Canadian Prairies Region

From the Ground Up, Winnipeg!

Winnipeg, Manitoba's capital and largest city, has the highest child-poverty rate in Canada . "From the Ground Up" has been developed to engage at-risk youth in agricultural activities and is based on strong community partnerships with schools and community agencies. From the Ground Up's vision is to serve as a catalytic, transformative force in the lives of youths and their families by providing hands-on training in sustainable, urban-based agriculture. Participants will develop a greater sense of hope, purpose and place while gaining access to improved sources of income and high quality, locally produced food. This project will use a broad spectrum of urban agricultural activities, including beekeeping (40 hives), aquaculture (1,200 rainbow trout a year), vermicomposting and organic vegetable gardening.

GenAssist: New Routes for Tomorrow's Farmers

The number of family farms in the Canadian Prairies continues to decrease rapidly. Over 27,000 farms went out of business in the five years preceding 2002. As the number of farm families declines, agriculture and food security are moved into the hands of fewer people, resulting in loss of employment and general decline of rural communities. GenAssist's major goal is to help beginning farmers ensure that the intergenerational transfer of farms continues in a sustainable manner. This new generation of farmers will be trained in a stewardship ethic that seeks environmental, social and economic balance while producing food. Heifer International is providing livestock to 30 young farmers who are not financially capable of starting a farm. An agroecology initiative will be added for restoration of other prairie land.

Harvest Moon Food Group

The Harvest Moon Food Group (HMFG) is working to revive family farms in Manitoba by developing a local food-marketing group and creating new opportunities for the next generation of farmers. The HMFG is made up of women, men, farmers, leaders, entrepreneurs, volunteers, friends, familites and activists; all of whom are committed to a democratic, inclusive and egalitarian group structure. Together, they strive towards food production and distribution that reconnects farmers and consumers, moving farmers from "producers of commodities" to "providers of food." The HMFG will contribute to food security, reduce the ecological footprint of food productions, increase the viability of small-scale family farming and reverse the trend of rural and environmental decline. By marketing collectively and directly to consumers, the HMFG members will gain a larger portion of the consumer dollar, making members' farms more viable now and for future generations.

Manitoba Local Foods Project

The Manitoba Local Foods Project will assist 180 families through the original placement of 4717 chickens, 42 goats, 90 kilos of worms, training, seeds and horticultural resources, and networking opportunities to communities in three regions of the province: Urban, Rural and Northern Manitoba. An additional 120 families will benefit through passing on the gift. Through seventy stakeholder meetings conducted by the Manitoba Food Charter (2005-06), Manitobans identified three common concerns around Manitoba's food system: access, an increased connection to, and information about food. This project translates all of the community dialogs around food systems into concrete action in the form of community projects to improve food security and the strength of local food systems in Manitoba. The Urban Winnipeg community projects include: showcasing urban farming models, farmer market development, supporting buy local campaigns and educating around economic access to healthy food. The rural Manitoba community projects include: marketing support for local producers (environmental scans) and buy local campaigns. The Northern Manitoba community projects include establishing community gardens, increasing skills around food preparation and processing, establishing small livestock producers, experimenting with underground gardens and aquaculture, developing individual and community composting facilities.

Millennium Gardens

For the hundreds of socially isolated, marginalized seniors who participate, the Millenium Gardens is "a dream come true," and has enabled them to improve their health and well-being through growing food, physical activity, and participating in social events. But because of freeway expansion, the Millennium Gardens must be moved. To help move the garden, Heifer will reestablish garden beds, watering systems, and wheelchair accessible pathways, as well as move the training structure and tool storage. Heifer will also enable the expansion of training and outreach activities for garden participants. The project will also foster youth involvement and intergenerational exchange. By passing on the gift, garden participants will provide the community with training and horticultural supports.

Seven Oaks Community Garden

The Seven Oaks Community Garden (SOCG) serves the needs of an underserved community in Winnipeg. The project's mission is to enhance the quality of life of community residents by providing gardens that people of all ages, various cultural backgrounds, income levels and all mental and physical abilities can use and learn from. The garden encourages wellness through increased access to healthy foods, physical activity and social interaction. The project has four overarching values: health and well-being, participation and sharing, ecologically sensitive food production, and enjoyment and beauty. The establishment of this community garden will benefit the lives of many in an urban area that has limited green space and gardening opportunities.

