Growing Healthy Communities: A Forum on Children, Youth and Food in Ottawa

On February 28^th teachers, parents, community organizers gathered at Heritage Academy for Growing Healthy Communities, a forum on children, youth and food, hosted by COG OSO’s Growing Up Organic Program. Alissa Campbell, Growing Up Organic’s Project Manager prefaced the evening by highlighting some of GUO’s achievements in 2012. She introduced the evening’s theme, Ontario’s new School Food and Beverage Policy, by expressing hope that we have a unique opportunity today to re-engage students in their food environments, re-empower them to be part of creative solutions, and actually rethink food education in our schools.

Laurie Dojeiji, Manager of Health Promotion at the Champlain Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Network set the tone for the evening, providing attendees with background recent changes observed in school food environments across the Champlain region.  Meeting the demands of the new policy have been challenging in Ottawa and across the province, and changes in school cafeterias have been met with noticeable resistance from students. But Laurie was optimistic for the years of implementation ahead, observing that changing youth food culture takes time, and that when elementary students arrive in high school now, healthy cafeterias will be the norm. 

Kent Van Dyk, Culinary Arts teacher at Longfields Davidson Heights, followed Laurie and spoke about his experience starting the culinary arts program at LDH: “Our school system strongly emphasizes numeracy and literacy, and rightly so, but I tell my students, listen: you eat three meals a day, every day, from day one, and for the rest of your lives.” Kent’s enthusiasm for making cooking and gardening cool for youth is contagious; since beginning at LDH, he has established a sprawling organic vegetable garden and a new orchard, allowing his students a field-to-plate experience that elicits reflection on where food comes from and the impact of our food choices every day. If the treats Kent’s students provided during the break are any indication, there are more than a few budding chefs growing out of the program thanks to Kent’s mentorship. 

Finally, Cheryl Boughton, Headmistress at Elmwood private school, shared Elmwood’s inspiring story of cafeteria transformation. Disgusted with her saucy-reconstituted –chicken stir fry one day, Cheryl decide she had had enough, and so began her journey to transform the school cafeteria. Elmwood now works on a self-operated model, with its own executive chef and food service staff. In the “Elmwood Bistro” kitchen, they prepare delicious meals for the 350 girls at the school. They have connected with organic farmers, and local sustainable purveyors of fish and seafood, and most remarkably, have reduced their costs from their previous third-party catered service. Of course they still serve child favorites, Cheryl says, but the ingredients are fresh, organic, and nutritious….and vegetables are hidden everywhere! Candice Butler, Elmwood’s new chef, brought a testament to the new kitchen’s creativity and talent in her oatmeal-apricot-chocolate chip-white-bean (that’s right!) cookies that were gobbled up by everyone in attendance after Cheryl’s presentation. 

In the second half of the evening, participants had a chance for some more intimate conversations in facilitated break-out sessions covering topics from school composting programs to connecting schools with local organic farms. How difficult it was to wrap up conversations at the end of the evening! Hopefully, these conversations will indeed continue and inspire even greater transformation in Ottawa’s school food environments. 

Growing Healthy Communities

The Growing Healthy Communities Forum is back!

The second annual Growing Healthy Communities Forum is here! 
Please note DATE CHANGED below!

Date/Time: February 28th 2013, 5pm-8:30pm

Place: Heritage Academy, 207 Bayswater

attendance by donation (please register ahead of time at: http://growinghealthycommunitiesforum.eventbrite.ca/)

The purpose of this forum is to celebrate initiatives that increase access to healthy, nutritious, sustainable food for children and youth in Ottawa.  This year, the forum will  focus on healthy, local, sustainable food in schools as well as innovative responses to the new Ontario School Food and Beverage Policy.

The topics for discussion will include:

1. Making the most of your school Garden: Garden‐based student learning opportunities across the curriculum

2. Healthy, kocal, organic: Your school's student breakfast and snack program

3. Inspiring healthy eating: Best uses for your school garden produce

4. School composting: Challenges and solutions

5. Farm-to-School: Connecting with local organic farms

Do you have an idea for a discussion topic? Or would like to speak about your school's innovative program? We are currently welcoming potential speakers and discussion faclilitators to submit proposals. Please feel free to email growinguporganic@gmail.com or lindsayvyvey@gmail.com with your suggestions!

A Visit to Parkdale Farmers' Market with Devonshire Public School

On a beautiful, sunny day in October, 4^th graders from Devonshire Public School went on a special field trip to the Parkdale Farmers’ Market. It was an excellent opportunity to talk about important food issues for urban consumers. Before heading out on their field trip, the students brain-stormed some questions to ask the people working at the market. These questions were based on their knowledge of organic and conventional production, the meaning of local produce, and the differences between vendors and producers at the market.

One of the great things about this field trip was its relevance to the students’ daily lives; they were actually able to walk from their school to the farmers’ market! Utilizing local resources, such as the Parkdale Farmers’ Market, in an educational context allows the students to see the connections between their daily lives and what they are learning about in school.

At the market, the students were full of great questions for people at every stall of the market. Walking around the market, I heard questions like “Is this garlic local? Where is it grown?” and “Do you use pesticides on your vegetables?”. The students’ enthusiasm in learning the answers to their questions was a testament to the importance of food education in our schools.

