Food for All:
An Ottawa Community Response

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Community Food Security

Food for All is working to make sure that food in Ottawa is for everyone. In other words, Food for All is working towards community food security in Ottawa.

What is Community Food Security?

As Food for All continues to work on food issues, our understanding of what community food security means will continue to evolve. This is our current understanding of community food security:

Community food security exists when all community residents have physical and economic access to sufficient, culturally acceptable and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs for an active and healthy life. Community food security implies community responsibility for building a local and sustainable food system that enhances everything from personal self-reliance to global social justice. 

As the project moves forward we expect this definition to change to reflect community food security in Ottawa. What do you think about this definition? Please let us know what you would add or how you would change the definition of community food security.

Elements of Community Food Security:

Community food security is one way to look at the overall relationship that communities have with their food and to assess how the food system is working. In this project, Food for All will explore these elements of community food security:

(Food for All is aware that some of the issues identified below have scopes much beyond the municipal level and need to be addressed at provincial and federal levels. Food for All will focus on the municipal solutions to these issues and will feed ideas for other jurisdictions into food policy projects happening at provincial and federal levels).

Food, Access and Health in Our Communities

This topic area will look at issues like being able to find, afford and get to the food we need, the relationship between food and health, and our community food programs.

Food and Health

  • Economic access to food
    • Poverty
    • Worker Wages
    • Housing Affordability
    • Food Pricing
      • Nutritious Food Basket
    • Emergency Food
      • Food Bank and Food Cupboards
      • Soup Kitchens
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    • Physical Health
      • Diabetes
      • Obesity
    • Social Health
    • Pre-natal health
    • Child Development
    • Nutrition

Community Access to Food

  • Location of Food Outlets in Neighbourhoods (proximity)
    • Restaurants
    • Fast Food Restaurants
    • Grocery Stores
    • Convenience Stores
    • Specialty Stores
  • Transportation to and from Food outlets
    • Public Transit
    • Parking
    • Walking paths
    • Bike routes
  • Pricing of Food in Food outlets
  • Quality of Food available Food outlets
  • Information Available to Eaters / Labeling
  • Food Recovery
  • Food Packaging Waste

Community Food Programs

  • Food Skills
    • Nutrition
    • Food preparation skills
  • Community Programs
    • Collective Kitchens
    • Good Food Box
    • Meals on Wheels
    • Buns in the Oven
  • Community Economic Development
    • Food Co-ops
    • Catering Initiatives
    • Food handling and food safety

Food and Newcomers to Canada

This topic area will explore the issues related to food that newcomers to Canada face including the availability of culturally appropriate foods and learning about Canadian foods.

  • Availability of culturally appropriate foods
  • Purchasing and preparing of Canadian Foods
  • Community Economic Development Supports

 

Food Retail Environments

This topic area will explore the issues that food retailers and restaurants face in making food available to customers throughout Ottawa.

  • City Planning, zoning and taxation
    • Location of Food Outlets in Neighbourhoods (proximity)
      • Restaurants
      • Fast Food Restaurants
      • Grocery Stores
      • Convenience Stores
      • Specialty Stores
    • Transportation to and from Food outlets
      • Public Transit
      • Parking
      • Walking paths
      • Bike routes
  • Pricing of Food in Food outlets
  • Policy Enforcement / By-laws / Standards
    • Streamlining between different levels of government
  • Quality of Food available Food outlets
  • Information Available to Eaters / Labeling
  • Food Recovery
  • Food Packaging Waste

 

Food in Our Schools

This topic area will explore the issues related to formalized programs that provide children with food, the general availability of foods in schools, and food in the curriculum.

  • School Meal Programs
    • Breakfast programs
    • Lunch programs
    • Snack programs
  • Food Availability in Schools
    • Vending Machines
    • Cafeteria
  • Food in the curriculum
    • Home-Ec / food preparation classes
    • School gardens / food growing classes
    • Food systems history
  • Institutional Procurement
  • Proximity to Fast Food Restaurants and Convenience Stores

 

Local Household Food Production

This topic area will explore the issues faced by people growing food for their households – including household gardens, community gardens, livestock by-laws, and skills to grow and use food.

  • City / National Capital Commission / Public land-use
    • Community Gardens
    • Edible Landscapes
    • Parks
  • Urban Planning / Zoning:
    • Land Development / rooftop gardens / edible walls
    • Soil Contamination / Clean-up
  • Food Skills:
    • Food preservation
    • Gardening skills
    • Wild food harvesting
  • Public Exposure to Food Production
    • City Farm
    • Experimental Farm
  • Urban Livestock
    • Backyard Chickens
    • Beekeeping, etc.
  • Gleaning
  • Supporting Food Diversity
    • Seed saving / sharing
  • Managing Nutrient Cycles / Food Waste
    • Composting

 

Local Market Food Production

This topic area will explore the issues faced by people growing food for sale to others.

  • Marketing of Agricultural Goods / Farm Income:
    • Food Processing
      • Abattoirs
      • Canning
    • Food Distribution / Food Terminal
    • Direct marketing
      • Farm Gate Sales
      • Farmers Markets
      • Community Shared Agriculture
    •  Institutional Procurement
      • Food at City Hall / Government Buildings
  • Land-use
    • Preservation of Farm Land
    • Ontario Municipal Board Policy
  • Supporting Food Diversity
    • Community Seed Bank saving
    • Organics
    • Alternative methods of Agriculture
  • Financing
    • Community Support for Agriculture
    • Capital availability
  • Food Production Skills
    • Youth Training / Internship Programs / City Farm
    • Farmer Extension Services
    • Farmer to Farmer Training
  • Provision of Services in Rural Areas
    • Hospitals/ Schools / Firefighters / etc.
    • Agricultural support businesses (inputs, equipment, etc)
    • Arts, Culture, Communication, Transportation
  • Managing Nutrient Cycles / Food Waste
    • Composting

 

Community Food Security Assessment Toolkits

This element of community food security explores how communities can measure and monitor their own community food security and develop an action plan based on their findings.

  • Measuring Community Food Security in:
    • Urban Communities
    • Rural Communities
    • Communities of Interest
  • Access to information to conduct Assessment
  • Collecting and analyzing information
    • Community Gardens
    • Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
    • Farmers’ Markets
    • Gleaning
    • School Gardens
    • Community Kitchens
    • Wholesalers
    • Farm-to-Restaurant
    • Farming and Agriculture
    • Food Retail Stores
    • Transportation
    • Food Banks and Food Pantries
    • Charitable Food Programs in Schools
    • Low-income Cut-off

 

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