[WRFoodNews] November 23, 2009 Waterloo Region Food System update

Please find below the latest update on Waterloo Region's food system as described on the website of the Waterloo Region Food System Roundtable at www.wrfoodsystem.ca. 

1. Waterloo Region Food Summit 
The Victoria Park Pavilion was packed for two days in a row last week for the Waterloo Region Food Summit.  The room buzzed with energized people learning about - and planning actions to address - the complex dimensions of problems in our food system.  After hearing presentations by Katherine Scharf of The STOP Community Food Centre in Toronto and Elbert Van Donkersgoed of the Locavore News on the Monday night, Summit participants spent Tuesday morning getting informed about organizations already active in food issues in Waterloo Region and creating visions of how the food system should look.  Participants rolled up their sleeves Tuesday afternoon and hammered out a Declaration of the priorities they identified for improving food access and food insecurity in Waterloo Region.  The Declaration was signed by almost everyone as they left the event Tuesday afternoon. 

A number of documents related to the Food Summit updates have been posted to the Food Summit page of the Food System Roundtable's website, and more will follow in the coming weeks.  These include: 
        - the final Declaration of the Waterloo Region Food Summit 
        - a place to post your comments on the final Declaration 
        - powerpoint presentations from keynote speakers Kathryn Scharf, Elbert Van Donkersgoed, and others 
        - a video produced for (and shown at) the Summit called The stories behind the hidden hunger in our community, and 
        - a copy of the Action Planning sheets filled out by participants on the Tuesday afternoon of the Summit. 

2. Hunger Count Statistics Released 
On November 17th, the Food Bank of Waterloo Region released its annual Hunger Count statistics on the number of people accessing emergency food in Waterloo Region.  It found a 15% increase in the number of emergency food hampers distributed since March 2009, the largest spike in usage since 1993.  The Food Bank's News Release emphasized a number of strategies identified at the Waterloo Region Food Summit as being important to reducing food bank usage, including increasing social assistance levels and implementing a Living Wage.  Emergency Food Hamper Program Executive Director Matt Cooper has posted a Discussion Forum topic urging immediate action to address food insecurity in order to avoid dire societal consequences. 

3. People's Food Policy Project 
A number of national organizations have banded together to encourage individuals and organizations across the country to submit their ideas for developing a national food policy for Canada.  The People's Food Policy Project is asking people to submit their ideasby December 1, after which they will compile the ideas and write a draft People's Food Policy which will be circulated for further comments in the Spring of 2010.  A small group of people discussed national policy at last week's Waterloo Region Food Summit: does anyone from that group want to organize a policy-proposal meeting this week?  The template for submitting policy ideas is on thePFPP website. 

4.  Three New Members Named to Food System Roundtable 
At its meeting on November 18th, the Waterloo Region Food System Roundtable confirmed three new members to two-year terms, beginning in 2010.  The new members are Suzanne Dietrich, a Registered Dietician working with Langs Farm Community Health Centre in Cambridge, Rafael Vallejo, a theological student involved in community gardening and food security issues in Cambridge, and Taarini Chopra, a Master's student at the University of Waterloo who has worked on a CSA farm and for the environmental magazine, Alternatives Journal.  Congratulations!  The Roundtable bids goodbye and thank-you to several people who will not be renewing their terms in 2010: Gerald Kara, Mark and Cindy Gerber, Lee Elkas, John Smithers, and Marcus Shantz.  Several current Roundtable members were renewed for another two-year term: Laura Callum, Ron Laurie, John Lubczynski, Steffanie Scott 
Wolfgang Pfenning, and Jodi Koberinski. 

5. Upcoming Food Events
Full details on upcoming food-related events in Waterloo Region can be viewed under Upcoming Events on the Roundtable's website.  To share news of your event, email details to the Roundtable's Site Administrator, who will post it to the website.  Some upcoming highlights include:

             Fair Trade Locally and Internationally - **TOMORROW NIGHT** Tuesday, November 24, 7pm, Kitchener Public Library 
             'O' Canada - the new Canadian Organic Standards - Tuesday, December 15, 7pm, Kitchener Public Library 


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