Blood First Nation...............................................................................................................8Creating Capacity Building Initiatives for Food Security................................................8Being Culturally Relevant...............................................................................................9Promoting Local Food.....................................................................................................9Developing Partnerships.................................................................................................9Working with Policy Makers.........................................................................................10Raising Awareness........................................................................................................10Doing Research.............................................................................................................11Leveraging GFSA Resources.........................................................................................11Building Relationships..................................................................................................12

Brooks...............................................................................................................................12Engaging Community....................................................................................................12Building Relationships..................................................................................................13Creating Capacity Building Initiatives for Food Security..............................................13Promoting Local Food...................................................................................................14Being Culturally Relevant.............................................................................................14Developing Partnerships...............................................................................................14Raising Awareness........................................................................................................15Creating Policy Resources............................................................................................15Leveraging GFSA Resources.........................................................................................15

Cold Lake..........................................................................................................................15Engaging Community....................................................................................................15Creating Capacity Building Initiatives for Food Security..............................................16Building Relationships..................................................................................................16Developing Partnerships...............................................................................................16Doing Research.............................................................................................................17Leveraging GFSA Resources.........................................................................................17Raising Awareness........................................................................................................17

Grande Prairie..................................................................................................................18Raising Awareness........................................................................................................18Working with Policy Makers.........................................................................................18Engaging Community....................................................................................................19Building Relationships..................................................................................................19Leveraging GFSA Resources.........................................................................................19Developing Partnerships...............................................................................................19Creating Capacity Building Initiatives for Food Security..............................................20

High Level.........................................................................................................................20Creating Capacity Building Initiatives for Food Security..............................................20Engaging Community....................................................................................................22Building Relationships..................................................................................................22Developing Partnerships...............................................................................................22Working with Policy Makers.........................................................................................23Raising Awareness........................................................................................................23

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Leveraging GFSA Resources.........................................................................................24Doing Research.............................................................................................................24Addressing Hunger Relief.............................................................................................24

Lacombe............................................................................................................................25Creating Capacity Building Initiatives for Food Security..............................................25Promoting Local Food...................................................................................................26Doing Research.............................................................................................................27Building Relationships..................................................................................................27Developing Partnerships...............................................................................................28Raising Awareness........................................................................................................28Addressing Hunger Relief.............................................................................................29Leveraging GFSA Resources.........................................................................................29

Medicine Hat....................................................................................................................29Doing Research.............................................................................................................29Promoting Local Food...................................................................................................30Raising Awareness........................................................................................................30Working with Policy Makers.........................................................................................30Creating Capacity Building Initiatives for Food Security..............................................31

Lloydminster.....................................................................................................................31Engaging Community....................................................................................................31Building Relationships..................................................................................................32Creating Capacity Building Initiatives for Food Security..............................................32Raising Awareness........................................................................................................33Promoting Local Food...................................................................................................33Developing Partnerships...............................................................................................34Leveraging GFSA Resources.........................................................................................34

Sylvan Lake.......................................................................................................................35Engaging Community....................................................................................................35Building Relationships..................................................................................................35Creating Capacity Building Initiatives for Food Security..............................................35Developing Partnerships...............................................................................................36Raising Awareness........................................................................................................37Promoting Local Food...................................................................................................37Leveraging GFSA Resources.........................................................................................37

Summary of Actions Across Communities........................................................................38Update of GFSA’s Provincial Work...................................................................................39

What did GFSA do in 2008/09?.....................................................................................39GFSA Seen as Food Security Resource: Types of Requests for Information or Involvement...................................................................................................................40

Appendix A...........................................................................................................................44Logic Model and Matrix of Outcomes and Indicators.......................................................44

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Introduction

Growing Food Security in Alberta was launched in 2003, and has been sustained through Dietitians of Canada with funding from Public Health Agency of Canada. The following vision, mission and description of GFSA are taken from www.foodsecurityalberta.ca (with slight adaptation).

Vision

All children and families in Alberta have healthy food.

Mission

Engaging Albertans – groups, organizations, business, governments and individuals - in strategies to ensure secure access to adequate amounts of safe, nutritious, culturally appropriate food for everyone, produced in an environmentally sustainable way and provided in a manner that promotes human dignity (adapted from OPHA Food Security Workgroup 2002).

Description

In 2006-2007 GFSA facilitated a process called Community Building for Food Security, to help seven rural communities (a) understand and talk about the social and economic determinants of health, and (b) develop and follow through on action plans to address these issues. The official project name is “Sowing the Seeds from the Provincial Food Security Network – Community Asset Mapping, Capacity Building, and Action Planning for Food Security”. The seven participating communities were High Level, Grande Prairie, Cold Lake, Lacombe, the Blood First Nation, Brooks and Medicine Hat. Two new communities – Lloydminster and Sylvan Lake – were added in 2007-08.

GFSA assisted these rural Alberta communities to build capacity by facilitating a participatory community-conversation process to help community citizens:

http://www.foodsecurityalberta.ca/content.asp?contentid=67&catid=2&rootid=2

http://www.foodsecurityalberta.ca/content.asp?contentid=67&catid=2&rootid=2

http://www.foodsecurityalberta.ca/

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have a mutual understanding of what food security is, address the underlying root causes and the relationship to good

health, find local solutions through the identification of resources, local

alliances and partnership to enhance any existing food security initiatives and encourage new initiatives, and

to develop plans of action specific to their community.

The Community-Building for Food Security (CBFS) workshops were based on two main resources – Community Capacity Building and Asset Mapping (Community Building Resources, 2005) and Thought About Food: A Workbook on Food Security and Influencing Policy (Food Security Projects of the Nova Scotia Nutrition Council and Atlantic Health Promotion Research Centre (2005). The first resource focuses primarily on capacity-building and related issues like how to build relationships and how to identify community assets. The second one emphasizes policy analysis and actions to influence policy – with some emphasis on community capacity-building as well. More information on the content of workshops is available at http://www.foodsecurityalberta.ca/content.asp?catid=36&rootid=3.

Following the workshops, GFSA provides seed funding to each community group to help them develop their action plan. GFSA also assists these groups through teleconferences, an in-person community facilitators’ meeting, and e-mail and telephone support as needed. In 2008-09, GFSA also partnered with other organizations to offer the Food: Today, Tomorrow, Together conference in January of 2009.

Methods and Analysis

Each community involved with growing food security in Alberta submits an action plan. They began this process in 2006-07, and update their plan at several points during each year. All nine communities updated their action plans for 2008-09.

Because these plans are diverse in both content and style, only broad themes are presented for each community, rather than more specific categories. It is easier to compare the proposed actions across communities at that broad level. For the analysis of the 2008-09 plans, I used the 2007-08 themes as a template, and examined content for fit with those themes. These thematic categories evolved throughout the coding process, through use of constant comparison whereby earlier categories are revised as new data is brought into the analysis.1,2 In addition to coding the action plans, I

1 Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative analysis: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

2 Bryson, A. (2004). Social research methods. New York, NY: Oxford.

http://www.foodsecurityalberta.ca/content.asp?catid=36&rootid=3

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also examined some supplementary material such as the community facilitators’ face-to-face meeting in Edmonton and the spring Steering Committee teleconference.3

No new themes emerged for 2008-09, but in some cases they came up in one year but not in the other for a particular community. If a theme emerged from 2007-08 content but not in 2008-09, I made the assumption that the work related to that theme was ongoing or no longer needed. So in those cases I noted that there were “no further updates”, with explanation if necessary. GFSA personnel reviewed a draft of this report to clarify questions I had about some actions, and add any actions that were not captured in the other sources, as they have regular contact with the community facilitators.

Findings for both years are discussed in the sections that follow for each community. These actions will then be summarized across communities and related to outcomes of importance to GFSA.

In addition to supporting actions in the nine communities, GFSA also does provincial-level work. The final section of the report addresses this.

Overall, the evaluation was guided by the GFSA logic model and indicators in Appendix A. Progress on each of the indicators is noted, based on the findings in this report.4

Key Lessons

This section contains the conclusions, or key lessons, from the project evaluation of planned and actual community actions, as well as GFSA provincial-level (and occasionally national) activities. The detailed findings follow this section.

All communities are involved in creating capacity building initiatives for food security, such as community dinners, kitchens, and gardens. For most communities, this has been their main focus and their work in this area has increased and diversified. Capacity building is in the middle of the food security continuum adopted by GFSA.5 The food security continuum begins with hunger relief (such

3 Thank you to Cindy Fendall for coding of notes from the face-to-face facilitators’ meeting in Edmonton.4 Indicators for short-term knowledge outcomes are not included, as these are now assessed internally by GFSA at the CBFS workshops.5 Growing Food Security in Alberta (2004). The food Retrieved April 22 2008 from www.foodsecurityalberta.ca/content.asp?contentid=79&catid=1&rootid=1 security continuum. Edmonton, AB: GFSA.

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as food banks), progresses through capacity-building initiatives like the ones above, and then to policy change/system redesign.

There is somewhat less focus on hunger relief than in the past, though many of the capacity building initiatives also address hunger while involving people as active participants rather than passive recipients of food.

The communities (about half) that are working with policy makers are the same ones that were doing so in 2007-08. It may be beneficial for GFSA to further explore reasons why other communities have not focused on policy and further assist them to do so if they are interested. The upcoming food security/food sovereignty “kitchen table meetings”, sponsored by FoodSecure Canada are policy related, and are being facilitated by GFSA in Alberta. These meetings may encourage communities to become more involved with public policy around food security. The recent release of the “Cost of Living in Alberta 2008” study might also stimulate some policy-related work. As well, the FTTT conference had a strong policy focus and may lead to further ideas and actions around policy.

All communities are doing activities to raise public awareness of their work and of food security more broadly. This includes media work, public presentations and special events.

Almost all communities are focused on building relationships and formal partnerships for action. Partnerships in particular have increased since last year, with communities finding more and more diverse types of partners. There has been increased planning and action around promoting local food, with the majority of communities now doing this, compared to less than half of them in 2007-08. Many of the communities continue to focus on engaging new people who have not previously been involved in food security.

Almost half the communities have been able to gain (leverage) additional funding external to GFSA (or are in the process of doing so). Though the overall number of communities doing this is down slightly, three of the four communities that are leveraging their GFSA support into additional funding are ones that did not do so last year. So across the two years, eight of the nine communities have applied for and/or received funds or donations from beyond GFSA. Having this experience of seeking out other sources of support is important for the long-term sustainability of each community’s initiative.