Youth for EcoAction - Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg

With support from Heifer International, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Winnipeg is expanding their Youth for EcoAction (YEA) project to reach approximately 1,800 at-risk youth. The youth are from marginalized neighborhoods and face many challenges in their home and urban surroundings. They are primarily minorities, new Canadians, refugees or aboriginal. YEA will provide experiential learning and employment opportunities in sustainable agricultural to create positive change in youth and their communities, and to contribute to agricultural and ecological sustainability. Placements of fish, worms, indoor and outdoor gardens, and a small greenhouse will enable youth to bring food security projects into their own communities and to pass-on the training and techniques they have gained.

Growing Our Future

The Core Neighborhoods Youth Co-op (CNYC) and Girls Action Information Network (GAIN) are partnering to develop skills-building programs for at-risk youth in the inner city of Saskatoon. The project's goal is to allow at-risk youth to gain life and employment skills through the development of a therapeutic gardening and horticulture curriculum and micro-business. Training will include beekeeping, composting, greenhouse and outdoor gardening and aquaponics. CNYC will receive gifts of beehinves, worms, seeds, and fish. The project will involve approximately 30 original youth and include 40 as pass-on recipients each subsequent year. The greenhouse will be a girls-only program. All youth will share their knowledge with others in the project and to children at partnering elementary schools.

Little Green Thumbs

The Little Green Thumbs (LGT) project, managed by Agriculture in the Classroom in partnership with the First Nations Agricultural Council of Saskatchewan, will help approximately 3500 young people value their health and the health of their community and environment through participation in a classroom garden. The project will receive grow kits, soil and seeds to form an indoor garden that will make learning concepts such as sustainable food systems, community interdependence and nutrition fun and relevant. Students will also cooperate to compost their food waste with vermi-composting. Rural, urban and First Nation schools will form clusters help strengthen schools and communities through shared learning and cultural celebrations. The LGT project will engage 50 original placement classrooms, and 70 pass-on recipients.

Ontario

Farmers Growing Farmers

The Everdale Environmental Learning Center is located in Ontario, Canada 50 km north of Toronto in Hillsburgh. Over the last few decades, the number of family farms has declined due to a lack of support in training, marketing and land access. The Farmers Growing Farmers (FGF) project will work with 30 new farmers. FGF will link new farmers with seasoned farm mentors as well as offer business training support and create and deliver an "eat local" awareness campaign. Participants in the project will receive original placements of seeds, tools and livestock, and will "pass on the gift" to another 30 families. The focus will be on horticulture and farm business training; however farmers will have the option to diversify their farm operations through chicken, goats, sheep, pigs and cows for meat as well as chicken for eggs, cows for dairy, bees for honey and worms for vermicomposting. The ultimate goal will be to strengthen communities through the development of new farms that will be direct marketing to local communities.

Newcomer FarmStart-Up Program

The Newcomer FarmStart-Up Program will provide training programs and support services to help 30 newcomers to Canada start agricultural enterprises in near-urban areas, meeting the growing demand for locally-grown, directly-marketed and culturally-appropriate fresh produce in Southern Ontario. These programs are being developed in partnership with community, settlement, food security and ethno-cultural organizations. The programs will center on two new training and "incubator farm" facilities near Toronto, as well as other near-urban/urban small plots and co-op farming arrangements. Programs and support services will include tailored business development courses and support, farm tours, mentoring, ecological agriculture and technical skills training, linkages with existing resources, access to necessary start-up infrastructure, and market access support.

TsiNiyukwalhot^ Latiythos

Onyata:aka is a small indigenous community south of London Ontario of 300 households. The traditional learning Centre TsiNiyukwalho:t^ teaches traditional Oneida ways as well as regular school board equivalent curriculum. The school is a full immersion school that teaches the Oneida language. The school with support from the Cookhouse and traditional elders will facilitate the development of: raised bed gardens at the school for students, raised bed gardens at people's homes, and communal gardens at the Cookhouse. The overall desired impact is for the community to begin to grow, prepare and eat their traditional foods. The learning centre has brought to the project an emphasis on training and curriculum. Both students and members of the community will have opportunities to participate in workshops, lessons and demonstrations throughout the life of the project. This project will give the Onyota'a:ka Nation an opportunity to experience agriculture in a way that will again encourage holistic health - spiritual, physical, emotional and mental. The gift of knowledge and a way of life will be passed on to the next seven generations, as is their tradition.

