Accessing Food

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. 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

where things need to improve, and they are best equipped to develop solutions that will work locally.

The Food Assessment will raise the profile of food issues in St. John’s. Input from the community will allow residents, organizations and the City to create a roadmap of activities and strategies to ensure access to healthy food.

This project is supported by the City of St. John’s and aligns with the work of the Healthy City Strategy. The food assessment is one of the many projects that take place in our neighbourhoods and supports one of the key areas of the Healthy City Strategy, ‘Access to Food’. The Healthy City Strategy will be the City’s long-term plan to improve health in the neighborhoods that make up our city.

Access to food plays such an important role in the health of people and the health of our community. The Food Assessment, will provide the City with activities that will inform the Healthy City Strategy and create meaningful changes in our local food environment. Look for ways to get involved this fall and share your vision for a healthy city!

For more information on how to get involved in the St. John’s Food Assessment, contact:

Sarah Crocker, Program Coordinator, Food First NL sarahcrocker@foodfirstnl.ca or visit www.foodstjohns.ca

Healthy Communities, City of St. John’s healthycommunities@stjohns.ca