GUELPH – Seven community programs aimed at reducing the impacts of food insecurity will share $100,000 from Guelph-Wellington’s Our Food Future initiative.
Funded programs range from expanding community markets that sell fresh food on a sliding scale to making farmland and commercial kitchen space available to support local food initiatives, states a Dec. 20 City of Guelph press release.
The release states the funding is the result of a unique collaborative co-lab action and funding process facilitated by 10C and Toward Common Ground. The funding process involved community food relief organizations early with a goal to co-create solutions to help address food insecurity.
Rather than applying for a particular funding amount, community groups brought ideas forward to state their intention to take part in the co-lab process, explored and built on the ideas, and decided as a group how best to allocate the available funding. Because applicants didn’t need to be incorporated to get involved the approach opened the door to a wider range of participants.
“It was a terrific process. A lot of eyes were opened that seven different groups could get together and communicate freely,” says Barb McPhee, manager of North End Harvest Market. “In the end, resources were not evenly split: we allocated the funds to what organizations needed. We also weaved in steps towards Indigenous poverty relief, something we all agreed was essential.”
The announcement comes on the heels of a research report issued by Our Food Future, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health and Toward Common Ground which explored experiences of food insecurity and food access during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Surveys were conducted in late 2020 with 600 residents and 22 local organizations that provide services to people experiencing food insecurity. According to the report, the pandemic led some residents to experience food insecurity for the first time.
Reasons included job or income loss and increasing food prices. Forty-two per cent of organizations that provided emergency food during the pandemic saw an increase in demand, both from new clients and increased need from existing clients.
In Wellington County, 9.8 per cent of residents (one in 10) reported living in a food insecure household. In Guelph, 13.8% of residents (one in seven) reported the same. Of the residents who reported living in a food insecure household, 16.5% (one in six) were severely food insecure, which represents 2% of the total population of Guelph and Wellington County.
Food insecurity – not having enough money to buy food – was measured based on seven experiences ranging from worrying food would run out before there was money to buy more, to going hungry because there was not enough money to buy food. One or more experiences represented living in a food insecure household; five or more experiences represented living in a severely food insecure household.
“This is a stellar example of taking a new approach to funding essential social needs,” stated Smart Cities executive director Barbara Swartzentruber.
“If we are to meet our ambitious goal to increase our community’s access to affordable and nutritious food by 50% by 2025, we need this kind of collaboration and shared decision-making.
“The Co-Lab process helped these groups lead with empathy and their lived experience, share knowledge and strengthen each other’s ideas by working together to tackle problems facing our communities,” said Julia Grady, executive director of 10C and a co-leader of the co-lab initiative.
“It was an inclusive and highly effective approach to make the most of available funding.”
“While the barriers to affordable, nutritious food are perceived differently between people who are at increased risk of food insecurity and those who are not, both groups agreed that income-based solutions, such as guaranteed annual income and a living wage, would help to increase their access to food,” said Sarah Haanstra, manager of Toward Common Ground and co-chair of Our Food Future Nutritious Foods Workstream.