Everdale Environmental Learning Centre Disaster Rehabilitation Project

Everdale Environmental Learning Centre, an hour northwest of Toronto, is a nonprofit learning centre that teaches sustainable living by offereing hand-on learning opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds, including beginning farmers. The Everdale classroom is a 50-acre property which encompasses a working organic farm, forests and meadows and demonstration models of sustainable technologies such as solar and wind energy. On December 11, 2004, a fire at Everdale destroyed the farm's workshop, offices, harvest and processing stations, equipment and tool rooms and storage facilities. It also destroyed the livestock and equipment of the pastured poultry enterprise, apiculture and beginner farmer program. Through Heifer's Disaster Rehabilitation Fund, Everdale will receive $46,000 to help cover costs associated with the loss of equipment and sales due to the fire.

The Community and Agriculture Project

Through the Community and Agriculture Project, Food-Share Toronto will expand its current partnership with Heifer International to support community-based organizations in designing and implementing urban agriculture projects. This project will build partnerships with local communities and organizations interested in sustainable, local food systems, as well as support project development, planning, implementation and evaluation. It will facilitate training opportunities, building a network of local expertise in sustainable, community-based agriculture. The direct project beneficiaries are mental health patients, youths at risk and farmers. Through partnerships with FoodShare, the five initial sub-project groups will work to improve the social, environmental and economic conditions of these disadvantaged groups. These groups are The Vocational Resource Center of the Center for Addiction and Mental Health; The Umoja Learning Circle, African family-centered educational institution, Afuye Youth Garden, of the Afri-Can FoodBasket, The "Focus on Food" Community Youth Services Program of FoodShare, and the Everdale Environmental Learning Center.

Western

Vancouver Community Agriculture Network (VCAN)

The Vancouver Community Agriculture Network (VCAN) aims to improve food security and develop the food producing capacity of vulnerable families and groups in inner city areas of Vancouver. Under this project, VCAN and Heifer will conduct four different initiatives. Through the "Connect Land and People" initiative, VCAN is partnering with the City of Vancouver to add 2,010 new community garden plots by 2010. Through "Raising Community Gardeners," this project will identify, gather and train food insecure families interested in growing their own food. Under the "Creating Community Links" initiative, this project will create and encourage networks between urban agriculturalists and between growers and other food-related agencies, businesses and residents. Under "Building for the Future," VCAN will enhance system-wide food security by keeping food growing families involved in ongoing joint efforts to support urban agriculture.

Homegrown

Sixty percent of the Tsartlip First Nations community lives below the Canadian poverty line. Obesity, diabetes, heart-related conditions and thyroid conditions linked to poor diets threaten many residents of the suburban Victoria , B.C., reservation. This project will ensure access to fresh, healthful food. Gardening and animal care will help strengthen multi-generational bonds and community participation. Beginning with 15 multi-family households, the project will expand to 30 families by the end of 2007. Families will learn to operate intensive vegetable gardens, in addition 10 families will receive and be trained in the care of chickens for meat and eggs.

Collaborators

First Nations Agricultural Council of Saskatchewan Inc. For more information please visit their website.
Agriculture in the Classroom For more information please visit their website.
Anishnabek of the Gitchi Gami Environmental Programs For more information please visit their website.
Cityfarm For more information please visit their website.
Core Neighbourhood Youth Coop For more information please visit their website.
Holistic Management International For more information please visit their website.
Manitoba Food Charter For more information please visit their website.
Beyond Factory Farming Coalition For more information please visit their website.
Saskatchewan Co-operative Association For more information please visit their website.
FortWhyte Alive For more information please visit their website.
USC Canada For more information please visit their website.
FarmStart For more information please visit their website.
National Farmers Union For more information please visit their website.
ETC Group For more information please visit their website.
Everdale Organic Farm & Environmental Learning Centre For more information please visit their website.
FoodShare For more information please visit their website.
Food Secure Canada For more information please visit their website.
Rams Horn For more information please visit their website.
Farmers' Market Association of Manitoba For more information please visit their website.
Organic Food Council For more information please visit their website.