Heifer Local Food Projects

Food Matters Manitoba is in the final year of a three-year project of supporting local food projects in communities across the province. To date, funding has supported 22 small-scale food production, nutrition education and food skills’ projects that build community capacity. 

In addition to the projects listed below, Heifer Local Food Project again supported container gardening in Flin Flon for 180 families, the garden at Winnipeg Beach Community School, canning and preserving workshops offered through 100 Mile Manitoba, a new sixteen raised bed garden at Orioles Community Centre in Winnipeg coordinated by Daniel McIntyre-St Matthews Community Association and provided marketing support for members of Farmers Market Association of Manitoba.

Some of the new projects supported this past year include:

IRCOM (Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba)

Funding support helped develop a new community garden at Dufferin School in Winnipeg’s West Alexander neighbourhood. Families from the Karen community of Winnipeg, originally from Burma, planted and harvested traditional foods for their community. A total of 20 raised beds were built, and some of these were gardened by the Boys and Girls Club of Winnipeg. Plans for the future include integrating the gardening activities into the school curriculum.

New Era Community School Garden in Brandon

The New Era community school garden involves community members such as Blake Hamilton, who teaches children from Little Kokum’s Daycare to plant seeds.

Funding from the Local Food Project helped to leverage additional funding and in-kind support for the garden. NECS provided space, soil, seeds, starter plants, tools, water, educational resources and mentorship for 36 individual gardeners, as well as direct experience and education to over 200 others. The garden was installed in the Leo Lot green space at the Northwest corner of the 4th Street and Louise Avenue . The coordinator and volunteers built 20 raised bed gardens (1m x 1.5m x 30cm) and planted 20 square-metres of herbs, potatoes, squash and corn. They also included a micro orchard, tool shed, compost system and a water tower. A children’s play slide and a bench were relocated within the green space to accommodate the gardens.

The garden coordinator visited classrooms at New Era School, delivered planting and propagation lessons, and enlisted the help of several classes on site for the planting of seeds and starter plants, weeding, watering, and harvesting. Six of the garden beds were planted and tended by classrooms at New Era, two by Little Kokum’s Daycare, one by a private day care, and one by the boys’ group home from across the street.

North End Food Security Network (NEFSN) 

In partnership with community educators, the NEFSN offered workshops to community youth and families on topics such as traditional medicinal plants. Following FMMs support last year through the PHAC Diabetes funds, NEFSN was incredibly active in 2009-2010. With funding from Neighbourhoods Alive! a coordinator was hired and the Network is now housed within the North End Community Renewal Corporation. Activities that have been initiated include new community gardens, a Farmers’ Market on Main Street, workshops on food skills, provision of nutrition workshops, medicinal plants, youth engagement in gardening activities and community planning sessions around food security.

 
Kids in the Kitchen-Snow Lake

The Snow Lake Family Resource Centre coordinated a community-based program that teaches children about healthy eating and how to cook nutritious meals safely. The program teaches children food preparation skills and allows them to participate in fun learning activities about food, nutrition and food safety.

The Local Food Project provided funding support for meal and snack preparation, art supplies, minor cooking equipment and cleaning supplies.

Landless Farmers Collective

Funds were provided to support a pioneering urban agriculture project on the site of the City of Winnipeg’s Pan Am Pool grounds. Landless Farmers grew food for a small Community Shared Agriculture operation, sold their produce at the Osborne Village Farmers’ Market, and shared their knowledge with students at neighbouring Grant Park High School. They accomplished it all using only pedal power thanks to the purchase of a heavy duty bicycle trailer with funds provided by the Local Food Project. Pictured at right is Danielle Mondor, a Landless Farmer collective member, using the bicycle trailer to haul the rototiller.

A New Way of Thinking Workshop – Northern Sun Farm

Fifteen young people from the North End of Winnipeg visited Northern Sun Farm for a two-day workshop and introduction to small scale sustainable living. Dawn Buchanon introduced participants to alternative and sustainable lifestyle choices with a focus on organic food production and preservation, water conservation, green building techniques, gardening, composting, small scale animal husbandry and wild crafting.

Re-visioning the Manitoba Harvest (RVMH)

The RVMH is a 5-year project which brings together families from rural, northern and urban regions of Manitoba to build collaborative solutions to hunger, poverty and the loss of food traditions and skills. The RVMH project will assist 52 farming families to improve their net incomes by increasing their access to local markets. The project will also enable 240 Newcomer, Indigenous and northern families to restore food traditions by providing living resources and training.  Finally, the project will increase local food consumption by engaging 200 urban families in gardening practices and food education.

By enabling farmers, eaters and gardeners to regain control of the financial, nutritional and cultural dimensions of food production, distribution and consumption, this project will create a resilient local food system within the larger industrial food system. This model will allow Manitoba farm families to divert a portion of their produce towards higher-return direct local markets, enabling them to better withstand the stresses and shocks of the prevailing conventional food system.