Headwaters Food and Farming Alliance offers this monthly e-newsletter featuring the foundational pillars of the
Headwaters Food Charter
. The Charter was developed in partnership with WDG Public Health and has been widely endorsed. This series aims to keep you informed about issues and events relating to the Charter's 6 Pillars, 15 Goals and 27 Actions prioritized by our communities to enhance our food system.
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“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.""
- Fred Rogers
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One of the things often included in the long list of benefits of eating local is that a strong local food system builds the resilience of a community to withstand isolation and ensure food security if anything should happen that threatens the global supply chain. Never could we have imagined how quickly that concept could turn from theory to reality.
That said, our food supply is NOT in jeopardy at this time. There is pleny of food (and toilet paper) to go around, if we resist the temptation to stockpile goods so that everyone can continue to access what they need, when they need it, and suppliers can meet a more consistent level of demand. It's a different sort of "flattening the curve".
The shift in our lifestyles has been dizzying, and at the same time it is heartwarming and exciting to see people and businesses rise to the occasion, eagerly offering help to their neighbours - from the prescribed safe distance - and adjusting to the urgent needs of the moment, including access to food. Here are just a few examples of things we're hearing about:
- Many people have already switched to purchasing more from local farmers, in some cases tripling the sales of a typical Saturday market!
- Check the Headwaters Farm Fresh Guide listings. Best to make contact before heading to any farms or farmgate/stores, as many farms have adjusted how they operate and availability and accessibility will vary.
- Looking for local, seasonal recipes that are kid-friendly and good for family time in the kitchen? Check our our Local Food Club recipes.
- Work-at-home cooks and displaced restaurant chefs are providing delicious and nutritious pre-made options for take-away or delivery.
- Ask neighbours and friends for sources they are connected with or check your favourite restaurant's social media for their latest news.
- Grocery stores are reinventing how they serve customers, with extended and exclusive hours for seniors, online order fees waived, curb-side pick up, and even delivery. Check your local stores for options.
- For vulnerable and food insecure households, partnerships and collaborative efforts are popping up among community food centres, emergency food services, student nutrition operators, grocery stores and service organizations to mobilize food distribution and deliver boxes, baskets and hampers all over our region. See just a few local examples below.
Things will surely continue to evolve, so we will begin a conversation, pinned to the top of
our Facebook page, inviting you all to share what's happening with food access in your neighbourhoods.
Check in, take care and be well.
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Also, a new national network is forming to discuss community-based food responses to COVID19
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Change of plans:
Winter Harvest Dinner Series on pause
It's hard to do a community dinner remotely...it just doesn't have the same impact, eating online. ;)
The final dinner in our winter series was scheduled to happen tomorrow, March 29th at the Millcroft Inn and Spa. We are not cancelling it at this point, but postponing - we plan to reschedule it to a later date, to be determined when we know it will be safe to gather again.
Email us if you have any questions, and
bookmark our website for updates.
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You can get up-to-date information and advice on COVID-19 from these trusted sources:
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Things to do from a distance
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For your reading and viewing pleasure:
Build Resilience into Your Farm follow-up presentation slides and videos
If you weren't able to join us - or even if you were and want to revisit all the amazing information that filled our day on March 6th - check out the speakers' slides and videos of all the presentations and the panel
on our website.
postponing Millcroft dinner, watch follow up videos from Resilience event,
We are thrilled to see many local food stories - foraging, microgreens and meal prep, oh my! - and HFFA friends featured in this issue of In The Hills Magazine, including (but not limited to) Am Braigh, Fiddle Foot, Farmstead Fresh, Big Thunder farms, Jacalyn Dryland, Brenda Dolling, Stacy Thompson. Hope you get your (clean) hands on a copy soon and enjoy this beautiful publication with the extra reading time you may have. While the articles may have been written in the before time, pre-isolation, they are more timely than ever.
Carrying on with good work
Dufferin County Climate Change Collaborative is seeking members. See below and
visit their website
for more information and to see if you are a fit to represent one of the categories needed for the group's composition.
Submissions are due April 3, 2020.
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The Headwaters Food and Farming Alliance (HFFA) envisions a food system that is productive, sustainable, transparent, and fair; supports the health and well-being of our residents and food providers; and contributes to the prosperous and equitable economy.
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Headwaters Food and Farming Alliance (HFFA) is a project of
Headwaters Communities In Action
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