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There are many similarities among the nine communities in the work that they are doing. This is not surprising given the opportunities they have to learn from each other through GFSA Steering Committee teleconferences, the face-to-face facilitators’ meeting, the FTTT conference, and ongoing support from GFSA.

GFSA is seen as a resource. Volume of e-mail requests, website traffic and listserv activity is similar to 2007-08, and the listserv continues to add new members. GFSA could review their process for keeping track of GFSA members who change e-mails and are thus lost from the listserv (unless the re-subscribe), in order to stay in more regular contact with them.

The FTTT conference was the highlight of the year, in terms of activities. The digital storytelling workshop was an innovative new approach that GFSA has begun to explore. These two initiatives were evaluated separately, and results for both were generally positive.

Detailed Findings

Blood First Nation

Creating Capacity Building Initiatives for Food Security

2007-08:The Blood First Nation’s Blood Tribe Food Security Committee is planning community kitchens, a community garden and a farmer’s market. The garden was in the planning stages in 2006-07. As well, the Committee is continuing to support the Good Food Box program they were involved in last year. They are also planning to support people develop home gardens, purchase a food truck to distribute healthy produce, and work with local decision makers to develop a grocery store on the reserve (planning for the store has continued from 2006-07). The Committee is looking for ways to link these capacity building initiatives. For example, vegetables harvested from the community garden were sold at a local farmer’s market in the summer of 2007. As of March 2008, the Committee planned to continue its involvement in and support for these initiatives.

2008-09:The community garden did not run this year. However, the community facilitator said, at a face-to-face facilitators’ meeting in Edmonton, that she wants to encourage gardening. The Committee is now also encouraging home gardening. They purchased starter plants to share for home

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gardening, and one of the community facilitators was planning to provide some gardening training.

Being Culturally Relevant

2007-08:The action mentions incorporating the value of traditional foods and methods into their awareness building strategies. As noted earlier, the Committee is working closely with chief and council. This link will ensure that strategies are culturally relevant and acceptable to the reserve community.

2008-09:No further updates. Cultural relevance is an ongoing focus of all the Blood First Nation’s food security activities.

Promoting Local Food 2007-08:As mentioned earlier, vegetables harvested from the community garden were sold at a local farmer’s market in the summer of 2007.6

2008-09:No further updates. As noted above, the community garden was not active this year, but there is still and interest in promoting local food and in reviving the garden.

Developing Partnerships

2007-08:The Blood Tribe Food Security Committee has already developed numerous partnerships over the last year. For example, they have been involved in three community kitchens, with Young Chefs, Alternative Academy, and FCSS. They also are trying to get the food bank involved with the Committee. Some planned partnerships involve policy work, such as working with the Chamber of Commerce to plan an ongoing farmers’ market and get the required permits. The Committee also has experienced some challenges to getting at least one organization involved in their work. Though most partnerships have involved developing and implementing strategies to enhance food security, the Committee also is developing a research partnership with the Alberta Public Health Association. Interestingly, the content of the Committee’s action plan did not reflect a theme of broader relationship building, perhaps because the relationships

6 NOTE: This theme pertains to local food promotion that goes further than the community gardens that are common capacity building strategy.

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they mentioned already existed in 2006-07 and had become (or were becoming) formalized into partnerships on specific capacity building or policy initiatives.

2008-09:

No new partnerships reported, but no existing partnerships reported a discontinued.

Working with Policy Makers

2007-08:The Committee is planning to work with the Chamber of Commerce on securing a farmers’ market permit. They also are working to get a land use designation for a grocery store. (The policy makers were not specified, but from other information in the action plan, Chief and Council are the policy makers involved in decisions about land use on the reserve.)

The Committee is planning to incorporate some broader advocacy into their connections with policy makers. They will invite Chief and Council and Directors of Blood First Nations to their various capacity initiatives as a way of raising their awareness of food security issues during the upcoming election year on the reserve.

Finally, the Committee intends to prepare a plan to take to the new Chief and Council (after the November 2008 election) – the election of Blood First Nation Chief and Council. This plan will consist of (a) a needs analysis, (b) a food security vision, mission and mandate based on the advanced CBFS workshop, and (c) a budget. Though not explicit in the action plan, it is reasonable to assume that the plan would also include strategies, given that these were the focus of the advanced CBFS workshop and the resulting action plan.

2008-09:The Committee is trying to build more relationships with policy makers. They have met with school boards in their area to discuss policies to encourage healthy food choices in schools. Blood First Nation just had new elections, so the Committee did a presentation in January 2009 on all programs including food security (generally), community kitchens, the community garden and good food box. They reported that the chief was so impressed he ordered a good food box. The advice the Committee took away from this experience was to do more public relations. They have now hired two summer STEP students to help them do this.

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Raising Awareness

2007-08:The Committee is making specific plans to promote food security through other community programs and events (such as diabetes and cancer programs, community bingos). They plan to incorporate traditional foods into their messages. The Committee emphasizes the importance of fun, and some of their activities seemed geared to enjoyment (food at events, contests such as a cooking challenge). As noted above, some of awareness raising efforts targeted policy makers, by inviting them to participate in activities.

In addition to the more formal partnerships the Blood Tribe Food Security Committee has established in Standoff, they plan to meet with other communities on the reserve to raise awareness of food security.

2008-09:As noted in the previous theme around working with policy makers, the Committee realized that they have to do more public relations. They have held career fairs featuring the food security program in the high school and at the Blood Tribe Employment Skills Training Centre. They are still working with the high schools and the basic life skills program, giving community presentations about healthy eating, and inviting people to participate in community gardens. The Committee also offers rottotilling for people who want to have home gardens. The summer students (mentioned under the above theme) are doing the tilling.

In January 2009, three community members attended the Food: Today, Tomorrow, Together Conference in Edmonton. They set up a display of Blood First Nations projects at the conference resource fair.

In February 2009, a food security gathering was held to promote Blood First Nation food security initiatives. Many key people were invited, including day cares, Red Crow College, health departmentAbout 20 people from the community attended this food security workshop. They then planned additional presentations on various topics: determinants of health, traditional food, food security, the Good Food Box, the FCSS Traditional Tobacco Initiative, and community gardening.

Doing Research

2007-08:By March 8, the Blood Tribe Food Security Committee had begun a research proposal to the Alberta Cancer Board, to continue their food security work as well as study its effectiveness. (This was submitted May

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22). The Committee is also planning a cost of eating study, to inform the food security plan they will present to Chief and Council in November of 2008.

2008-09:No new research activities reported.

Leveraging GFSA Resources

2007-08:The Committee plans to seek additional types of funding. The above-discussed research proposal is related to this theme. The action plan also mentions program funding options. Possibilities mentioned were Health Canada funding programs (First Nations and Inuit Health and Canadian Prenatal Nutrition Program).

2008-09:No additional funding or funding proposals reported.

Building Relationships

2007-08:This did not come out as a specific theme, though some of the above themes include some degree of relationship-building.

2008-09:The Committee has been trying to encourage community leaders to get involved in food security and promote this by word of mouth. They are finding that personal relationships with teachers and policy makers are great in helping them get involved in food security issues.

They also want to challenge leaders to buy a Good Food Box and to come up with recipes, because they are the leaders (role models) that will help to promote this to others (through relationships). The Committee also want to promote the value of sharing within the family structure, as they have seen examples in the community where this is not happening (not bulk buying food with others).

The conference attendance of three Committee members provided them with opportunities to network with others who do work in food security across Alberta and beyond.

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Brooks

Engaging Community

2007-08:Right after their original CFBS workshop in 2006-07, the Food Coalition Society of Brooks committed to involving more of their target population when planning programs/events. The second part of the workshop in Brooks was delayed until January 2007, so the Coalition was just getting underway with planning at the end of last year’s project in March 2007. However, the focus on community engagement has continued into 2007-08. They plan to include information in their brochures about who is involved in the Coalition, when they meet, how to join and how to be involved. The action plan includes mention of a coupon from a local business for something “cool”, as an incentive to get involved. The Coalition views the Good Food Box program as a ‘Third Place’ for people to meet, cook and share recipes.

2008-09:Members of the Food Coalition Society of Brooks assisted with Newell Regional Expo (Oct 3-5) by organizing community meals, as a way to get more people engaged with the Coalition. The food they used was all local and all healthy. Some further engagement-oriented activities are noted under the cultural relevant theme later on.


2007-08:The Food Coalition Society of Brooks is starting to initiate relationships with organizations and individuals with whom they do not yet have formal partnerships. They are identifying additional stakeholders who can be involved in setting the direction of the Coalition. These include the City of Brooks, Schools (e.g., a teacher, a school board member, a school Wellness Committee), the Community Health Council, the local Farmer’s Market Coordinator, the Choose Well group, and another church group (in addition to the church already involved in the community kitchen). The action plan has already tasked individuals within the Coalition to start making those connections (e.g., meeting with people and showing them the Good Food Box.

2008-09:The community facilitator shared some challenges to building relationships at the face-to-face meeting in Edmonton in January. She said there is lots of diversity. Brooks is a transient community (oil workers), immigrants and migrant workers from Newfoundland, Ontario and elsewhere. “How do we get everyone together and on the same page? Even though we have a mix of

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culture, we don’t see it actually mixing together!” This is further discussed under the themes pertaining to community engagement and cultural relevance themes, in terms of ways to bring people together.

Two people from the Coalition attended the Food: Today, Tomorrow, Together conference in Edmonton.


2007-08:The Coalition is planning three community kitchens (Cook Up Time). The Good Food Box that began in 2007 is continuing, and the existing community garden will be expanded. These capacity initiatives also connect to the later-discussed themes of local food and cultural relevance.

2008-09:The three community kitchens mentioned above are now running, and there has been interest from newcomer groups for more kitchens. By August, a new “Cook up Time Kitchen club” had started. This club is a diverse multi-cultural group that prepares a variety of foods. Twenty to thirty people come each month. The SPEC Association for Children and Families provides childcare. At these gatherings, people cook and try new foods but do not take food home, which is different from typical community kitchens.

Some new upcoming cooking projects include a junior high school project and a youth cooking project with churches. Brooks facilitators are also working to promote “Cook Up Time with Seniors”.

In May of 2008, the City had tilled soil in preparation for the community garden. The garden continues to operate. Brooks is looking into getting a Green Thumb program started using the GFSA Seed money. They are hoping to introduce it in a rural area.

