Cultivating a lifetime of healthy eating
Evidence shows that when children and youth are involved in growing their own food, they’re a lot more likely to form a lifelong habit of consuming freshly grown produce. This in turn results in better overall health for those individuals and their families. It’s all to do with a thing called “food security” an important part of the health of any population.
When Cultivate—a project of four Emily Carr University students—came to Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) with its proposal to create a fun food security project for children and youth, VCH jumped on board.
Cultivate is a group of students from Emily Carr University interested in creating opportunities for community engagement and increasing food security on North Shore by building a sharing garden in the Queensbury neighbourhood.
The VCH Population Health Program on the North Shore supported Cultivate with a $1,500 grant through the Community Food Action Initiative. With this and support from the City of North Vancouver and other agencies, Cultivate turned an underused garden area in the Queensbury neighbourhood into a place for children and youth to learn and grow. Cultivate was one of 11 projects funded out of a total of 28 applications.
Garden coordinator Emily Neufeld holds a box of fresh spinach.
“We believe that learning how to grow food teaches the language of sustainability and fosters an attitude of respect for the environment as well as for one another,” said Emily Neufeld, the
garden coordinator for the project.
It was with this in mind that Cultivate transformed an underused yard space behind S’wich Cafe, located at 644 Queensbury Avenue, in North Vancouver into Queensbury Garden—a venue for garden and community events, with a focus on educational programming for neighbourhood children and youth.
“The goals of Cultivate align really well with the VCH goal of improving the health of the population. This is just one way that we can do that. Food production and environment are both important to population health and Cultivate supports that in a very grass-roots way,” said Margaret Broughton a nutritionist with the Parkgate Community Health Centre.
Queensbury Garden uses chemical-free techniques to produce fresh, organic produce, a portion of which is given back to the community of volunteers and participants through educational workshops and events for all ages related to growing, harvesting and preserving food. The majority of produce from the garden will be donated to low income families on the North Shore through the Harvest Project.
Queensbury Garden events on September 14, 2013:
HEAT THE HARVEST | COOKING WORKSHOP
Red Seal Chef Erik Smith, Owner of S’Wich Cafe, hosts this dynamic cooking course for youth. Participants will harvest, prepare and partake in a feast that starts right in the garden! Plus a mini iron chef competition!
Host: Erik Smith, S’Wich Cafe
Date: September 14, 2013
Time: 2pm – 4:30pm
Ages: 13 to 24
COMMUNITY POTLUCK
Following our Heat the Harvest cooking workshop, we are pleased to invite the community to a potluck in the Queensbury Garden. Bring a dish to share and sample the food prepared during the workshop. This event is a great opportunity to meet your neighbours and find out more about the garden project.
Host: Cultivate & S’Wich Cafe
Date: September 14, 2013
Time: 5pm – 7:30pm
Ages: All
Related links:
Learn more about Queensbury Garden on the Cultivate Projects website.
Learn more about the VCH SMART Fund and community projects at VCH.ca