Recorder and Times / Steve Pettibone / 06 August 2011
You might say its mandate is all for food and food for all.
The Food For All Network is a collective organization made up of various food banks, community members and health-care workers from the Country Roads Community Health Centre in Portland. Its goal is to address an issue that has become increasingly prevalent in small, rural communities in Leeds, Grenville and Lanark counties over the past several years – food security.
Best defined as a lack of access to affordable, safe and healthy foods, food security has become a widely publicized issue all over the province, and locally as well, due to campaigns such as last fall’s Do the Math Eat the Math Challenge.
“Our main concern is making sure members of the community have access to nutritious food,” network member Kate Earl, a registered dietician who works at Country Roads, told The Recorder and Times on Friday.
Earl said the organization has set up numerous programs and partnerships with food banks in Westport, Portland, Athens, Seeleys Bay, Delta and Elgin.
Food security has become a large issue in these communities for a variety of reasons, Earl said. The high cost of gasoline and inflated small-town grocery prices make healthy eating a challenge for many residents in these communities, she said.
As a tie-in to its relationship with the food banks, Earl said the network this year established a community garden at the Country Roads site, where lettuce, tomatoes, beans and a host of other fresh vegetables are being grown. This initiative has helped staff at the centre provide access to these foods to clients in need.