Promoting Local Food

2007-08:The Coalition is committed to improving access to local foods. They are using local foods in the Good Food Box in summer, supplied by Medicine Hat Wholesaler. At the farmers’ market, Coalition members have set up a booth to thank people for buying local. The booth offers local food demos, and food skills (i.e. preservation - freezing berries and options for using frozen berries). Awareness building strategies include a focus on local foods, and cross-cultural activities include local product ideas.

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2008-09:The Good Food Box club broke 100 members in May of 2008. It continues to operate and the facilitators continue to promote it. They also are promoting the local Farmers Market. As noted earlier, the Society used local food for the meals they organized at the Expo.

Being Culturally Relevant

2007-08:The coalition plans to include a cultural component, and share recipes to show people in the community how to use cultural foods. This will include local foods, and local producers will be invited to events. The Coalition plans to include multicultural foods in community dinners. Brooks is a multicultural community, with workers from diverse countries moving into the area to work. The Coalition plans to organize “Taste of Brooks” or “Brooks Expo” to showcase foods from a variety of cultures.

2008-09:The Coalition also hosted “A Taste of Brooks” and a community meal. They reported that both events were hugely successful, and hope these events will continue to happen in the community. The “Mapping in Motion’’ project has been developed as a new initiative that will bring multi-cultural groups together.


2007-08:The three community kitchens will be organized in partnership with a women’s shelter, a church and a community group. The Coalition is also building relationships with other organizations and individuals, as discussed in the next section.

2008-09:A food security and cooking component has been added to the Girls in Motion program, which is sponsored by Palliser Health (now part of Alberta Health Services). Generally, the community facilitator has suggested (at the face-to-face meeting) that the Committee has good partnerships.

Raising Awareness

2007-08:The Coalition does this through several channels. The coalition already has brochures about specific projects (Good Food Box, Cook Up Time, local

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food). A subcommittee will soon develop another brochure on the Coalition more broadly. Members have also staffed booths at the farmers market and a local trade show. The outreach to various stakeholders and community members provides another avenue for raising awareness of the Coalition and food security issues.

2008-09:The Coalition has produced a DVD of their work.

Creating Policy Resources

2007-08:The Coalition’s action plan did not include direct work with policy makers. However, there are plans to include information about how to incorporate healthy local food policy in the new brochure. If this stimulates is interest in policy development within some organizations, they can they come to the Coalition for more information or assistance in developing policy or related advocacy skills.

2008-09:No further updates in terms of use of above resources or creation of new ones.


2007-08:The Coalition has recently obtained FCSS funding to hire a Coordinator and train community leaders.

2008-09:No further updates

Cold Lake

Engaging Community

2007-08The Cold Lake Food Security Coalition is planning to engage more people who are experiencing food insecurity, building on this focus in the 2006-07 action plan. This will involve existing coalition members broadening the scope of their work (the “how” is not yet specified). The Coalition also plans to pair inexperienced and experienced gardeners (summer 2008) and cooks (fall 2008).

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2008-09 In May 2008, 65 people attended the Community Cook Off on May 26th. Faciltiators reported that it went very well. Three more cook off’s have been held since. As the cook offs are done with Community PALS (see the partnership theme), they are focused on people likely to be experiencing food insecurity.


2007-08The Coalition has a goal to start summer 2008 with 20 Good Food Boxes. They also are passing on kits for Little Green Thumbs that they were not able to use – to several organizations that work more closely with children and youth (such as ParentLink centre, two youth centres, schools, churches and a friendship centre). Sharing these resources will facilitate relationship building, as discussed below. The plan to matching up cooks and gardeners with different experience levels is designed to build capacity as well as to increase the numbers of people engaging with the Coalition.

2008-09 The Coalition has been meeting and planning for the Good Food Box, and hired a co-ordinator in May 2008. This project will be further discussed under the partnership theme below.

The first Little Green Thumbs garden kit was set up in a local school in September, and two other schools are joined the project shortly after. By November, the fourth kit had “found a home” in a school. By January of 2009, three schools were using the indoor garden kits and one school was incorporating the food grown into their Home Economics classes.


2007-08The passing on of the Little Green Thumbs resource to child and youth-oriented organizations was mentioned earlier. It appears from the action plan description that these relationships are less formal than partnerships.

The Coalition also is planning to set up a system to connect people in the community to assist each other with transportation to places like grocery and garden stores. They also are considering setting up a home or on-line delivery system.

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2008-09 The relationship between the Coalition and the schools to find locations for Little Green Thumbs was successful in getting the kits into the hands of children.


2007-08The Coalition has identified a number of potential partners for connecting experienced cooks and gardeners with inexperienced ones. Examples mentioned in the action plan are a seniors’ organization, a friendship centre, a church group, and several individuals in the community – as well as the collective kitchen and the community garden. 2008-09 The Coalition has been seeking partners for the Good Food Box. The first major grocery chain supplier backed out in the fall of 2008, and the Coalition approached another chain. By January, the Coalition was also exploring a partnership with the local food bank. Implementation has been delayed until partnerships can be established.

The Coalition also partnered with Community PALS for the cook offs. This is a group of women who work on housing, food security and financial literacy in Cold Lake.7

Doing Research

2007-08The Coalition plans to do some more research into Little Green Thumbs, both on-line and through discussions with High Level. Also, FCSS is going to work with the Coalition to investigate options to improve transportation to retail outlets and any food security initiatives, as Cold Lake is very spread out (geographically). Workshop participants suggested a volunteer registry and call-in number, and mentioned several food-related locations such as grocery stores and gardens. They also suggested a delivery system. Cold Lake was planning a school survey a year ago, but this appears to be on hold for now due to some changes in people within the Coalition.

2008-09 No further updates

7 See http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:qJi9wxs8d8MJ:www.communitypress.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx%3Fe%3D1325768+%22Cold+lake%22+%22community+PALS%22&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:qJi9wxs8d8MJ:www.communitypress.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx%3Fe%3D1325768+%22Cold+lake%22+%22community+PALS%22&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk



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2007-08The Coalition is waiting for a response to a recent funding application from Aspen Health Region for the Good Food Box.

2008-09 The proposal to Aspen Health Region was not funded. Aspen Health Region ceased to exist in May of 2009 and is now part of Alberta Health Services. Once GFSA support to the communities resumes again for the 2009-2010 year, they will revisit some of the challenges the Coalition is having in moving some of its’ planned initiatives forward.

Raising Awareness 2007-08None reported

2008-09 The Coalition invited the local newspaper to write a story on Little Green Thumbs while they were looking for schools to house the kits. The Cold Lake Sun did a full page article on the Little Green Thumbs program, community kitchens and the above-mentioned PALS group. One of the local facilitators provided the Sun with “before and after” pictures showing the gardens fully grown. She was really pleased with the article, which ran in the paper in April 2009.

Grande Prairie

Raising Awareness

2007-08:Raising awareness has the major focus of the Grande Prairie and Area Food Security Network, as it was in 2006-07. That year, the Network developed statistics and stories about food security, developed a marketing plan, presented at a conference, and facilitated interagency workshops.

Over the past year, the Network participated in the Power of the Land Festival in late 2007. That well-attended event included local farmers, other local people, music, and stories about local food. The Network had a display there. Because this event was held right before GFSA received its 2007-08 funding and began doing workshops for this year, it was a good way to pull people back together from the previous year.

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The Network had produced a display, postcards and bookmarks as of March 2008, and had the display at two health region sites plus Grande Prairie College. They plan to create a “blurb”, a website, and tools that can be used at gatherings and other activities. These tools will be fun and attention catching. One example is ideas for table tops (place mats, napkins, table tents, Quiz with stats, a story). The resources will be at Network gatherings and other activities. GFSA seed funding is supporting these resources.

2008-09:The Network is considering a one-day session to raise community awareness of food security.


2007-08:The Network is planning a presentation to City Council. They want to get on the agenda, create a blurb of key points and develop a presentation and other materials to take with them to the meeting. They also would like input into menus served at other types of organizations (service clubs, schools, college, church gatherings), using a food security lens.

2008-09:At the in-person community facilitators’ meeting in Edmonton, the Grande Prairie facilitator mentioned that no wild game is allowed at the community meetings, so people involved in food security events have to keep it at home in their freezers for community gatherings. When asked for further clarification at a later date, the community facilitator said that their Friendship Centre cannot use wild meat unless it has been inspected. The concern she shared represented concerns she had heard from others who were planning community food gatherings in less formal locations.

Engaging Community

2007-08:The Network will continue to expand by hosting an event with food and fun in spring 2008, where each person who attends is invited to bring along two friends.

2008-09:The community awareness workshop mentioned previously is intended in part to engage community members.


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2007-08:The Network has identified types of community groups they would like to attend. These include service clubs (e.g., Lions), student councils (including college level) and “church ladies”.

2008-09:One Network member attended the Food: Today, Tomorrow, Together Conference.


2007-08:The Network found funding for and assisted with planning of the Power of the Land Festival. As noted earlier, this festival was held right before GFSA re-connected with the Network for the Advanced CBFS workshops. So it was an important food security event during the funding gap that reconvened Network members.



2007-08:None reported

2008-09:The Network assisted the Salvation Army in getting their Good Food Box program running in April of 2008. In addition, the Network developed a partnership with the Community Village organization to create a community garden, using $2000 from GFSA Seed funding. Community Village is an agency that co-ordinates social and business services in one location for east access by people who are marginalized. (www.thecommunityvillage.ca)

One of the Network’s key community facilitators attended an HIV conference, where one session highlighted the link between HIV and food security in that money is spent on treatment rather than food. Grande Prairie HIV North has recently revived a Sex Trade Workers Safe Place that provides meals.


http://www.thecommunityvillage.ca/

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2008-09:As mentioned earlier, the Network has been partnering with Community Village and Ability Centre to develop a community garden. Plans have been developed and include raised vegetable gardening beds that are wheel chair accessible, as well as edible fruit trees amongst other features. The plan has been to have the garden ready for Spring 2009. The Network has now completed the plans, built some garden boxes and are now constructing the gardens. They are not planting this year but will be ready to go in 2010. The facilitator mentioned that seniors want to be a part of the community gardens, because they love to help show people how to garden.

