Community Action for Healthy Eating

Community Support

Many partners contributed human, in-kind, and financial resources. NLHHP funding enabled SPAN to leverage support from other parts of the community. SPAN reached potential partners through letters, pamphlets, flyers, and word of mouth. Various churches and community centres have provided cooking facilities, sponsorship and/or organization for Community Kitchens. For example, Gower Street United Church canvassed their congregation and agreed to provide food staples as well as the cooking facility. Some of the congregation's older members donated pots, pans, etc. People's involvement created awareness of the importance of healthy eating in their own lives. Sponsorship has come from individuals, Family Resource Centres, women's groups, other community groups, grocery stores, other businesses, and the St. John's Maple Leafs Foundation.

SPAN is one of the seven projects which is being fully funded for the 97/98 period by the St. John's Maple Leafs Foundation. This funding supports a project with 15-20 Kitchens. It trains facilitators and builds sustainability by fostering leaders within the Kitchens.

Many people with different interests have worked together to make Community Kitchens a success. They include staff and volunteers from SPAN, community centres, churches, community groups, Family Resource Centres, and Brighter Futures Coalition, as well as nutritionists, public health nurses, and other resource people with the Community Health Regions.

Some are experts on healthy living on a low income because that is their daily life. Others have knowledge about healthy living because they are professionals. Their experiences and skills complement each other when they collaborate with respect for each other.

Community-based projects rely on participation. A supportive environment is important because people participate more when they are encouraged and feel comfortable. Organizers must ensure that professionals are knowledgeable and sensitive. Sometimes good qualities come naturally. Others need to learn more supportive and cooperative ways of working to make intersectoral partnerships work.

Professionals must be careful not to discourage people by using language they do not understand, telling them what to do, or disregarding the knowledge which comes from people's experiences in their daily lives.

One challenge for the partnership between SPAN and NLHHP was to balance research needs and the community group's reality. This was addressed with sensitivity. For NLHHP, Community Kitchens was a research project, so it had to have documentation. However, people in the community were not used to the documentation expected by NLHHP. People are busy, especially when they must deal with the daily challenges created by low/fixed income. Leaders were not comfortable with exposing members to evaluation. Right from the beginning, NLHHP operated with the principle that community groups must have the space to work things out themselves, including internal dynamics. NLHHP saw working with SPAN as community mobilization; it contributed support, but did not take over the partnership.

Conclusion

Everyone who has participated in Kitchens is enthusiastic about them. As one mother with four years of experience put it, Community Kitchens provides participants with: low-cost family meals, budgeting skills, fun, friendship, and support, even when they are not at the Kitchen. The skills stay with people and can be applied. Community Kitchens also raise interest in health and well-being beyond good nutrition. People have empowered themselves as they dealt with healthy eating, which enables them to address other issues in their lives.

Throughout the process, everybody learned from each other: participants and professionals, SPAN and NLHHP. Community Kitchens built SPAN's organizational capacity as well as community capacity. SPAN learned much and gained a stronger reputation as a catalyst for community action.

The healthy eating initiative provided NLHHP and the Department of Health with knowledge which strengthened their ability to work with community groups.