Ottawa – Through the Healthy Canadians and Communities Fund (HCCF), the Public Health Agency of Canada supports projects that address unhealthy eating, tobacco cessation and prevention and physical inactivity. Projects funded through the HCCF help lower the risk of chronic disease, including type 2 diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease.
The HCCF program supports interventions that focus on people who face health inequalities and are at greater risk of developing chronic disease. To support projects at various stages, the HCCF’s approach to projects has three phases: design, implement, and scale. As part of the implement phase, the Government of Canada is providing $11,843,608 to ten Canadian organizations that share a common goal of creating environments to enable access to healthy foods to support healthy eating.
The projects receiving funding are:
Lead organization: Corporation de développement communautaire des sources (in French only)
Project name: Alimentation pour les groupes vulnérables.
Description: This project aims to improve food offered at schools through various activities and workshops (e.g. salad bars, gardens, installation and care of chicken coops, canning/preserves, recipes, etc.). Through these activities, access and nutritional quality of foods will be improved as well as improving food literacy of the student population. Furthermore, the project will host food processing and empowerment workshops for the economically vulnerable population. Nutritious foods obtained from partnerships will be used in culinary activities to improve food access and literacy among this population. The project will also measure dietary improvements over a four year period.
Funding: $790,032
Lead organization: Farm to Cafeteria Canada Society
Project name: Nourishing Indigenous Foods and Foodways in Schools
Description: This project will promote healthy eating among children and youth and create supportive food environments in schools across Canada situated within Indigenous communities or serving a significant number of Indigenous students. The organization will work collaboratively with Indigenous communities to develop and offer a dedicated grant stream that can be used by Indigenous school communities to serve more Indigenous foods and other healthy foods to students. They will also work to engage students and community members in Indigenous foodways and hands-on activities that build their food skills in support of healthy eating behaviours.
Funding: $1,393,160
Lead organization: GROW – Community Food Literacy Centre
Project name: GROW on the GO
Description: This project will provide accessible and affordable food to low-income communities. It will prioritize serving communities based on factors such as the prevalence of food insecurity, demographics and input from those with lived experiences and community agencies. It will support and promote health and social well-being for low-income persons and families in Niagara.
Funding: $228,864
Lead organization: Guelph Community Health Centre
Project name: Fresh Food Prescribing Project in Guelph & Wellington County
Description: The project will improve diet-related health outcomes for adults (18 years and over) by providing food prescriptions that leverage health care settings and infrastructure, in order to connect patients to food and nutrition programming. The project builds on two successful pilot phases, and this expansion of the program to six additional sites will ensure more access for individuals over a broader geographic range and across multiple clinical settings. Enrolled individuals will have access to financial and logistical support to increase their intake of fruits and vegetables and decrease their risk of nutrition-related chronic disease.
Funding: $448,202
Lead organization: Les Complices alimentaires (in French only)
Project name: Réseau de points de vente locaux des Complices
Description: This project will collect and process unsold and surplus fruit and vegetables, distribute them to people living on low income through a direct-to-public point-of-sale network, via organizations or institutions assisting those experiencing food insecurity. The project will also aim to change the food environment by increasing the quality, diversity and quantity of healthy food in locations frequented by people living on low income, such as community organizations and schools. In addition, the project will improve nutrition literacy through nutrition labels and the promotion of simple recipes.
Funding: $470,581
Lead organization: Muskowekwan First Nation
Project name: Muskowekwan First Nation Elk and Buffalo Farm
Description: This project will create a healthy food environment in Muskowekwan First Nation that prevents chronic disease through encouraging an uptake in traditional foods, and a positive social environment where cultural practices, teachings and ceremony bring people together to connect with their traditions. This will be done through the implementation of a sustainable community-led farm that raises elk and buffalo for nose-to-tail consumption.
Funding: $1,184,900
Lead organization: New Hope Senior Citizen’s Centre
Project name: Full Circle: Healthy Living for Empowered Aging
Description: This project will encourage adults aged 55 and over who are dealing with health inequity to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce area in Quebec through a garden-to-plate initiative. Participants will be engaged in gardening activities, acting as volunteers, and/or accessing the fresh produce through program engagement activities.
Funding: $548,825
Lead organization: Rencontres-Cuisines
Project name: Mise en œuvre de la carte Proximité, fermière et solidaire
Description: This project will increase the purchasing power of low-income households experiencing food insecurity by distributing reloadable prepaid cards through a network of community organizations in ten Montreal boroughs. Participating households will purchase fresh, healthy food at participating local markets.
Funding: $3,000,000
Lead organization: Saskatoon Public Schools Foundation
Project name: Good Food For Learning – Growing Universal Lunches in Saskatoon
Description: This project will promote healthy eating among primary school students from pre-kindergarten to grade eight in low-income neighbourhood Saskatoon schools, through the expansion of the current universal, curriculum-integrated school lunch pilot project to up to ten schools. The project will also develop a school food worker training program and a long-term school food development plan for Saskatoon.
Funding: $2,929,589
Lead organization: Type Diabeat It
Project name: BPOC DiaBeat It Kitchen
Description: This project will engage with the Black Persons and Persons of Colour (BPOC) community in London, Ontario to plant vegetables and herbs that are culturally relevant to create food environments that enable access to healthy foods and improve healthy eating. Project participants will also be engaged in the harvesting and processing of these foods to promote food security and self-sufficiency in a designated commercial kitchen. The project will also engage the priority population in a food literacy education program that includes cooking sessions to improve food selection and dietary habits.
Funding: $849,455