High Level


2007-08FEED High Level (Feed Everyone Everywhere Daily) developed a community garden in 2006-07, which has continued over the past year. The group also created elementary school lesson plans and involved students in seeding, transplanting and naming the garden (Samesoil). They have recently started two more gardens, in the nearby communities of Paddle Prairie and Vermillion. FEED High Level plans to assist Paddle Prairie to develop their garden (e.g., get them seeds).

All three gardens will continue in 2008. FEED High Level is also looking into container gardening, small plots, and home gardening. For students, the group plans to go and teach in elementary classes again, and to continue school plantings like the year before. They will also distribute an indoor gardening kit (Little Green Thumbs) for the local Youth Activity Centre. These are all initiatives that FEED High Level will implement with their GFSA funds.

As well, FEED High Level is planning to start a collective kitchen, which will include Big Batch Cooking for families. The kitchen will offer a cookbook library as well as teaching cooking skills. High Level has kitchen facilities available (Spirit of North Kitchen, Youth Centre Kitchen).

2008-09In spring 2008, two community facilitators did school classroom presentations for Little Green Thumbs, and the children transplanted their plants into the community garden. The kids were very excited and

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interested in watching their plants grow. By summer of 2008, a second garden kit had been purchased for the Youth Centre. In addition, the Brighter Futures Headstart Program expressed interest in gardening, and a community facilitator was planning to follow up. The facilitators also gave a parent presentation on nutrition and gave the parents a garden kit. In spring 2009, the facilitators did the school presentation at garden site, and kids planted seeds instead of plants. Little Green Thumbs still need to follow-up on usage of their kits.

FEED High Level is taking a regional scope with the food security work. The High Level garden grew very well over the summer of 2008. The garden has been very successful. Several summer kids’ programs came to the garden to help, and a good group of volunteers maintained the garden throughout the summer.

The community facilitation met with people in Fort Vermilion and Paddle Prairie about starting community gardens, and these gardens went really well during summer of 2008, and both are continuing this summer (2009). She also was planning to meet with Rainbow Lake to discuss a community green house project, which has not happened to date. A second garden is being planned that allows for individual rather than shared plots.

Some challenges have emerged with regard to the High Level garden. The community facilitator noted in her GFSA action plan that “the lady who runs the Women’s Support Centre is leaving, so the garden may be moved.” FEED High Level was already considering moving the garden to improve access and usage, and was looking at an area behind the Town Office. As of December 2009, FEED High Level had decided not to run the community garden in 2009 because there had not been enough community support. They were looking for a community member to manage the project and were considering dividing the lot into individual plots. When community members (many of whom had previously used the gardens) realized that the garden was not going to run, some of them stepped up as volunteers to keep it going for the summer of 2009. However, they chose not to do individual plots because the space is not big enough, and the group was not committed to moving another space.

Community kitchens also are expanding their offerings. By spring 2008, the supplies had been purchased for community kitchens and the group was looking at making them portable so other groups can use them. By the end of April, the “portable collective kitchen” was complete and about to be used in the Girl Power programs in La Crete and High Level.

By August 2008, two more sets of collective kitchen supplies had been purchased using the Epicure grant (see later them on leveraging GFSA resources). FEED High Level was meeting with the Youth Centre to see if

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they would like to initiate a kitchen. The Youth Centre also had one-time funds for a nutrition program, which may result in a Fort Vermilion youth kitchen at some point.

In September 2008, the Little Chefs Cooking Club (a partnership between FEED and the former Northern Light Health Region) started a collective kitchen for children. This is a six-week program every Tuesday after school. The program is for children ages 6-8, and can handle a maximum of taking a maximum of 10. The first Little Chef group went well, and there were plans to run it again in the New Year, perhaps with an older age group (9-12) and in partnership with the Youth Centre. A Mini Chef’s Cooking club for ages 5 – 8 was also considered. All three age groups have since had Little Chef sessions.

Engaging Community

2007-08The action plan notes that the Samesoil garden became a “third place” where people in the community came together. There were barbeques once a month over the spring and summer of 2007. The garden will remain a place for people to come together. This is consistent with the 2006-07 to engage people experiencing food insecurity.

FEED High Level is planning to have regular food gatherings in 2008. They suggest structuring each gathering so that there is activity that encourages people to help with the next one, as well as using some of their GFSA funds to purchase door prizes as incentives to attend. FEED High Level will take advantage of whatever activities are happening in the community in order to invite more community people to activities.

2008-09Two community barbeques were hosted by FEED High Level at the High Level community garden in the summer of 2008.


2007-08Regular food gatherings will help people meet one another and connect. As well, the FEED High Level team will itself do more connecting with other community organizations and their clients. For example, they are planning a Stone Soup activity at a youth forum, and will also give a five- minute talk on food security and project activities. They also hope to learn from Paddle Prairie’s experiences with food gatherings.

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More generally, FEED High Level intends to have conversations with a broad range of organizations and individuals (such as Home Hardware, Rona, garden suppliers, True Valley, Bargain store, individuals at health fairs and meetings). They emphasized the importance of making connections in-person.

2008-09One person from FEED High Level attended the Food: Today, Tomorrow, Together conference. This conference fostered networking among people involved in various aspects of food security across Alberta and beyond.


2007-08FEED High Level plans to involve key partners in the regular food gatherings they are planning. These gatherings involve people involved with gardens and/or collective kitchens, and anyone is welcome. The action plan did not mention particular partners, other than the providers of kitchen facilities and (more generally) schools.

FEED High Level is also partnering with the Paddle Prairie and Vermillion groups around sharing experiences and knowledge related to community gardens and food gatherings. These two communities are also involved in creating resource materials to build awareness.

2008-09The above partnerships related to the community gardens in communities outside of High Level continue. The High Level Food Bank and Soup Kitchen have been running out of the Friendship Centre in High Level, which was destroyed by fire in December 2008. FEED High Level partnered with the Learning Store to provide Christmas Food Hampers to people in need of food.

The Friendship Centre is now sharing surplus food with some of the cooking and feeding programs currently operating in the community. The new Coordinator has been expanding the Friendship Centre’s links to other community program, and is open to new partnerships for the community garden and for food hamper distribution.

As noted earlier, FEED High Level partnered with the Northern Lights Health Region (now part of Alberta Health Services) to create the Little Chefs program.

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2007-08FEED High Level plans to connect with public health inspectors to address rules about giving out food (from the garden) and soil testing. They will also get information about Farmer’s Market regulations.

In terms of its own policies, FEED High Level wants to make the collective kitchen accessible, and to provide childcare and transportation as needed.

2008-09The community facilitator (who is also a Town Councillor) has met with the health inspector to discuss the community garden, soup kitchen, and pot lucks. She explained at the face-to-face facilitators’ meeting that the inspector was positive and that FEED High Level has been given a green light to go because they built a relationship with the inspector, who lives in the same community. He was able to help fit the regulations to their less conventional activities.

However, the findings of the Alberta Retail Food Prices survey, showing that High Level food costs are substantially higher than other Alberta communities, could lead to advocacy work.

Raising Awareness

2007-08In 2006-07, FEED High Level developed a brochure and a cost of living game to raise awarness around food security issues. The group plans to update the brochure and related displays. A sub team within the group will use some of the GFSA funds to develop these resources., and will include people from Paddle Prairie and Vermillion.

2008-09FEED High Level is re-building its profile to create more awareness of food security. This is partly a response to an 8-week shutdown of the local pulp mill. People were not working but not laid off (thus could not draw Employment Insurance). The community facilitator said that this had a huge impact in the community and with food security. Schools began reporting many children did not have lunches. There are new people now joining FEED High Level.

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2007-08Alberta Recreation and Parks Association provided the funds for community gardens in Fort Vermilion and Paddle Prairie in 2008, through its Active Alberta Communities initiative. FEED High Level has also applied for funding through Epicure for a collective kitchen. In addition, the group will approach community members for cuttings for the garden.

2008-09The Epicure grant application was successful, and funds ($500) have been used to buy kitchen and basic cooking supplies. As noted earlier, the Youth Centre also had one-time funds for a nutrition program, through the Healthy Weights initiative (through the health region).

Doing Research


2008-09:In the summer of 2008, one of the key community facilitators shared data from the Alberta Retail Food Prices survey showing that High Level food costs are substantially higher than other Alberta communities. She will be discussing this with her group (what group?) to see if they want to address it.

Addressing Hunger Relief


2008-09:As mentioned under the earlier partnership theme, FEED High Level partnered with the Learning Store to provide Christmas Food Hampers to people in need of food and may also partner with the Friendship Centre on a food hamper program. FFED High Level also recognizes that the mill shutdown has increased the need for hunger relief, as well as better public awareness of food security issues.

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Lacombe


2007-08: Lacombe’s food security action group is called Backyard Friends. Their major regular event is a monthly community supper, which includes a food sharing table from which people can take home food that is left over. Vegetables from the community garden are used in every meal and this continued through the winter with root vegetables (i.e. potatoes and carrots). These suppers, which started during the 2006-07 year, will continue as part of Backyard Friends’ action plan for the upcoming year. The group’s action plan points out that the suppers are organized through shared leadership. They have a Fun Team that uses (Relationships, Actions, Food and Fun (RAFF) to get people involved in planning the next supper.

Three other capacity building activities that were in the planning stages in 2006-07 have been implemented in 2007-08. These are the Good Food Box program, a community garden, and four collective kitchens. The Backyard Friends purchased two garden shares and supplied volunteers throughout the growing season, continuing into 2008. They also started four collective kitchens prior to February 2008, giving each one $75 in start up funds from GFSA for supplies.

Backyard Friends is now planning to create a Food Buying Club for bulk purchasing. This will bring more value for the dollar to community members so they will save money on food and have accessible groceries. The group is also planning cooking literacy activities for youth and families in the upcoming year.

2008-09:Backyard Friends noted in January 2009 that the monthly community suppers have been running successfully for two years, and continue to incorporate local food. One of the community facilitators said the Backyard Supper has become an institution in the community, especially now that suppers are at the Memorial Centre, which is the heart of the community. This facilitator (who has been involved since the beginning) is confident that if she were not there the suppers would continue. The Town is very supportive of them.

They usually serve 100 or more people. In April of 2009 they had 140 people (the highest attendance to date) and gave out lettuce seeds. Most suppers are indoors, though one in 2008 was a summer picnic.

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In spring 2008, Backyard Friends was planning to purchase some kitchenware to assist in supper preparation, as well as aprons with the Backyard Friends logo for volunteer teams including children. These purchases have since occurred.

