Food security

Working group looks to hire first staff position

Eighty per cent of the people who are food insecure in Prince Edward County are not being served, according to the Food Security Working Group (FSWG). The reason has little to do with availability of food, but is largely centred on the continued stigma of food bank use by the very folks who need help. Issues around food insecurity, how the County’s food programs are managed, and what can be done to help reach those who find themselves food insecure were among the topics discussed at the Community and Economic Development Commission (CEDC) meeting last Monday. Another statistic informed how food insecurity in the County rose to 15 per cent of the population since Covid, up from 10 per cent.

Christine Durant with the FSWG was joined by Glen Wallis of the Food Collective, where Wallis provided an update on the food programs, noting the establishment of the Food Depot. “It was extremely successful and we got a lot of funding for it,” said Wallis. He also spoke generally to the 11,000- plus hours of volunteer time, plus half a million dollars in grants and funding. “They are meeting their needs, there is still plenty of volunteers available, but the difficulty is getting money for staff,” he said. “We are in a unique position in that our entire food system in Prince Edward County for those who are food insecure is entirely staffed by volunteers, which is extremely rare.” As a member of the Good Food Organization, Wallis believes out of 200 organizations, Prince Edward County is the only one entirely run by volunteers. He also spoke to the continuing issues of stigma as well as locations, saying there is a lot more that can be done. “One of the big issues is both of our food banks are housed in the basement of churches; they don’t meet the criteria for a dignified location according to the Good Food principles.”

The Food Collective’s three-year plan identified how to move the needle on food insecurity. “We want to move the needle, we want to see a population difference, we want to see things change, as right now almost 80 per cent of the people who are food insecure aren’t using food programs and every program is busy, even with the 20 per cent that are using them,” Durant said. “We want to see people getting access to affordable food and what inclusion means for bringing people into food security.” What the FSWG is looking for is to bring in a coordinator in a paid position. “The support of the coordinating role has the potential to do a lot; this is funding that really, really matters,” Durant said. “With the support for food programming for a coordinated approach, it allows us potentially to leverage higher resources, being able to apply as a collective to look at funding that is going to support innovation and larger food programming.” She also spoke to the high level of volunteer burnout and how it is not sustainable to be dependent on volunteers. “There’s an opportunity here to get ahead of that.”

Durant indicated that new spaces were needed for the food banks, since they could lose both food bank locations at some point. “We want to see sustainability plans, secure space and ensure that emergency food programs are in place for the population of Prince Edward County.” She said effort needs to be made to destigmatize the use of food programs, and she noted different ideas had come from their research. “It’s just a matter of putting it into place, and coordination is an important part of that.” Durant said they want to see an increase in food programs over the next few years. Because all the different food programs work in silos, one of the things missing is data from each organization. “Having a coordinator working this role would allow us to bring all of that data together and look at how many people are really using, where they are and how we can best support them, and to have data to talk about hard numbers,” explained Durant. “We have a lot of risk if we don’t take action,” she said. Without a coordinator, Durant said there is potentially the loss of financial resources without someone to coordinate and do some of the work around leveraging resources. “We want to have a municipal strategy to create a food policy to address food insecurity; we risk the status quo that we won’t be able to move the needle on food insecurity by not being able to work collectively to meet local needs.”

Wallis spoke to the forward momentum in the last five years with collaboration between the two food banks, the Salvation Army, Food to Share, the County Foundation, the Prince Edward Learning Centre, and the Sophiasburgh Food Hub.

“All of these groups have members who attend the Food Collective’s meetings and contribute and we have come so far, and really if an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, we are talking about health here,” said Wallis. “What we are talking about is healthy nutritious food, social engagement, a sense of community.” He referred to the Vital Signs reports that call out increased obesity and diabetes and a loss of a sense of community. “This is a fantastic opportunity for us for a very, very small amount of money to have a great impact on the health and well-being of the people of Prince Edward County.”

The FSWG’s ask was for the CEDC to endorse the carryover of the unspent portion of the 2021 budget for food security to 2022 to a total of $20,000. Also, that the CEDC refer the 2022 budget request that the Food Security Working Group for $40,000 to implement the Food Security Working Group’s recommendations for council’s considerations during its 2022 budget deliberations. “This ask is all about money to have our very first staff person who can help to continue some of the synergies that have happened under the different groups which are working together more and more,” said Wallis. “The coordinator piece is the piece that’s missing,” added Durant.