A banner picture of vegetables making a birthday cake
Food on the Move is turning 3! If you're kicking around St. John's today, drop down to the shared space at 77 Charter Avenue from 11 to 1 for market times and some party treats!
Finally in town to make an order from the Avalon Food Hub! So much affordable local bounty. Sign up at avalonfoodhub.ca
Great resource from our team at @foodfirstnl.ca to inform your municipal vote!
www.foodfirstnl.ca/blog/voting-...
Sharing a gift link to a gift of a article.
As a Southern Ontario Millenial Robert Munsch was both a literary and a physical presence. I sat at his feet many times and I never fully understood how famous he was. This article added a lot to my understanding of him. He'll be so missed.
Come meet the St. John's city council candidates running for the at-large seats "under the whale" tomorrow. They'll be serving up their visions for the city.
One thing I really enjoy about having a staff team that works (partly) remotely is all the different scenery we get on our team calls. The winner this week is definitely the person working from the deck of a longliner off the coast of Labrador!
Nice to be back in the Happy City space to speak to folks at their Campaign School. Municipal elections are this October - get out and run!
FFNL staff listen to a presentation from Ian at Tree of Life in their gardens
FFNL staff have circle time in the grass at Tree of Life with blankets, pillows, smiles, and sodas.
With our staff spread across the province, bringing us all together is tricky, but always the highlight of the season!
To say there was a lot of gratitude and joy in the room at this year's Staff Gathering is an understatement.
Grey day on the West Coast today but the @foodfirstnl.ca Food Hub is full of colour.
And here's our more detailed breakdown of these very concerning food insecurity numbers:
www.foodfirstnl.ca/blog/2024-fo...
A man speaks to people on chairs in a greenhouse
Spent a lovely Sunday afternoon at the Autism Society Greenhouse for the Food Producers Forum AGM. Lots on the go with their work, including a shiny updated website at www.foodproducersforum.com
Our crew at @foodfirstnl.ca will take a dive into these data in the coming weeks, as will our colleagues from food organizations around the country.
Suffice it to say, though, that these are tragic and unacceptable numbers that we can't let ourselves get used to seeing.
As always, single parent families are especially at risk here. In NL just short of 60% are food insecure. That's a number with a lot of long term consequences.
Looking at this data also busts some common assumptions. A big one: people tend to think seniors, especially those living alone, are particularly vulnerable to food insecurity but in fact the reverse is true. In NL The rate of food insecurity for single seniors is half that of single non-seniors.
A small silver lining is that our rate of severe food insecurity (aka hunger) actually fell a little bit, from 8.7% to 8.3%. Growth in the overall rate driven by more people being moderately food insecure. With most new support programs targeting the very poorest this is what you'd expect to see.
The data dump that our team at @foodfirstnl.ca waits for every year is here - new food insecurity numbers (for 2023) from the Canadian Income Survey.
The news is... not good. 30.1% of NLers were food insecure in 2023, up from 26% the year before. Third highest rate of the provinces.
A very useful graph/thread here!
Labradorians, it's survey time! Our team at @foodfirstnl.ca has a survey out to gather some info about what kinds of country foods people want to eat. This will help inform all sorts of work happening in Labrador right now.
Survey link is here: survey.alchemer-ca.com/s3/50271634/...
The end of the carbon rebate is unquestionably bad for low income households. Life just got more expensive for people who can least afford it.
So, some crossed fingers (and maybe a friendly note to your MHA) are what the Library needs right now. If all goes well, the West End will get a great new space with some room to do all the amazing things libraries do. (5/5)
The idea of a library in a mall has raised a few eyebrows, but IMHO it's an excellent fit. The mall has excellent transit access, solid accessibility infrastructure, and lots of co-located services. There's a reason mall libraries are actually pretty common in Canada - they're useful! (4/5)
What we need, now, is for this project to be included in the next provincial budget. The libraries are provincial, and so approving a new lease is part of the Department of Education's budget process. The provincial board for the library system has recommended this, so we're hopeful! (3/5)
What put this out in public was that we were successful in an application to the City of St. John's for a capital grant. That $50,000 grant will be matched by $75,000 in fundraised money from our board to cover the costs of fitting out a new space. (2/5)
A fun little cat to let out of the bag this week (I'm on the St. John's Public Libraries Board) is that we're hoping to move the Michael Donovan Library from it's itty-bitty storefront (1600 square feet!) to a bigger more accessible spot in the Village. It's not a done deal yet, though! (1/5)
We've got town hall meetings coming up Friday at lunch and Tuesday at supper! Good food and good chats for sure. Register at www.77charter.ca
Canada now has a national school food program now that all provinces and territories have inked funding deals with Ottawa, by @davemcginn.bsky.social
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic... via @theglobeandmail.com
@chsfcanada.bsky.social
Looking forward to speaking to some smart folks for this one!
This is neat! Designs are regionalized so there are some Atlantic Canada ones that look pretty nifty.
Setting up for a lived-experience focus group to start. Excited to hear what folks have to say.
