What is this project about?
Since 2021, the Town of Innisfil has been working to address food security for our residents through the Troy Scott Community Fridge project and accessible community programming that enables residents to learn about and access nutritious food. The community has told us food insecurity has increased and we want to build community capacity to collaboratively develop a sustainable plan to address it.
To do this, we will bring local stakeholders (i.e., residents with expertise and lived experience, community organizations, and businesses) together in a one-day food security forum to work towards the shared goal of advancing and sustaining existing food security initiatives in our community. Participants will share their stories and knowledge to increase awareness of existing food security work in our community. We will engage participants in a roundtable activity to identify action-oriented opportunities to improve community food security. These actions will help shape a community learning series. This work will be driven by the community for the community: a neighbours helping neighbours initiative.
We will use the momentum from the forum to create the Innisfil Food Coalition, a group committed to collaboratively tackling community food insecurity. The Coalition will advance objectives identified during the forum and coordinate the community learning series.
Why is this project important to the community?
In summer of 2020, the Town of Innisfil’s Community Needs Assessment revealed that many Innisfil residents were experiencing food insecurity. The economic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in some residents experiencing food insecurity for the first time, where for others, particularly seniors and families, existing food security concerns were exacerbated by the pandemic. During our community engagement in fall of 2021, residents told us that access to food and/or essential items is one of their top four concerns, and their number one priority for COVID-19 recovery is the availability of healthy, affordable food, re-iterating the importance of focusing on, and building resilience around this increasing community need.
Fortunately, the Town, the Innisfil community, and the County of Simcoe have already embarked on several initiatives to address food insecurity and related factors, such as the development of the Simcoe County Food Security Framework, the Town of Innisfil’s Community Health & Wellness Strategy, and the South Simcoe Community Safety and Well-being Plan, the development of the Rizzardo Health and Wellness Centre (which is home to the Horodynsky Community Kitchen), the Troy Scott Community Fridges, the Innisfil Food Bank, and the Innisfil Seed Library, and many more.
These initiatives have been met with significant support from passionate residents, community organizations, and local businesses, likely as a result of the Town’s agricultural roots, urban-rural landscape, and existing community assets related to food access and education. This context provides Innisfil with a unique opportunity to leverage our existing assets and enhance community resiliency by providing new opportunities for community learning, building capacity for community leadership, and collaborating with community to coordinate efforts and support the long-term sustainability of Innisfil’s food security work. This project will also allow the Innisfil community to more meaningfully contribute to the goals identified in the regional Simcoe County Food Security Framework and bring the framework alive at a local, resident-led level.
Finally, facilitating opportunities and reducing barriers for people with lived experience and diverse identities to actively participate in the project would establish a foundation of healthy equity, ensuring initiatives prioritize, target, and reach people and communities who have been traditionally underserved, disproportionately impacted by food insecurity, and are most vulnerable to future crises.
