Working Together to Promote Community Food Security
COVID-19 and Food
Accessing food has become more challenging for many people during the pandemic. The municipality is responding in three ways to address food insecurity during COVID 19:
1. EMERGENCY FOOD DISTRIBUTION
The municipality is supporting emergency food distribution by redeploying staff to help with the Mobile Food Market’s food packs and emergency hampers. Check out how the Mobile Food Market is supporting access to healthy and affordable food.
2. FOOD PRODUCTION
We are working to support growing food at home through the distribution of seeds, garden packs and container gardens in June 2020. Email us for more information on this project.
3. FOOD CONNECTIONS
The municipality is helping to identify and share information on food supports in our communities. While many are working to support food access during COVID-19, there is no central place to share and learn about what’s happening in our Region. The municipality is developing a portal to share and learn more about community supports during the pandemic and inform future actions to strengthen emergency response and our local food system.
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Share your food story - we would like to hear about your experiences with food during COVID-19, to better understand and inform future action. Coming soon - a simple survey and chance to share your stories.
The Halifax Regional Municipality is an active member in Canada’s Food Communities Network, which is sharing resources and ideas for increasing food security during COVID-19.
Food Action Plan
The municipality is committed to promoting community food security. This Food Action webpage highlights municipal actions and partners in this work, and hosts tools and resources to build understanding and inform action. In December 2019, the municipality strengthened its partnership with the Halifax Food Policy Alliance, by committing to develop a Food Action Plan together. View the report initiating this work.
The Food Action Plan will engage with residents and stakeholders and unify efforts to develop “grown in Halifax” solutions. As the first food strategy in our Region, it will create a comprehensive plan to guide actions to improve food security, with clear roles for all actors in the food system and the necessary resources for positive change. Working together, the first step will be to gather feedback on a draft framework of the Plan and engage with the public to shape the Plan’s direction. The Plan will build on three key areas of action, which will evolve as the Plan develops:
• Food for All: easy access to good food & food as a human right
• Recipes for Change: supporting local food, strengthening the food system and increasing governance
• Shifting Food Culture: reconnecting with food and celebrating how it brings us together
The local food conversation is based on some common food terms, explained in “Dig In!”, a document developed by local food advocates at FoodARC and the Ecology Action Centre’s Food Team.
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- PARTNERS
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Working together to improve access to food and strengthen the local food system.
- PLAN
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Developing the Halifax Food Action Plan
- Halifax Food Charter
- Shape Your City Project plan & story telling
- ACTIONS
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Actions to promote food security
- TOOLS
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Tools for knowledge sharing and learning more:
- Food Assessment Toolkit
- Food For All Mapping App
- RESOURCES
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Resources to inform action
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The Food Action Plan is based on the Halifax Food Charter, which lays out the principles of the Plan and calls us to work together for a Region with a just and sustainable food system, where no one is hungry and everyone has access to healthy food that they enjoy.
- Social Justice
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We all eat. Everyone deserves to have good food. We should be able to produce, prepare, and access food safely and with dignity.
- Health & Well-Being
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Food is crucial for health and well-being - it nourishes and connects us. Communities must be supported & empowered to make it easy to grow, get, eat and share good food.
- Environment
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Food and the earth are precious. We need to produce, share, and eat food in ways that protect the environment and our future.
- Local Economy
- Local food strengthens communities and helps us adapt to changes in the world. Supporting local farmers, fishers and producers is an essential part of the food system.
- Celebration
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Food brings people together. It helps us celebrate our cultures and traditions and learn more about each other.
The local conversation is based in some common food terms, from the “Dig In!” document developed by local food researchers and advocates at FoodARC and Our Food Project at the Ecology Action Centre.
Household food insecurity - means that members of a household have difficulty accessing or worry about not having enough personally acceptable food for a healthy, active life. Household food insecurity is closely related to poverty; the lower the income, the higher the risk of food insecurity.
Food security - is not the opposite of household food insecurity. Food security is when all people, at all times can get the food they need to be healthy and active. This includes being able to afford healthy food that is within easy reach.
Community food security - exists when all community residents have access to enough healthy, safe food available through a food system that can be sustained for generations to come, and that maximizes community self-reliance and social justice.
Food environments - is the notion that highlights the role of the places in which we live, work, play, and learn in shaping our experiences with food and influencing what foods are available to us.
Food systems -refer to the activities and relationships that make up and influence what we grow, catch,harvest, process, market, sell, distribute, share, prepare, eat, and dispose of.
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Food literacy - refers to the ability of individuals to access, choose, and prepare foods that meet their needs and preferences. This idea has expanded to include the ability of individuals to know how to produce and share foods, as well as contribute to decisions that affect our food systems.
Food justice - acknowledges that our food system is not neutral; we don’t have a level playing field. The rules, who gets to set the rules, and the functioning of our food systems contain oppressive and colonizing forces that create and sustain inequities.
Food sovereignty - emerged from La Via Campesina, a global peasant movement, as the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, as well as their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. Learn more about the seven pillars of food sovereignty in Canada.
The Six A’s of Food Security - To ensure food security within your community, all of the Six A’s of Food Security must be met for the entire population. This means that every individual must be ensured all the following: 1. Accessibility 2. Affordability 3. Availability 4. Adequacy 5. Awareness 6. Appropriateness These terms are further explained in Chapter 1.
Community Food Assessment - A process that examines food-related issues, barriers, assets, and resources to inform the processes and actions taken to improve community food security.