K.C. Jordan, LJI Journalist
Local food bank Bouffe Pontiac collaborated with the MRC Pontiac last week to host a public forum on food security issues in the county and to brainstorm strategies for addressing these challenges.
The event, hosted at the Little Red Wagon Winery on Thursday evening, was the latest in a series of similar events sponsored by the Concertation pour de saines habitudes de vie en Outaouais, all aimed toward combating food insecurity by bringing together community organizations and members of the public.
Presenters from the MRC and Bouffe Pontiac discussed topics related to food waste, food insecurity in the community, as well as different projects in the community trying to address those issues.
“Tonight was a chance to talk about what each organization is doing in the community and how we can work together,” said Bouffe Pontiac director Kim Laroche in a French interview. “It was to do awareness, to communicate, to engage different partnerships from the community to work together.”
After the presentations, the few dozen participants were split into groups where they brainstormed ideas and solutions related to the day’s topics.
Laroche said participants across the three groups felt initiatives like community gardens and pantries would help address food insecurity, as well as workshops where kids can learn how to transform raw foods into meals or preserves.
She said a common theme across the groups was getting the next generation of kids interested in producing and handling food from a young age, instead of relying on the food they buy at the store.
“Two subjects that were found very important are the education of children into eating healthier or having healthier habits, and how to access them in school and how to have them [get involved] in the community, manipulating the food and knowing how to build a garden from the start and learning how it’s grown.”
Martin Riopel, director of the Jardin Éducatif du Pontiac and a participant at the forum, said this is one of the biggest barriers he has seen to more widespread food security – training kids to enjoy healthy foods instead of chip stand-type foods.
“Education is one of the important things [ . . . ] Promoting healthy eating, not necessarily eating vegetables all the time, but at least include fruits and vegetables in our diet.”
He said sometimes eating healthier must come with the concession that it’s going to cost a bit more.
“When people come to the garden to buy vegetables, people complain that it’s expensive [ . . . ] you have to raise awareness among the population to appreciate and be grateful for what they have to offer [locally].”
In terms of food waste, Riopel said all vegetables that do not get sold at the garden’s market stand end up going to Bouffe Pontiac, where they are sorted through and then offered to the food bank’s users.
Laroche said her organization is always open to partnerships like these, and that by hosting the forum she hoped to learn how she can collaborate with other community organizations and individuals.
She said the food bank is trying creative solutions to reduce food waste, such as collecting expiring or expired produce from local grocery stores, sorting through what is still edible, and offering it at the food bank. But she said this practice can only go so far because there are only four grocery stores on the MRC’s territory where they can collect food waste.
“Regional food banks have better access to grocery stores like Costco, Walmart, Maxi, and they receive enormous quantities of food waste [ . . . ] The quantity of food waste we receive is much smaller compared to what is donated in the city, which means that a lot of the budget goes toward buying food, whereas some bigger food banks don’t need to spend as much.”
Bouffe Pontiac works with Shawville’s Cafe 349, which sometimes freezes unsold bowls of soup that the food bank collects and makes available for its users. Laroche said they are trying to do the same with other restaurants in the area.
“It’s about promoting awareness for them to do it, but what is difficult is that it takes more time than what they are used to doing right now. So if we can raise awareness about maybe keeping a bowl of soup every time there’s one left over, and that it can actually feed many people in the community, then maybe it’s a bit more advantageous for them to donate it.”
Laroche said transportation is another barrier to food security because people who use her food bank often don’t have the means to even get there.
“In other regions they have access to public transport, taxis, etc., but we don’t have any of that. So people have to use their own transportation, and a lot of the time they don’t have any because [ . . . ] they can’t afford to pay for the gas,” she said, adding that she would like to be able to offer transportation for everyone who needs it, but doesn’t have the money required to do that.
“For us, offering transportation for 800 families in the Pontiac, I don’t have the financing to do it adequately, it costs too much.”
New project on the horizon
Laroche said her organization has at times had trouble getting into schools to educate kids about the benefits of healthy eating.
“Accessibility to the school environment isn’t an issue everywhere, but for certain schools it’s not always easy,” she said. “And when we do get access it’s often at lunch hour, which is not a great moment to teach [the kids]. We have to have access to the kids, and if they are on lunch break we are not the priority of activities they choose.”
But she said her organization is hoping to start a new program this spring to make low-cost healthy snacks and meals available to kids at local schools, and are beginning a study in the next few weeks to gauge interest in the project.
“The idea is to distribute them to kids who don’t have a lunch, so it will be a study of how many are coming to school without a lunch or with an unhealthy lunch. It will be to study this, to see if we can provide meals for the entire school community, since we are talking about two school boards in the territory.”