There were some challenges with the supper location. Backyard Friends was able to secure a new supper space in the Town of Lacombe’s new Memorial Hall by September of 2008.

Backyard Friends supported the community garden with $200 of grant money for one garden share plus seed purchases. Backyard Friends was planning to ensure one or two garden volunteers each week during the growing season, and was successful in getting these volunteers. Overall, 20 people/families signed up to garden in 2008; 25 people in total were gardening over the season. In addition a small church community garden had started and the Day Home Agency was looking for space to start a garden.

In September 2008, a new partnership was created between Backyard Friends, the Garden Club and the Town of Lacombe. The town will provide and prepare some land for garden plots within Lacombe, and the Garden Club will monitor and be involved throughout the growing season. Backyard Friends is supporting the initiative with water barrels and other gardening supplies. Backyard Friends will also have its own garden to supply the community suppers. Some of the people who attend the suppers are volunteers in the garden and work with the Gardening Captain.

Backyard Friends purchased a Little Green Thumbs garden kit for $700 with GFSA seed funding, in summer 2008, and were working with a Grade 7 teacher to incorporate it into the fall curriculum. They also were planning to share their own gardening wisdom with the students.

Backyard Friends noted in their action plan that it has been challenging to sustain the collective kitchens, as they are a lot of work for the volunteer facilitator. As of spring 2008 two kitchens were running – one at the Parent Link Centre with mothers of young children and one at the Adventist Church. A third one was starting. Backyard Friends was using $125 of their GFSA seed funding to support the two established kitchens with food staple purchases. All three kitchens continue to run. He fourth one was not able to get funding.

The Food Buying Club was implementing in spring 2008, and has been popular. It purchases a mix of local food (yogurt) and outside suppliers (beef). By fall of 2008, the club was operating independently of Backyard Friends.

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2007-08: Backyard Friends has been promoting local food in the Good Food Box program throughout 2007-08. The action plan pointed out that a new marketing plan is needed for 2008 so people understand that local food is more costly. As noted earlier, food from the community garden is used for the community suppers.

2008-09:The Good Food Box program discussed above has continued and focuses on local food as much as possible. The Food Buying Club does some of their ordering from local suppliers.

Community suppers continue to use local produce. In July and August of 2009, the suppers will be local fare. A local food producer, Blue Tank Barley, gave a presentation at one of the suppers.

One of the key community facilitators has been successful in convincing the provincial Food for Thought magazine to regularly send her copies for distribution at the suppers. This magazine has a strong focus on supporting local food.

Doing Research

2007-08: Backyard Friends conducted an environmental scan with local gardeners and farmers to see what foods were available, and when. This information is being used for organizing the Good Food Box program.

The group also did a community supper survey in December 2007, with 28 participants. Results were generally positive. Most participants said they knew more about healthy eating, their food supply, and other food programs involving Backyard Friends. What stood out most strongly from the survey is that participants felt connected to their community because of Backyard Friends. This sense of community connection was most highly rated in the survey, and many of the open-ended responses were about seeing friends, meeting new people, and being in good company. Many survey participants also said they liked the food, and not having to cook. Some expressed appreciation that the suppers helped them make their food budget go further, and/or that it was an opportunity to get a good meal.


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2007-08: As noted within the research theme as well as the capacity building initiatives above, the community suppers have a heavy focus on building relationships. The new capacity initiatives now underway also involve activities that promote relationships. The separate theme of community engagement did not come out for Lacombe, likely because Backyard Friends had already achieved extensive engagement in the suppers last year and this had continued and evolved into relationships among participants.

2008-09:A team of employees from a local bank came in to cook and clean for the October 2008 community supper. This shows that Backyard Friends is making informal links with groups in the community as volunteers.

A spin off of the Backyard Friends has come through a church group which is looking at building neighbourhood in the campground by serving a weekly meal. The group calls themselves the Circle of Friends and will serve a meal once a week to whoever comes. Games are also planned. This weekly event is for anyone living in the campground as well as others. The campground has people living there all summer long for a variety of reasons. A Backyard Friends community facilitator encouraged the group to seek ways to build community in the campground.

Two Backyard Friends members attended the Food: Today, Tomorrow, Together conference and had the opportunity to connect with others who share an interest in food security.


2007-08: Wolfcreek Community Church is a partner of Backyard Friends and will receive food shipments for the food buying club. Backyard Friends is continuing their involvement with existing partners as well. For example, the four collective kitchens involve the Parent Link Centre, United Church, Adventist Church, and Adult Learning Council.

2008-09:In the summer of 2008, Backyard Friends was working with the new Parentlink Centre in Wetaskawin to develop a new community kitchen program.

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Backyard Friends have partnered with the Lacombe Lifelong Learning Council to offer cooking classes, as of fall 2008, and were giving the Council $350.

Backyard Friends is searching for a partner to take the lead with announcements and thanks at each of the community suppers. Toastmasters and youth groups have been mentioned as possibilities.

Raising Awareness

2007-08: The Lacombe Globe newspaper included an article about Backyard Friends in fall 2007. The group is now planning to develop a communication plan for the upcoming year.

2008-09:One of the main community facilitators for Backyard Friends spoke to a local women’s group about food security, and did a food security display for Seniors Week Trade fair. She also works for FCSS, which is part of an event called “Brunch at the Beach” which will feature local food by local chefs in August. Backyard Friends is interested in sharing a generic poster display on food security for use at trade fairs, and other events, to increase awareness.

Backyard Friends was considering using $300 towards marketing materials such as Backyard Friends grocery bags and/or fridge magnets that could be distributed at the community suppers. They were also planning a short after-dinner awareness-raising feature on topics such as our food supply, environment, and others.

In April of 2008, an article about Backyard Friends was written in the local paper, regarding community volunteerism.

Addressing Hunger Relief

2007-08: Though most of Backyard Friends’ focus is on capacity building activities for food security, the group is also planning to be involved with Meals on Wheels. The community suppers and Good Food Box programs also have a hunger relief component as well as strengthening community capacity to address food security.

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2008-09:Backyard Friends has become involved with Meals on Wheels, and was planning to do some advertising to support a new vegetarian Meals on Wheels program.

FCSS in Lacombe has seen and increased demand for crisis help in the spring of 2009. They distributed $1100 in grocery cards. This is separate from food bank hampers. These efforts by FCSS complement the work of Backyard Friends.


2007-08None reported

2008-09:Backyard Friends has found a corporate sponsor for their community suppers, from MEGlobal Inc ($1100) Alberta Food Bank Network Association funding was received for the purchase of pork, in April 2008.

Medicine Hat

Doing Research

2007-08: The Medicine Hat action group, Food Talk, conducted community focus groups in 2006-07, for the purpose of gauging knowledge of food security and insecurity and how people may like to contribute to the project. The focus groups involved both agencies and individuals within Medicine Hat. In March 2008, Food Talk completed an asset map of Medicine Hat.

In March 2008, Food Talk developed a food waste survey to send to local farmers, producers and stores. Results will be used to determine how food could be shared that would otherwise be wasted.

2008-09:The food waste survey mentioned above was completed in summer 2008. A local produce survey has been done and the related directory is complete. It can be accessed on the Community Food Connections web site: http://nonprofit.memlane.com/cfca/ The final report on the 2008 asset mapping project is expected to be complete in July 2009.

http://nonprofit.memlane.com/cfca/

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2007-08: Food Talk plans to reduce food waste by making excess produce available to everyone. The action plan section on local food also mentions a plan to produce re-usable bags or back packs and distribute to those who walk or use public transportation to make grocery purchases.

2008-09:Now that the food waste survey has been completed, Food Talk will determine actions to make excess produce available to people. The reusable shopping bags are now in circulation and have been well-used.

Raising Awareness

2007-08: Food Talk has just created place mats that illustrate the asset map that they developed through their focus group research in 2006-07. They also are planning to develop a local food directory.

2008-09:Plans are being developed to market the local food booklet, the Food Charter, and the work of Food Talk. One of the community facilitators did a presentation at the Food: Today, Tomorrow, Together conference.


2007-08: As of March 2008, Food Talk had developed a draft Food Charter for Medicine Hat. The Charter will be circulated to Food Talk committee members and others for feedback, using a feedback form developed for that purpose.

2008-09:As of the summer of 2008, a marketing plan was being created to share and promote the food charter. The Food Talk report and food charter were near completion in early 2009, but not yet ready for release.

The School Board has recently adopted, in principle the GFSA food policies. This is the result of five years of background work. Food Talk has also been working with schools, since 2004, to promote healthy foods and beverages. (This work is not reported in any of the annual action plan, but was mentioned by the two community facilitators from Medicine Hat who attended the face-to-face meeting in January.) Medicine Hat School Board

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first implemented a Healthy Nutrition Policy in 2004 and took it to the schools. One of the GFSA/Food Talk community facilitators is also the Chair of the school board and had high schools come and tell stories to the Board about school nutrition. Public health nutritionists did a survey (2006) of teachers concerning what was happening in the schools, and found progress in removing junk food from the schools. However, a later survey (2008) found that some issues were moving forward but others were moving backwards. For example, some schools removed pop machines, but they wanted to bring them back into the school because they make money.

GFSA/Food Talk community facilitators said they learned that you need to set a policy and also include administration procedures around it to make sure it gets implemented and enforced. So the school board decided to develop policies that are enforceable (vegetables available; no pop - only juice and water). Policy is developed by the Alberta Teachers Association and the School Board, with the support of public health. One community facilitator is the School Board Chair and the other is a community nutritionist with the (former) Palliser Health region (now part of Alberta Health Services). Recent changes to the health system may lead to changes on who from public health is involved in food security.


2007-08: None reported, though it appears from the information below that two community gardens were already running.

2008-09:In summer 2008, Food Talk contracted with the City of Medicine Hat to lease land for a third community garden, at a cost of $1 per year.

Lloydminster

Engaging Community

2007-08: Community engagement is a major theme for the Lloydminster action group, called Beyond Borders Food Connections. The group’s overall focus is on re-engaging the community with food-related skills, like cooking and gardening, that they believe have become devalued by society. They acknowledge that these skills were once valued as women’s role, and now need to include men as well. Beyond Borders Food Connections wants to plan ways to include “everyone” in project, not only those who are struggling with food insecurity. The group suggests hosting guided lunch

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time conversation, during the Fresh Food Box packing day. Those discussions would help volunteers see what they could contribute – their gifts around the goal of valuing cooking and gardening. They also suggest that everyone bring something to contribute to a snack, such as a piece of fruit or vegetable.

