Community Power Projects: Investment Opportunities

Food Security Stories from the Global South

Bill Wilcox ( Hamilton Victory Garden) and Karen Burson (Eat Local at Environment Hamilton).

Oct 17th, Wentworth Baptist Church.
People around the globe need to be concerned about food security for a variety of reasons.  Some of those reasons are place-specific (arid climates), some are political (conflict usually disrupts the food supply) and some are economic (not everyone can afford access to food). The issues are global in scale too: climate change, peak oil, and peak phosphorous are areas of concern.
We cannot take the cheap food system that feeds so many of us for granted: not only does it leave us with a planet that is both "stuffed and starved", but the systems and conditions that we have assumed would always do the job is under threat, due to the depth and breadths of the challenges  touched upon above.

Speakers Bill Wilcox (Hamilton Victory Gardens) and Karen Burson (Eat local at Environment Hamilton) shared food security stories from the global south.
Bill shared his experiences during an urban agriculture study tour to Havana, Cuba, the world’s
leader in urban agriculture.

Since 1993, the city of Belo Horizonte (Brazil) has received international prizes for its initiatives in reducing hunger and malnutrition, and has received the attention of academic studies and popular press throughout the world.
Karen discussed some of Belo Horizonte's best known and most influential food programs, and will explore what the success of these programs might suggest about the future of food security right here in Hamilton.




Speakers Bios:

Bill Wilcox is a native Hamiltonian, who helped his Dad with market gardening at an early age. He enjoyed a long career in Purchasing Management, which included running his own Packaging Company for over 13 years. He is now semi-retired, and still has his passion for gardening—in fact, he has what his family lovingly refers to as a “Grow-Op” in his basement!!
In 2007, Bill organized and implemented the first Victory Garden in Hamilton, which was located on 4 acres of property behind a church on the mountain. After 4 years of managing that garden, he decided to bring the Victory Garden concept below the mountain into the areas of highest need. This year, Hamilton Victory Gardens has SIX locations around the city, and has plans for expansion in 2013.

In the 4 years that Bill managed the Victory Garden at the mountain church, a total of just over 40,000 pounds was harvested. In the 2 years of the Hamilton Victory Gardens being below the mountain, there has been a total of over 10,500 pounds to date--with another month of harvesting still to go in 2012
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Jamaican-born Karen Burson earned a B.A. in Political Science from Carleton University and has worked extensively in food service and policy for many years.  After deciding she hated IT work and then discovering her desire to work as a personal chef (she dabbled in that work during a long stay in rural southern England) Karen started her Eklectic Kitchen which offered catering and personal chef servcie.  Her work at the Sky Dragon Community Development Cooperative earned an award from the Canada Organic Growers and she established a Slow Food Convivium in Hamilton in that same year.  She now sits on the city’s Community Food Security Stakeholder Committee, works with Hamilton Partners in Nutrition and in February, and organized Hamilton’s first ever conference on food policy. That successful venture landed her a stint with Sustain Ontario: the Alliance for Healthy Food and Farming, where she assumed the role of lead organizer for their Bring Food Home sustainable food conference held at Trent University in Peterborough.

Currently, Karen is a project manager of “Hamilton Eat Local” for Environment Hamilton and has served in that role since 2008.  More recently, she has become a popular presenter with her fun and frugal cooking demonstrations at the Hamilton Farmers’ Market Community Kitchen.  Affordable food is very important to Karen. That’s why she co-founded the Hamilton Good Food Box Network which aims to make fruits and vegetables more accessible to people living on low incomes or living in “food deserts”, thereby making that food ever more widely available right across the city.

Food Security Stories from the Global South

Worship Without Your Car: Get To Your Faith Centre A Greener Way

Traveling green is an important way we can be stewards of our planet. Over the weekend of September 21st, 22nd and 23rd, Greening Sacred Spaces Hamilton invites people of all faiths to travel to worship that Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on foot, by bike, by public transit or carpool.

Your faith group will be competing against other Hamilton faith groups for a chance to win a prize (TBA) for your place of worship. The groups with the highest percentage of participants gets the prizes.
Prizes include a rainbarrel, two return tickets to Montreal, bike helmets, Go tickets, Mountain Equipment Co-op goodies, Meditation Workshop and more!

