Greetings!
Food Matters Manitoba is working to make sure
people get the food they need.
It's what we do. Here are some ways we are doing it.
|
|
Capan: the spirit flows through the generations
|
|
Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (Nelson House) was the gathering place for Grow North, a Food Matters Manitoba program designed to develop traditional food skills and share sacred teachings.
The theme was food preservation as the fall has always been an important time for winter preparations in the north. Out on the land we set nets for fish, picked berries and searched for medicines. Participants learned from each other and shared skills for drying food, smoking fish and making pemmican, and, moss berry jam. Through beadwork and medicine and knife bag making, Elders passed on cultural teachings to the youth.
There is a term in our language, asikotapan, or capan for short, which refers to knots in a string. It is our our word for both great grandparent and great grandchild. It acknowledges the continuous spirit that flows through time that is in each of us, connecting us all to the knowledge of millennia.
by Demian Lawrenchuk, Food Matters staff
|
|
Moss berries are good for you, no matter what you call them. They are also known as wisakemina in Cree, low bush cranberries, lingonberry, partridgeberry, mountain cranberry, cowberry: the list goes on.
|
|
Horticultural therapy recognizes that nature is healing. Western based scientific study proves this: getting outside lowers stress and can be a factor in recovery from diseases like cancer and conditions like depression. Traditional knowledge carriers, in all cultures, intuitively know this. Touching plants, smelling flowers, wondering with awe at the complexity of the patterns in a leaf, reach and heal our spirits.
Gardening is one way for people to access the healing benefits of nature. It is practical and can sustain the body as well as the spirit, a positive bonus. Gardening gets people outdoors, gives them physical activity, develops fine motor skills and provides them with nourishing produce while the spirit is healed.
Cheryl Cohan is a Horticultural Therapist who works with gardeners in the north in a project
facilitated through Food Matters Manitoba
. She explains, “You can teach everything through gardening. Plants are a metaphor for grief: the seeds inside something which looks dead hold new life. That is a powerful message which helps when facing trauma or tragedy.”
"We are all connected to nature, emotionally, spiritually and physically; we depend on it and it takes care of us."
|
|
Are you looking for a meaningful way to make a difference by increasing food security in Manitoba?
Food Matters Manitoba is actively recruiting voluntary board members to join our Board.
Do you have strengths in
human resources, philanthropy/fund development, financial oversight, legal background, non-profit management, food security and social change.
Board membership is not restricted to Winnipeg
. Board meetings take place by phone, with those who are able gathered together in Winnipeg to participate via speaker phone.
It is an exciting time to join our Board of Directors as we prepare to launch a new suite of programs designed to cultivate leadership on food security in Manitoba. Time commitment is approximately 5 hours per month through participation in Board Meetings and tasks related to Board responsibilities.
Applications are due November 30, 2019
|
|
Brandon Food Council: Call for Members
|
As the Brandon Food Council enters its second year they are
looking for Brandon residents to join the Council
: individuals with a passion for food security and community health.
The Council engages and educates the community about food-related issues and solutions and coordinates a network of diverse sectors and stakeholders to develop and implement the Brandon Food Strategy and advocate for solutions to food insecurity.
The Council reflects the diversity of the community and is seeking people of all ages and cultural backgrounds and encourages applications from those who identify as Indigenous, youth (age 16-30), newcomers or refugees, elders or seniors, persons with disabilities, and those with lived experience of food insecurity.
Terms begin in January 2020 with a commitment of 1 hour every 2 months and continue for two years with opportunity for renewal.
Applications are due by December 2, 2019.
|
|
 |
Join us in building a Manitoba where good food nourishes strong communities and healthy people by donating today!
|
|
|
|
Cultivating Leadership on Food Security
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