2008-09:No further updates with this specific focus, though the new initiatives under the capacity theme also provide opportunities to engage with others.


2007-08: The action plan mentions cooking together at meetings. An example offered is making Stone Soup at a spring meeting (March), an activity that would involve the community and be intergenerational. The group also plans to do team building through food workshops, which they are calling “Recipe for Success”.

2008-09:No further updates with this specific focus, though the new initiatives under the capacity theme also provide opportunities to build relationships.

Several members of Beyond Borders Food Connections attended the Food: Today, Tomorrow, Together conference (number not specified).


2007-08: At this point, Beyond Borders Food Connections is just beginning to plan their activities in this area. From the action plan, it appears that the focus will be on creating opportunities for people in the area to cook and garden together. As mentioned under the community engagement theme, the group is already asking people to share their own personal gifts that can contribute to these broader community capacity initiatives.

2008-09:Beyond Borders Food Connections has started the Slow Cooker Cooking Group. This program targets two new community kitchens and will run for six sessions. Participants received a slow cooker cookbook, a slow cooker and food for cooking. The first offering of the program finished in June 2008. Midwest Food Resources, which is the hub for Beyond Borders Food Connections, has not been involved in this initiative since the health region took it on, and the community facilitator is not sure of its status.

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Salad Bars in Schools was piloted in two Lloydminster schools in spring 2008 and there were plans to continue with it in the fall. However, Midwest Food Resources is no longer involved.

Beyond Borders Food Connections has also started three cooking programs for children. These have been organized by a health promotion worker from (former) East Central Health Region (now part of Alberta Health Services). The goal is to eventually train people from the schools to continue the programs. One program is Kids Cooking Club with grades 5 and 6 classes in St. Jerome’s School in Vermilion, which started in spring of 2008. Participants learn cooking skills, and receive cook books, aprons and cooking supplies from (former) East Central Health Region (now part of Alberta Health Services).

In addition, a cooking program pilot was completed in Meadow Lake in spring 2008. It was a 6-week program where students choose and prepare food for their family. They do three weeks of cooking and three weeks of baking.

The third program for children was running in fall 2008 – a 6-week Kids in the Kitchen program in Meadow Lake and Lloydminster schools. The kids decide what to cook, and evaluations are done weekly. Four of these 6-week sessions were held over 2008-09.

Canning workshops are running monthly in Meadow Lake with mostly young moms.

In the fall of 2008, three adults were taking leadership training to run cooking groups. All three are past cooking group participants.

The main community facilitator for Beyond Borders Food Connections has met with Social Services and Prairie Health Region to discuss a garden project in Lloydminster for spring 2009. If land cannot be obtained, they will do container gardening. (These activities have not yet happened due to lack of time to organize them at this point.) Also, two indoor garden kits were purchased in the spring of 2009. Plans are being developed for their use in the community, to start this fall in two schools.

The Fresh Food Box has been going well with one-third of the produce being locally grown.

A Community Shared Agriculture project has been located in the region. The current farmers are looking to retire. Two people have stepped forward and will be learning from them to eventually take it on. They have an excellent root cellar and can provide veggies all year round. They also save and sell heirloom seeds.

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There were plans for a Baby Food Cooking class in Onion Lake in May 2009, to be advertised at a Welcome Wagon Baby Shower in the weeks prior to the class.

Raising Awareness

2007-08: Beyond Borders Food Connections is planning to develop a one-page description or blurb of what the group wants to do.

2008-09:In the fall of 2008, the Healthy Eating Challenge was completed. This involves competition among businesses to see which business has the healthiest eating staff. There were 41 teams of six people each. The purpose of the challenge is to help people learn about healthy eating and bring awareness to Midwest Food Resources (through which the broader Beyond Borders group is coordinated) and what they do. According to Beyond Borders Food Connections, it was a huge success. The group also hosted a resource table at the Food: Today, Tomorrow, Together conference.


2007-08: None reported

2008-09:Beyond Borders Food Connections is strongly committed to promoting local food. The community facilitator suggested, at the face-to-face facilitators’ meeting in January 2009, that people need to reframe their winter eating -- maybe eat only frozen (local) foods in the winter rather than fresh (from away), or eat local root vegetables.

However, they have found some barriers to using local food year-round for their activities. The community facilitator said (at the facilitators’ meeting) that because the Good Food Box program has no place to store local food throughout winter, local food producers have to sell their produce to local grocery stores, who then sell it to the public. The local food producers with whom she works would prefer not to sell local food to huge food conglomerates, but they have to do so at present because there is not enough storage. She suggested that funds might be available for food storage co-ops and co-op development.

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Her perceptions were shared by other community facilitators at the meeting. Lack of storage infrastructure is a problem. Ideas included a warehouse to store the food, and a community root cellar. The facilitators also noted that although some farmers do not get along with each other, they depend on having one operator that is large enough to say that we need to change the infrastructure to include a common storage facility.



2008-09:Future sessions of the Slow Cooker Cooking Group will be planned through new partnerships with Jack Kemp School in Lloydminster and Brighter Beginnings in Vermilion.

To help revise the Lloydminster local advisory group, a Picnic in the Park is being planned for summer 2009.



2008-09:One-day workshops on sausage, meat smoking and jam/jelly workshops are being planned as fundraisers.

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Sylvan Lake

Engaging Community

2007-08: As the Sylvan Lake action group is a new community for 2007-08, one of their key actions to get a diverse group people “to the table”. These will include supporters of the project (e.g., schools), partners with whom to work and people impacted by food security issues. The group has not fleshed out these details yet, but will do so over the next year.

2008-09:The group was planning a community supper for May 2009 as a way of bringing diverse people together. They also created a brief survey to give to supper attendees about their desire to participate and the “gifts” they bring to the group. The group hopes to have more people become involved after attending both the community supper and the Go Green trade show.


2007-08: This is a key area of focus for the project as a whole. The introduction to the action plan uses words like “relationships”, “connectedness”, and “belonging”. The overall goals also reflect a relationship theme, as well as community engagement and a sharing of people’s gifts. A specific example is a plan to connect experienced gardeners with new gardeners.

2008-09:Though the action plan did not specifically emphasize on this theme, relationship building was evident in some of the activities that were focus on community capacity building, such as involving youth in gardens and one of the community suppers.

One person from the group attended the Food: Today, Tomorrow, Together conference, so had opportunities to connect with others involved in food security.


2007-08: The Sylvan Lake group (Growing Green Neighbours) plans to support and build two community gardens located at Our Lady of the Rosary School and one other site in the community. Garden activities will include supplying

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vegetables from the garden to food bank, the farmer’s market, and a senior’s lodge. People will also be able to do container gardening. As noted earlier under the relationship theme, new and experienced gardeners will be matched up.

2008-09:The community gardens started in spring 2008. Three are presently running. One that has been established for two years (Our Lady of the Rosary) has created raised beds. The newest garden is through the youth centre, using container gardening. The youth want to provide food for breakfast program next door. The group noted that this youth garden was very successful. The kids were excited to eat what they had grown. The other garden is looking at donating to food banks and other groups. The Environmental Health Inspector was going to meet with the community gardens regarding public health regulations.

The school and seniors centre partnership also went well. The school has a garden and the seniors maintain it over the summer. The extra produce was shared at the September community supper.

The first community supper was held in May 2008, with 120 people in attendance. There were also suppers in September, November, February, April and in the next one is June 2009. The group views the suppers as a great success. The most recent one drew 125 people and $320 in donations. This one included a planting activity for children that was very popular, even with teens. This supper ran without the main community facilitator present, suggesting that the suppers are on their way to being sustainable without depending on the work of particular individuals.

The November supper was held in conjunction with the Active Creative Engaged (ACE) Communities initiative through the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association. Growing Green Neighbours is helping with the ACE launch in Sylvan Lake. The guest speaker for the supper was ACE’s motivational speaker Ian Hill, and Katimivik youth served the meal.

An Environmental Health officer has met with the group and provided some fairly strict guidelines that must be followed for community suppers. They must complete a permit each time, and a binder with explicit details of handling and cooking of all food. The group has decided to use repeating menus to make the work easier down the road.

As of November 2008, the plan was for five collective kitchens to running, and a new seniors kitchen is being developed. Growing Green Neighbours is presently looking for coordinators.

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2007-08: The action plan notes that the group will hold a meeting of partners and other interested people, including farmers. There is not yet a list of partners in the action plan, so it appears that partnering organizations and key individuals are still to be identified. Supporters and partners could be some of the same organizations. For example, schools are mentioned in the plan as supporters, and also inferred as partners as one of the community gardens is located at a school.

2008-09:As noted earlier, the food security group partnered with the ACE initiative for the November community supper. One of the community facilitators is also on the local ACE committee and would like to see a partnership between the food security group and ACE to build a greenhouse.

The community facilitator reported that a new connection has been created with the Farmer’s Market in spring 2009. The market is willing to allow the group to collect items not sold at the end of the market (from vendors who wish to donate them). These can be frozen and use for the community suppers.

The group said that Sobey’s has also been a good supporter with healthy nutritious snacks – yogurt, fruit and veggies for the after school programs.

The group reported in their action plan that it has been very difficult to get agencies involved in the food security group itself. The food bank, breakfast clubs, before and after school care have not participated as of yet.

Raising Awareness

2007-08: The group has identified the need for an awareness group or sub-committee to develop a “blurb” or one-page description of the project. They also are planning to get a local media interview to promote the project to the wider public.

2008-09:The “blurb” mentioned above was completed and submitted (where?).The media story ran in the paper. The group attended the Go Green trade show in May 2008. They have also developed a brochure for the Growing Green Neighbours group, and they plan to create a poster as well. The

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group also would like to create signs for each community garden to show connectedness among them.



2008-09:In fall 2008, one food security group member was approaching local producers and getting them connected to the group.

The community facilitator mentioned, at the face-to-face meeting, that local beef producers are not good at marketing themselves and want to know how they can provide local food for families. The group is thinking about making farmers more a part of family dinner planning.



2008-09:The group is looking at the Wellness Fund with Healthy School Communities as a means to getting the Little Green Thumbs in all schools. As of spring 2009, they were applying to do a pilot and have a person coordinate it. As mentioned earlier, the most recent supper received $320 in donations, which was a first.