While at the market, the students bought produce to make a green tomato salsa and a Greek salad. When they returned from the market, they had the opportunity to use all of the ingredients that they bought to make snacks for themselves and visiting students from Connaught Public School.

It was definitely a very special trip, and another inventive way to integrate food education into schools. A big thanks goes out to Mr. Stephen Skoutajan at Devonshire for organizing the trip, and to all of the parent volunteers for their help!

Connaught Public School visits Mariposa Farm!

On a beautiful fall day in October, 3rd and 5th grade students from Connaught Public School had the opportunity to visit Mariposa Duck and Goose Farm. Ian Walker and Suzanne Lavoie, along with their trusty crew of farm animals, hosted two classes on the farm. The day started off with a grand tour of the farm, where the students had the opportunity to see the farm's diverse vegetable gardens and meet the farm's resident ducks, geese, pigs, and horses. To the great delight of the students, they were also accompanied on their tour by Yoga, the farm's incredibly friendly and loving Jersey cow.

As a part of the tour, Ian taught the students about the tradition (often referred to as the 'three sisters') of growing sweet corn, beans, and squash together. The students then had the opportunity to help harvest butternut squash from Ian's abundant vegetable gardens. This was a special opportunity, as the kids had an absolutely amazing time, running around harvesting butternut squash, and it was also an opportunity to express their gratitude to the farm for inviting them to visit. They harvested a whole truck full of squash in about half an hour, which would have taken one farmer much longer to do!

After harvesting the squash, the high quality squash was separated from the lower quality squash, and the students got to feed some squash to the pigs! They were amazed at how quickly the pigs gobbled up the squash, and how much they enjoyed it. It was one more lesson for them on how, on a farm, everything can have a use, and nothing need be wasted.

Ian also taught the students about the importance of saving seed from the crop. The students dug around in some large squashes, and separated the flesh of the vegetable from the seeds. These seeds will then be dried and saved to plant next year.

All in all, it was an amazing day for everyone involved. Thanks to Anne Sherman and Michelle Richardson at Connaught Public School for their hard work in organizing this trip, and a huge thanks to Ian and Suzanne at Mariposa Farm!

National Farm to Cafeteria Conference

It was a whirlwind learning adventure last week as I joined over 800 attendees at the 6th National Farm to Cafeteria Conference in beautiful Burlington, Vermont. As a chance to interact with movers and shakers in the farm-to-school movement, the conference could not have been more successful; GUO connected with groups across the U.S. and Canada working hard to bring  healthy and sustainable food to children and youth in and outside the classroom, while connecting schools with their local agricultural community. 

I was particularly impressed with the legislative support and representation at the conference; as many of you know the landscape of farm-to-school in the U.S. is very distinct from the Canadian experience, not least because of the national school lunch program. One of the most striking differences is the engagement of political actors in advancing these important causes: from Michelle Obama's "Let's Move!" campaign, to the very recent implementation of a National Farm to School Grant Program, housed in the US Department of Agriculture. Present at the Digging In Conference were Congressman Welch, Congresswoman Chellie Pingree, Senator Sanders, and Chuck Ross (Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture); making video appearances were Kathleen Merrigan (USDA Deputy Secretary) and Deborah Kane (USDA National Director of Farm to School) among several others. The depth of knowledge and inspiring messages from these speakers convinced me of the need for similar champions in Canada and the overall importance of government support for programs dedicated to increasing the health of our youth, supporting a sustainable environment, and linking us more closely with our local sustainable agricultural community. Thanks to the support of these individuals and the tireless work and dedication of thousands of educators, not-for-profits, and parents across the U.S., there are farm-to-school programs in over 10,000 schools across the country. Despite the different landscape here in Canada, it's time for Canada to step up to the plate and support the expansion of institutionalized support for similar programs here, including garden- and farm-based education programs such as GUO.

I also brought back a wealth of new ideas to enrich GUO thanks to the connections I made with several individuals and programs doing similar work. On behalf of GUO, I participated in four workshops:

• The Farm as a Classroom: Conducting Successful Farm Field Trips;
• Lessons from Field to Table: Engaging Community Partners in Garden and Kitchen Based Education Programs;
• Regional Partnerships and Approaches to Farm to Institution; and 
• Using the Food System to Cultivate an Integrated K-12 Curriculum

And also had the opportunity to connect with individuals working in Canada during a special regional meetings session. It was a treat to finally meet Joanne Bayes from B.C, who is leading a new national network of farm-to-cafeteria programs in Canada and her colleague Mary McKenna from University of N.B.; along with staff from Equiterre in Quebec. Check out these other great organizations I met, for heaps of information, resources and inspiration:

Vermont FEED
Greening of Detroit
National Farm to School Network
The Edible School Yard
Life Lab
Shelburne Farms

As we approach another busy Fall season ahead, I look forward to sharing lessons and inspiration from Vermont with you all.  

Documentary Film Screening August 28th!

Fair Trade Ottawa Équitable and COG-Ottawa are excited to announce that we are co-presenting a screening of the new acclaimed documentary film What’s Organic about Organic? on Tuesday, August 28^th at 7pm, in the Library and Archives Canada on 395 Wellington Street.  Admission by donation - proceeds will be shared between our two non-profit groups for education and outreach programs. Come on out and enjoy a free, Organic, Fair Trade beverage and chocolate bar! Graciously sponsored by Camino, Loudmouth Design & Printhouse, and Equator Coffee.