Make food matter

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Are you interested in learning how Nova Scotians are “making food matter” for their families’, communities, and province? This online resource is a research and action initiative designed to support moving knowledge into action to build community food security in Nova Scotia. Although the website is designed around food security issues in Nova Scotia, the toolkit and resources can be adapted for use across Canada.

The ‘Make Food Matter’ website is a project of the Food Action Research Centre at Mount St Vincent University in Halifax. It identifies five research-based areas for action and provides a model highlighting approaches to move us to a healthy, just, and sustainable food system. In addition, citizens from across Nova Scotia share what is important to them about food through engaging and interactive photos, videos, and quotes. You can find evidence on a range of community food security measures, including the results of community-based participatory research projects and reports from organizations doing similar work.

To support action, the site includes a toolkit organized under five action streams: building community dialogue, developing policy action, social innovation approaches, advocacy strategies, and effective communication. You can register as a member of the Make Food Matter community to be kept up to date on new resource additions, and build a personalized “action portfolio” of bookmarked resources to support your food security work.

Use this resource to

identify the multiple approaches needed to achieve community food security;
build a collection of action-oriented tools for moving knowledge into action about healthy, just, and sustainable food systems;
develop an action plan to influence decision-making and policy around social justice and food issues.

Related Resources:

Large forces affecting health equity: How health equity is affected by societal shifts such as home ownership, rising energy costs, and pension

A practitioner’s guide for advancing health equity: Community strategies for preventing chronic disease

Community-based participatory research contributions to intervention research: The intersection of science and practice to improve health equity

Community-based participatory research: A strategy for building healthy communities and promoting health through policy change

Review summary: Community engagement to reduce inequalities in health

Let’s Talk: Moving Upstream

Let’s Talk: Public Health Roles for Improving Healthy Equity

Reference

FoodARC. Make Food Matter [Internet]. Nova Scotia: FoodARC; 2015. [updated 2015 October 22; cited 2015 October 22]. Available from: http://foodarc.ca/makefoodmatter

Tags: Community engagement, Food systems, Community Organization, Website