Access to Healthy Food
“Everyone has the right to food. Food contributes to physical, mental and emotional health and well-being. The food system includes everything from growing food, to processing, storing, transporting, selling, buying, preparing, eating food and managing food waste. From producers to eaters – we are all part of the food system.”
Food Charter for United Counties of Leeds and Grenville and Lanark County
FoodcoreLGL has released an implementation toolkit for municipalities. The Municipal Toolkit uses the five main principles of the Food Charter for the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville and Lanark County and offers concrete and credible ideas on how municipalities can apply those principles in policy and by-law development and in collaborative work within their communities.
Building Healthier Food Environments within Recreation Spaces explains why recreation facilities are ideal locations to promote a healthy food environment, as they already support physical activity and active lifestyles.
Fuelling Recreation in Your Community is a toolkit that gives ideas on how to promote healthy food environments within your recreation facilities. It provides details on the essential elements of a healthy recreation food environment, local success stories, strategies to overcome barriers and mitigate profit loss, tips for working with vendors and other useful information.
Community gardens help provide an area to grow food, build community, strengthen neighbourhoods, support mental and physical well-being, promote intergenerational opportunities and collaboration, and make the community greener. They become meeting places and help build social connections.
Municipalities and their partners can play a supportive role in the development of community gardens by:
- Making space on municipal property available to residents to create community gardens
- Providing financial support
- Helping with the promotion of community gardens
- Helping to cover liability
- Providing access to municipal water for irrigation
- Collaborating with groups to develop community gardens
- Hosting or supporting events at community garden locations to promote their use
- Providing staff support to community groups like the ones listed below
- And more!
See a list of current growing and gathering food activities in foodcoreLGL’s Food Inventory.
Do you have a kitchen space that could support opportunities for community groups to cook and eat together? Visit our Food Safety webpage to learn how to ensure your kitchen is safe by involving a Public Health Inspector. See here for current cooking programs in your community.
If your municipality operates any child care facilities or settings, visit our child care page for tools and recipes to help you implement the nutrition sections of the Child Care and Early Years Act, and more!
As a Municipality you can also support your staff by creating a healthy supportive environment within the workplace. For information to help both employers and employees create a healthy eating environment in the workplace, visit our Where you Learn, Work and Play page.
Help Getting Food
Not everyone has the income to purchase nutritious food. If you or someone you know needs help to get food visit the Help Getting Food section in the foodcoreLGL Food Inventory.
For more information please contact [email protected].