Imagine a community with a vibrant food culture, a community where everyone is able to enjoy healthy and delicious food, where everyone has extensive food skills, skills that can lead them to employment, if they so desire. Imagine a community where everyone understands how the food system is driven by profit rather than human needs and where everyone is able to advocate for meaningful change. Imagine a community where food is a vehicle to meet one another, to connect in a meaningful way and to build compelling relationships across differences.
This is the vision that the Nourish Project has developed over the past few years. Inspired by the work of The Stop in Toronto, we are working to establish a community food centre which will boost the collective impact of the vibrant food-related initiatives that have been scattered throughout our communities.
Our model envisions food spaces throughout our region, dedicated to growing healthy food access, growing food skills and employment and growing food advocacy. By bringing together these activities under one roof, we will create synergy and support the establishment of a transformative food movement dedicated to equity, justice, health and committed to supporting local food. Our hope is that this vision will come to fruition in a couple of years from now, with the opening of a community food centre.
How can we build momentum around this vision? What can we already do to assess its feasibility and its value? We have decided to launch A Taste of Nourish at St Andrew's United Church this coming May. We will offer programming there to assess the potential impact of our work. One full day every other week our program activities will focus on the three core components: Access to Healthy Food; Food Skills and Food Advocacy. We will carry this work for one full year and measure its impact on participants, on the partners and agencies involved in the work and on the community at large.
Does this vision resonate with you? Do you want to help us make it a reality? Contact us at nourish@ywcapeterborough.org and let see how we can all work together to grow our region through food.