Summary of Actions Across Communities

Overall, there were many similarities among the community action plans. All communities are doing activities to raise awareness of food security issues and/or their projects, as shown in Table 1. All of them are working at the capacity level on the food security continuum, and in most cases these activities have been increasing. Activities focused solely on hunger relief were mentioned by onely two communities, though many of the capacity building activities (such as community dinners and good food boxes) address hunger while also involving community members in their organization.

Almost all communities are focused on building relationships and formal partnerships for action. Partnerships in particular have increased since last year, with communities finding more and more diverse types of partners. There has been increased planning and action around promoting local food,

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with the majority of communities now doing this, compared to less than half of them in 2007-08. As well a majority of communities continue to take actions to engage community members who have not been previously involved in their activities.

Almost half the communities have some degree of policy focus. These are the same communities that reported a policy focus last year. The fifth community from last year was creating policy-related resources and did not reported using those to date for any advocacy or other work with policy makers. It may be beneficial for GFSA to further explore reasons why other communities have not focused on policy and further assist them to do so if they are interested. The upcoming food security/food sovereignty “kitchen table meetings”, sponsored by FoodSecure Canada are policy related, and are being facilitated by GFSA in Alberta. These meetings may encourage communities to become more involved with public policy around food security. The recent release of the “Cost of Living in Alberta 2008” study might also stimulate some policy-related work. As well, the FTTT conference had a strong policy focus and may lead to further ideas and actions around policy.

Almost half the communities have been able to gain (leverage) additional funding external to GFSA (or are in the process of doing so). Though the overall number of communities doing this is down slightly, three of the four communities that are leveraging their GFSA support into additional funding are ones that did not do so last year. So across the two years, eight of the nine communities have applied for and/or received funds or donations from beyond GFSA. Having this experience of seeking out other sources of support is important for the long-term sustainability of each community’s initiative. Results for individual communities for each year appeared to vary depending on what resources have been available. For example, one community that applied for additional resources in 2007-08 focused on regional health authority funding that is no longer available.

The number of communities doing research is down slightly, likely because some research needed early on in their process has now been completed. As well, almost half were doing research or some sort. The two communities that reported actions to be culturally relevant were those having either a strong cultural identify (Blood First Nation) or a large multicultural population of newcomers to Alberta (Brooks).

As mentioned earlier, the community action groups may not have spelled out all their activities in detail in their action plans. As an evaluator, I supplemented this information with other sources of data (the face-to-face community facilitators’ meeting, minutes of Steering Committee meetings, and correspondence with GFSA staff who are closer to the communities). In

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conjunction, these various data sources provide a more rounded picture of what actions the communities are taking on food security than the action plans alone.

Table 1. Themes from Community Action Plans: Comparison of 2007-08 and 2008-09

Action Plan ThemeNumber of

Communities in 2008-09

Number of Communities

in 2007-08Creating Capacity Building Initiatives for Food Security

9/9 7/9

Raising Awareness 9/9 8/9Building Relationships 8/9 7/9Developing Partnerships 8/9 6/9Promoting Local Food 7/9 4/9Engaging Community 6/9 6/9Policy Focus (Working with Policy Makers/Developing Policy Resources)

4/9 5/9

Leveraging GFSA Resources 4/9 5/9Doing Research 3/9 4/9Being Culturally Relevant 2/9 2/9Addressing Hunger Relief 2/9 1/9

Update of GFSA’s Provincial Work

The information in this section was provided by GFSA personnel.

What did GFSA do in 2008/09?

GFSA did the following major activities this year:

Conducted two Advanced CBFS Workshops – Lloydminster (Nov 30 – Dec 1, 2008) and Sylvan Lake (Dec 9, 2008);

Partnered with other groups to coordinate Alberta’s first provincial food security conference, Food: Today, Tomorrow, Together (Jan 29-31, 2009) – which has led to many important connections and relationships for moving forward on future conferences and other GFSA work;

Partnered with other provincial organizations to host a Digital Storytelling workshop. One GFSA Steering Committee member and one GFSA community facilitator attended;

Created new skin for GFSA web site and updated links. New site will be launched end of May 2009;

Created a display unit for GFSA to take to conferences and events;

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Presented GFSA’s Community Building for Food Security initiative at Community Development Conference, Saskatoon (June 2008) and Food Secure Canada National Assembly, Ottawa (Nov. 2009);

Contributed to the Cost of Eating in Alberta 2008 report, released in early 2009 and is presently being disseminated.

One GFSA steering committee member met with Carolyn Bennett, MP regarding the Liberal Party's Comprehensive Food Policy;

Held monthly teleconference meetings with the GFSA Steering Committee and community facilitators;

Held one in-person meeting with GFSA Steering Committee and community facilitators (Jan 28/29, 2009);

Summarized community action plans on a regular basis.

GFSA Seen as Food Security Resource: Types of Requests for Information or Involvement

GFSA promotes itself as a source of expertise on food security issues, and responds to requests for food security information, workshops, and involvement as a representative to other food security initiatives. GFSA also has a website for both its members and the broader community. The GFSA staff kept track of data related to who contacted them between April 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009.

MediaMost GFSA media coverage for this year was around the FTTT conference, though this also gave GFSA the opportunity to mention its other work in some cases. Print media stories ran in SEE Magazine (a free Edmonton weekly), and the St. Albert Gazette. GFSA also had five broadcast media stories, four television and one radio. These included one province-wide story on CBC-TV. GFSA learned two important lessons about gaining media attention from planning the FTTT conference. A media kit would have been beneficial for the FTTT conference, as would ensuring a media/communications expert on the advisory committee of the conference. These strategies could increase GFSA media coverage in future, for the conference our other GFSA work.

(Community-level media work is noted under the awareness raising theme within the sections on specific communities.)

Contact from Other Organizations or Networks That Address Food Security Both GFSA personnel are involved with Food Secure Canada. One is a member of their Steering Committee, and both are part of their national People’s Food Policy Project. Food Secure Canada has invited them to facilitate the project “kitchen table meetings” in Alberta. This is a

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recognition of GFSA’s credibility with regard to food security issues in Alberta. GFSA also connect with a senior policy analyst at Public Health Agency of Canada for a consultation during the Food Secure Canada Assembly in November.

Inquiries by E-mailGFSA received 58 e-mails on their account ([email protected]) between April 1, 2008 and March 31, 2009. About one third (32%) of the inquiries were from networks and organizations addressing disparities including: Farmfolk City Folk, Alberta Cancer Board, Olds Sustainable Living, Newfoundland Food Security Network, U of A, Rethink Red Deer, Food Secure Canada, New Zealand Rural Health, and the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association.

Another 22% of inquiries were from policy/decision makers. Nine of these were from the City of Edmonton, in relation to the Municipal Development Plan consultations (invitations to events and updates from meetings). Two inquiries came from a senior policy analyst at Public Health Agency of Canada who was looking for support and input from GFSA for a national food security initiative. Another two inquiries came from Alberta Agriculture (nature of these was not specified). A few inquiries (five in total) were from researchers from Edmonton, Manitoba, Victoria and others. There were two media inquiries, one from New Delhi, India. One inquiry was from a CBFS workshop participant.

There were many e-mail inquiries (about half of the total number) from diverse types of people and organizations that fall outside the types of contacts that GFSA has tracked in past years. These included students, a book group, a chef and cookbook author, a collective kitchen participant, community groups, and other people who are not part of any particular organization.

Five inquiries came from outside of Alberta: Newfoundland/Labrador, New Brunswick, PEI, India, and New Zealand. This suggests that recognition of GFSA’s expertise in food security issues extends beyond Alberta. These e-mails do not include correspondence with community facilitators from the nine GFSA communities, as they contact GFSA personnel directly.

The majority of messages were general inquiries about GFSA, and information sharing about events. More specific inquiries/correspondence included program information requests (including two specifically about the CBFS workshop and others about the “Your Local Food Connections” page on the web site), sharing of research, seeking input on policies or research, seeking particular people and resources, media inquiries, sharing information about others’ programs, and sharing work/volunteer

mailto:[email protected]

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opportunities. Topic areas were generally similar to other years. E-mail volume has been similar from year to year. There were 57 messages in 2006-07 and 13 in the last quarter of 2007-08, which would be 54 messages if extrapolated over a whole year.8

Website UseThere were 55,480 visits to the GFSA website from April of 2008 through March of 2009, for an average of 152 sessions per day.9 A session is initiated when a visitor arrives at the site and ends when the browser is closed or there is a period of inactivity. This is almost as high as last year, when site used averaged 157 sessions per day. This year, many people visited the conference website, which may have influenced the number of visits to GFSA’s own website. The FTTT conference had its own website, which has lots of visitors as people registered on-line. Statistics for that site are not yet available.

The Calendar and Site Map were the most requested pages on the GFSA web site; 69% viewed the Calendar and 15% viewed the Site Map. The comparable views of these pages for last year were 55% and 22%, respectively. More people were viewing the calendar this year – perhaps because of the conference. Perhaps fewer people looked at the site map because some of the visitors already know the site. The most popular items downloaded from the web site were the “Cost of Eating in Alberta” study (6.3% of the downloads), and “Your Local Food Connections” (5.6%). These were also among the most popular documents in 2007-09. “Cost of Eating” study downloads were up slightly percentage-wise (from 5% last year), while “Your Local Food Connections” downloads decreased (from 11% last year). GFSA has suggested that with their strong focus on the conference this year, they may not have promoted “Your Local Food Connections” as much as in the past.

Listserv UseAs of March 31, 2009 there were 382 people registered on the GFSA Network. However, the GFSA listserv numbers may reflect a more accurate number of participants in that the e-mail addresses are kept current. The GFSA listserv currently has 278 members. GFSA personnel explained that the most likely reason for the discrepancy between Network members and listserv members is that people have moved or changed positions, thus their e-mail no longer works. In that case, they are automatically removed from the listserv but not from the Network. Very few ask to be removed (2-3 per year). it has been a challenge to keep the Network contacts current, and how best to do this is something that GFSA could review in future years.

8 That year funding was very late, and GFSA had staff to respond to e-mail for only those three months.9 The average number of visits per-day statistic is used to compare this year with last because in 2007-08, GFSA had only three months of funding so the overall annual website statistics are not comparable.

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The following Table 2 shows the trend in listserv subscriptions since the inception of GFSA.

