social determinants of health
"More, please!"
For the past 9 months, St Andrew's United Church in Peterborough has been the site of a mouth-watering pilot project called A Taste of Nourish. Every other week until September and weekly since then, participants have been invited to enroll in cooking classes designed to grow access to healthy food and enhance food skills. Participants' feedback and a recently conducted evaluation have taught us that this initiative is having a positive impact.
What helps us be healthy?
The Nourish Project seeks to build access to healthy food, grow food skills and engage all of us in advocacy work focussing on poverty and food. Through this work we want to grow equity, community and health across our whole region.
Do The Math Challenge
A couple of years ago, members of The Stop Community Food Centre launched an advocacy campaign called, "Do The Math Challenge." They estimated that individuals receiving Ontario Works had, on average, $5/a day left for all their expenses, once they paid their rent. Can we live on $5/day allowance? Can we access the nutritious food essential for our health and well-being on that daily income? Where can we live?
Social Determinants of Health: The Canadian Facts
The video that I posted on Monday presented a global perspective on economic inequity and its relationship to health. Today, I want to offer a Canadian perspective. York University researcher Dr. Dennis Raphael has done extensive work on these issues. For years, he has been tirelessly researching and documenting the ways in which our living conditions and particularly our income shapes our health.
Un pour tous, tous pour un
I learned, early on, the rallying call of Athos, Porthos, Aramis and D'Artagan, "un pour tous, tous pour un." It shaped my sense of justice and solidarity. And lately it has been echoing in my mind as I wonder about loneliness and lack of connections between people.
