Accessing Food in St. John’s By Bruce Knox, City of St. John’s Sarah Crocker, Food First NL Many people link the food we eat to our own health and wellbeing. This year, we went through the 8-day “Snowmageddon” State of Emergency and are now living through a global Public Health Emergency. These events caused stress on some resident’s ability to access food and food support programs. These events also increased awareness of the difficulty some people have accessing food. This year, research showed that 1 in 6 households experienced food insecurity. This means they could not get the food they needed to lead an active and healthy life.
38
CITY GUIDE | FALL 2020
Food First NL and the St. John’s Food Policy Council have been working with The City of St. John’s to address food issues. One upcoming project of Food First NL is to conduct a Food Assessment. For nearly a decade, Food First NL has successfully supported Community-Led Food Assessments in several communities in our province. This work has created new and enhanced food security programs, and has generated interest, and action on food issues. This project is unique because discussion and decision making will happen by community members. People understand their community’s strengths and know