Table 2. New Subscriptions to GFSA Listserv, by Year

Year Number of New Listserv Subscriptions

2003 262004 402005 1392006 492007 702008 592009 (Jan-Mar)

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Table 3 shows the actual number of postings to the listserv, as an indicator of listserv use by members.

Table 3. GFSA Listserv Activities, by Year

Year Number of Listserv Activities

2003 262004 342005 752006 492007 1912008 1112009 (Jan-Mar)

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As is evident from comparing the two tables, number of participants and listserv activity fluctuate from year to hear, and number of listserv participants peaked before number of activities. From 2007 onward, there have been substantially more listserv activities than participants, indicating that people are now making multiple postings and/or visits to the listserv. Both participants and activities postings showed a marked increase in the first three months of 2009. There were 162 postings in total from April of 2008 through March of 2009. Of these, 87 occurred in the 8-month period from April through December, and 75 in the 3-month period between January and March. Most of the latter (64 of the 75) were posted after the conference, in February and March. In other words, 40% of the postings for the whole year happened in those two months.

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Part of the listserv activity increase could have been influenced by the conference. One of the GFSA personnel reviewed the postings and said that the topics were not specific to the conference. However, the most frequent contributor (outside of GFSA) used to be on the listserv and re-joined after liaising with the conference planners on a specific role. Some of the other groups posting also had links to the conference (e.g., as speakers). So though the increased listserv postings were not specifically about conference topics, it seems that at least some of the increase in postings may have been motivated by people’s involvement with the conference.

The majority of listserv posting topics included sharing of learning opportunities such as conferences or workshops, sharing of general information (resources, web sites, groups of interest), sharing of resources research/newsletters/articles, and sharing of media reports. Other posting topics included: seeking information or input, work or volunteer opportunities, announcing events, funding opportunities, lobby efforts, and sharing of documents. These topics are similar to past years.

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Appendix A

Logic Model and Matrix of Outcomes and Indicators

Outcome Indicator Relevant Findings (2008-09)

Short-termST2. GFSA is seen as a # and types* of think tanks, government Results discussed in the last report

“Community-building for Food Security” and “Advanced Community-building for Food Security” Workshops by GFSA Network members

Workshop participants understand ways to increase food security across the food security continuum

GFSA is seen as a resource to contact about emerging food security issues by (a) workshop participants, (b) media, (c) decision makers, (d) people experiencing food insecurity, and (e) other organizations or networks that address health disparities issues (e.g., AHLN, ASHEN, APHA)

Workshop participants plan to get involved in community initiatives that contribute to food security

Decision-makers adopt policies that support food security (e.g., local or provincial govt, schools, food producers)

Food security at the community level is increased

Growing Food Security in Alberta – Logic Model for Community Workshop Participants – 2007/08

Workshop participants collaborate with others in their community to take action on food security issues

Food security issues raised by workshop participants or GFSA have a media profile

Activity Short-term Outcome Long-term OutcomeIntermediate OutcomeUltimate Goal

Inputs

Funding, project staff, Steering Committee , Network members, volunteer time, resource materials

Broader community support for local food security initiatives

Media messages about food security by GFSA Network members

Workshop participants develop skills to build upon community capacity for increased food security

Workshop participants develop skills to advocate for policies that contribute to increased food security

Video

Web site and listserv

Public events (e.g., fairs)

Tool Kit

Documents for decision-makersJoint events with compatible org’s (AHLN, ASHEN, APHA)

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resource to contact about emerging food security issues by (a) workshop participants, (b) media, (c) decision-makers, (d) people experiencing food insecurity, and (e) other organizations or networks that address health disparities issues (e.g., AHLN, ASHEN, APHA)

consults, and school boards/trustee meetings to which GFSA is invited

# and types of phone inquiries to GFSA about food security issues (e.g., minimum wage, poverty) from (a) workshop participants, (b) media, (c) decision-makers, (d) people experiencing food insecurity and (e) other organizations or networks that address health disparities issues (e.g., AHLN, ASHEN, APHA)

# and types of e-mail inquiries to GFSA about food security issues from (a) workshop participants, (b) media, (c) decision-makers, (d) people experiencing food insecurity and (e) other organizations or networks that address health disparities issues (e.g., AHLN, ASHEN, APHA)

# of visits to GFSA website

# of downloads from GFSA website

section on update of GFSA provincial work address these indicators. Number/types of invitations, number/types of inquiries and how they are made (by phone, e-mail) and number/types of website visits can differ from year to year depending on the work being done by others people and groups who do work related to food security.

No phone inquiries documented – most inquiries now come by e-mail

58 e-mails – 32% from various organizations that address disparities in some way; 22% from policy/decision makers; from media - 2 print stories, 5 broadcast stories (no interviews were done that did not result in coverage);one inquiry from a workshop participant (community facilitators in the nine communities contact GFS personnel directly). No inquiries noted from people with direct experience of food security.

55,480 (average per day = 152)

15,537 downloads

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# of visits to “Your Local Food Connections” web page

# of downloads from “Your Local Food Connections” web page

* Note: “types” refers to the specific policy or program areas that are the focus of the invites or inquiries

Not available from website provider

1819 were downloads from "Your Local Food Connections".

Intermediate I1. Community groups develop skills to build upon community capacity

# of community groups that describe how to use skills - such as (a) building relationships among people interested in food security, (b) planning local initiatives, (c) communicating food security messages among people in the broader community

Content of community groups’ descriptions of their community capacity-related skills (qualitative)

The themes discussed in the sections of the report on each community’s actions encompass these or similar indicators (e.g., communicating food security messages falls under the raising awareness theme). However, at this point in their work (three years work for seven of the communities, and two years for the other two), most of the content they share is about action planning and the resulting actions, rather than skills per se.

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I2. Community groups develop skills to advocate for policies that contribute to increased food security

# (% ) of community groups that describe how to use skills such as (a) building relationships with decision makers, (b) organizing local advocacy events or campaigns, (c) communicating food security messages to decision makers – to a variety of policy areas

Content of community groups’ descriptions of their advocacy-related skills (qualitative)

(Example policy areas where the above skills could be applied could include access to healthy food in schools, support for local producers, income support, housing)

Same comments as above section apply here. As noted in the report, there has been less focus on policy (and related skills like advocacy) in comparison to capacity-building initiatives.

I3. Community groups plan to get involved in local initiatives that contribute to food security

# (%) of community groups that identify (a) planned local initiatives, (b) roles of group members and (c) other people and/or organizations they could collaborate with (outside the group) – to address food security issues in their community

Content of description of local initiatives, members roles, and actual or potential collaborators

# (%) of community groups that update their action plans (for 2008-09) to reflect a,b,c, above

This information is contained in the report sections on each community’s actions, particularly under themes pertaining to capacity building, local food production, policy, and partnership development.

Most of this information was gleaned from action plans, with some supplementary data sources to clarify/enhance, as noted in the methods.

Action plan content for 2008-09 is compared with 2007-08 content to show progress over time.

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I4. Food security issues raised by GFSA have a media profile

# of media interviews with GFSA about food security issues that are initiated by the media

# and topics of media stories on food security issues that (a) mention GFSA, (b) use GFSA spokespeople (target of four per year) and (c) coverage of implementation of local action plans

2 print stories, 5 broadcast stories. No interviews were done that did not result in coverage.

There was some coverage of local initiatives as well, which are noted in the report sections on each community’s actions.

Long-termL1. Community groups collaborate with others in their community to take action on food security issues

# (%) of community groups that report following through on the initiatives for their communities, as outlined in their action plans

Content of action plan descriptions of (a) local initiatives, (b) roles in implementation (to date) and (c) partners involved

(The above will be specific to each community)

Action plan content for 2008-09 is compared with 2007-08 content to show progress over time.

Action themes reflect these indicators, particularly themes around capacity building, local food production, policy, and partnership development.

L2. Broader community support for local food security initiatives

Number and types of requests for information (e.g., about workshops, connections to people who can speak about food security, successful local initiatives, policy options)

Number and roles of new members who get involved in the local community group

58 e-mail requests that included topics listed under the indicator, plus other topics; no phone requests reported. (This indicator now seems redundant with ST2, so perhaps L2 need to focus strictly on involvement at the community level – the second indicator, with some revisions).

At this point, it appears that many of the same people from 2007-08 remain

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working on food security involved. Themes pertaining to relationship building and partnership development pick up some changes/additions. Communities are finding that absolute numbers of people involved in organizing activities are less important than commitment over time, so this indicator may need revisiting.

L3. Decision-makers adopt policies that support food security (e.g., local or provincial govt, schools, food producers)

Number of schools implementing healthy food policies (e.g., healthy school lunches, local buying, no junk food)

Number of organizations buying local produce or meat (e.g., grocery chains, restaurants, public institutions, not-for profits)

The Medicine Hat School Board has done this. A GFSA Steering Committee member is the Chair of the school board. The school board has adopted GFSA principles Members of the Medicine Hat food security group (Food Talk) have been communicating with the school board about the importance of enforcing the policy. (See the report section on Medicine Hat.)

There is growing interest in supporting local food. In some communities (Brooks, Lacombe and Lloydminster) Good Food Box programs are buying local produce to use in their boxes as much as is feasible. In Lacombe, the Food Buying Club is including some local food in its purchases. In Lloydminster, some grocery stores are buying local good and the good security group (Beyond Borders Food Connections) is looking in cold storage options to make local food available for a longer timeline.

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Number of agricultural policies that promote local buying (farmers markets, CSA, increasing ratio of local use to exports)

Number of grocery stores in neighbourhoods

Number of income support policies (minimum wage & social assistance rates)

Content descriptions of above policies

(See report sections on these communities.)

In one community (High Level), public health inspector met with FEED High Level to assist them in making their community gardens meet health regulations. Growing Green Neighbours is planning to go through a similar process. Though these are not policy changes per se, an increased openness by health inspectors to work with community gardens will ensure that environmental health policy is not an impediment to small-scale, community-driven local food production.

There was no data on the other examples of policies under indicators - number of grocery stories and income support policies are more difficult for GFSA to influence as many other external factors and pressures can influence these.

Ultimate GoalFood security at the community level is increased

To be determined: The ultimate goal does not lend itself well to specific outcome indicators – at a later date we may

For each community, all the themes in conjunction contribute to this goal. The capacity-building theme in particular,

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anticipate some specific food security outcomes at the community level and indicators would emerge from that

which illustrates marked progress in community-driven actions from last year to this year, is especially important here.

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