Food Producers Forum, a provincial non-profit group, is linking fourteen community sites that are passionately dedicated to local food production and education, to create the Provincial Food Network.
Re-growing Foodways in Newfoundland and Labrador
These days, it is easy to feel powerless, to lose hope, as we face the daily tide of negative news that washes over us. We know we are less healthy than we were years ago, that farming is getting harder, that weather is getting more challenging, that soils are eroding and drought is coming. The list goes on. But here, in the least food secure and least healthy province in Canada, a network of food producers has been formed, to do something about all of this.
Inspired by a province-wide survey of 750 local food producers along with great ideas gathered through an online conference held in May of 2022, Food Producers Forum, a provincial non-profit group, is linking fourteen community sites that are passionately dedicated to local food production and education, to create the Provincial Food Network.
The idea behind this project is simple: if we can grow and gather more local food, there will be an improvement in food quality and community health and a decrease in atmospheric carbon from food production and shipping.
Fourteen Indigenous communities, family farms and community garden sites have come together to learn from each other, sponsor workshops, and offer mentorships, while delivering healthy food to their local communities. The project sites are:
- The Mercy Centre for Ecology and Justice (family education centre, St. John's)
- Avalon Homesteading (permaculture education and tools, Conception Bay South)
- Burin Community Garden Group (four linked community gardens, Marystown)
- Campbellton Berry Farm (growing healthy food for forty-four years, Campbellton)
- Knotty Pine Farms and Apiary (The Bearded Beekeeper, Port Blandford)
- King's Point Community Garden (founded by a fourteen-year-old, King's Point)
- Upper Humber Settlement (fully regenerative family farm, Cormack)
- Benoit First Nation (eleven linked Mi'kmaq communities on the Port au Port Peninsula)
- Western Environment Centre (education centre, gardens and composting, Corner Brook)
- Gros Morne Farm & Market/Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital (local food production, Norris Point)
- Smith Family Farm (new farm at the tip of the Northern Peninsula, Raleigh)
- Mary's Harbour Community Garden (local fishing community in NunatuKavut, on the Labrador coast)
- NunatuKavut Community Council (food programs for the Inuit of Southern Labrador)
- Labrador West Community Garden (170 community garden beds, Labrador West)
Each of these sites has a unique and compelling story to tell (stories that we will be documenting through online videos) but what brings them all together is the desire to share information and create momentum for a much-needed shift back to local, small scale food production.
Rural towns here on The Rock were once almost self-sufficient in basic food. We lost that after Confederation, so now we have a precarious global supply chain, and rapidly rising food prices for produce that arrives wilted and low in nutrition. We have to rebuild the capacity to grow and gather our own food right here at home. So we are doing it!
The Provincial Food Network has already identified several major challenges, including the need for farm labour, cold storage of crops, channels for direct food distribution, greenhouses, support for farm record keeping and funding. With thirty highly trained advisors and knowledge as an advisory team within the network, we can creatively address these issues.
So far, we have collected $208,000 from federal, provincial and university funding sources, to get this project solidly moving ahead. We will be bringing site representatives together this summer, to define a form of organization for the Network, as a coop, non-profit society or business, to hold these sites together and welcome even more communities to become members of the Provincial Food Network.
If you have questions or want to find out more, email foodproducersforum@gmail.com.
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