ATTN: youth - you can win Jane Goodall tickets, if you pre-register.
This is an opportunity for you to organize an event at your place of worship. Be part of the fun while promoting active transportation. http://environmenthamilton.org/view/page/Volunteer


Are you a youth? Want to organize an event at your place of worship? Need volunteer hours? Want to win prizes? Then this is for you!
The youth that pre-registers the most participants by September 14th will win tickets to see Jane Goodall on September 19th! Over that weekend, the place of worship that tallies the highest percentage of people using green transportation will win the contest.

You will receive volunteer hours for every hour that you advertise at your place of worship, (i.e. after services, giving announcements, taking registrations in foyers) and for the amount of time it takes you to tally on the weekend of the event. You will need your youth minister or a staff member from your place of worship that was present to sign your volunteer form. This is very flexible, and you can make it fit your schedule. Remember that the more you promote, the more successful your event will be. Talk to your leaders: can this day be turned into something more? A BBQ or social event afterwards?  Be creative, take initiative!  We want to hear all about how the event went, and will give you a volunteer hour for sending us a one page report or article and pictures of the event. The most creative and well written report will be featured in our newsletter.
Be part of the fun while promoting active transportation.

The first step is to register your faith group with Beatrice by email bekoko@faith-commongood.net or by calling (905) 549-0900. Then via email you will receive all the materials you need to get started.  Once you register, participants from your group can join your team.

Know some youth who might be interested? Make sure to let them know! Let’s celebrate 'a greener way to worship' together!

Cook It From Scratch with Good Food Box contents!

Cooking from Scratch (with Good Food Box contents): Local Chefs to lead the sessions.
The Good Food Box is a non-profit fresh fruit and vegetable distribution program. It makes healthy fresh food affordable and accessible to everyone. For only $15 you receive a box of fresh quality produce worth $25 or more. GFB buys  food at wholesale prices, with a preference for Ontario farmers. Read here for more about the Good Food Box.

The sessions are led by a ‘chef’ (a different one for each session) who will plan a menu and she will have two assistants.
Start: 5:00 pm, cooking together until 6:30 and end with a communal meal.

Where: Friends Meeting House, 7 Butty Place, Hamilton.
Wednesday, September 19th
Wednesday, October 17th
Wednesday, November 21st

Register for a session by September,12th to avoid disappointment.
Maximum number of participants 8
Bring your appetites and your willingness to learn.
FREE!
Contact Beatrice 905 549 0900 or email bekoko@faith-commongood.net

Focus on Youth Engagement

Mark your calenders! The much anticipated Focus on Youth Engagement Meeting will be held on Tuesday, September 11th.  We are partnering with the First Unitarian Church to bring this event to you, many thanks to them! 

The question is, how do we get youth involved?
In what? Our communities, our home faith communities, our close to home, sustainability issues.  

Why? The youth of today are tomorrows leaders, and can even be today's leaders when they set their hearts to something. Any age can make change. 

So, are you a youth leader, Pastor, Priest, Minster, worker, committee member, or volunteer?  Are you from a place of worship with a lot of youth, and want new ideas? Are you from a place of worship with few youth, and want to brainstorm?

Are you a youth who has ideas, or wants to see what we're about? 

Everyone is welcome!  Bring each other, team up,  (carpool), and lets start to Focus on Youth!

Details:
Tuesday, September 11th
7-9pm
First Unitarian Church
170 Dundurn Street South

National Student Summer Food Summit! Don't Miss the Deadline!

Registration Closes for the National Summer Food Summit by Meal Exchange on August 10th! It will be August 17th to August 19th at the University of  Toronto: is your school represented? A great opportunity for youth to learn about national food security issues, build leadership skills, and meet other youth.   Check out the website and tell the students and youth you know about it. http://studentfoodsummit.ca/

The goals of the National Student Food Summit are to:

- Provide delegates with a greater understanding of  food issues on a national scale and begin narrowing their focus to the local level.

- Strengthen the student voice by profiling students as leaders within the food movement and providing delegates with a stronger vision for the future of food on campus.

- Increase delegates’ understanding of food security: thoughtful action is only possible when people are fully informed.

- Provide delegates with a greater understanding of the 6 principles of the National Student Food Charter and their relation to food on campus.