Tag Archives: Heifer Canada

In Context: Seasonal Eats

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Editor’s note: In Context is a new series designed to inform and educate you on Heifer’s work in each country we have a presence. Every two weeks we’ll tackle a different country and examine unique situations related to hunger and poverty, how Heifer works to address them as well as take some time to explore local culture and traditions.

Photo by Ketowna09 courtesy of Creative Commons

No matter where you live, you can do your part to improve the food system (and your well-being in the process).

This video from www.eatrealeatlocal.ca illustrates what’s happening to the food system in Canada.


An easy way to pitch in and start fixing the problem is to eat local. When you eat local you eat with the seasons; you eat your fruits and vegetables the way they were meant to be eaten.



Benefits include:

Flavor: Fruits and veggies right after they’repicked during their growing season taste fresher and have a lot more flavor.

Environment: When grown in their ideal season,plants are naturally stronger and more resistant to pests and disease so thatthey require fewer pesticides and fertilizers
Nutrition: Certain fruits and vegetables canonly be grown during certain seasons. When you buy them off-season, you’relikely purchasing food that was picked weeks or months, earlier. Since producestarts to lose nutrients shortly after they have been picked meaning out ofseason has lower nutritional values.

And don’t forget,when you eat with the seasons, you keep wealth in your community.

While specific cropsand harvest dates vary by region, here is a sampling of fruits and veggies youcan expect to find at the market this spring.

  • Apricots
  • Asparagus
  • Beets
  • Cherries
  • Fava Beans
  • Greens
  • Lemons
  • Mint
  • Peas
  • Strawberries
  • Turnips

To find out what’s in store for you this spring, check out Locavore on iTunes. It’s an app that tells you what fruits and veggies are available in yourarea.

In Context: A Passion for Farming

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Editor’s note: In Context is a new series designed to inform and educate you on Heifer’s work in each country we have a presence. Every two weeks we’ll tackle a different country and examine unique situations related to hunger and poverty, how Heifer works to address them as well as take some time to explore local culture and traditions.


Photo by Heifer Canada
Kalynn Spain and her horse

Kalynn Spain’s passion and enthusiasm for farming isirresistible. In 2009, her uncle helpedto set her farm plans in motion when he offered her space to farm on his landin Manitoba. But for Kalynn, her dreambegan much earlier. “As a kid, I alwayswanted to live in the country. All of mypaintings and drawings were pictures of horses, pigs, and farmyards. That’s where it all started,” Kalynn laughs.

In 2011, Kalynn registered for the Exploring Your Small FarmDream course, offered by the Manitoba Farm Mentorship Program. The course helps aspiring farmers decide ifrunning a farm business is right for them. When asked how it has helped her, Kalynn says, “One thing that reallystuck out for me was quality of life. You need to take care of yourself so you can take care of your land,your animals, and your family.” Thecourse confirmed for Kalynn that farming is her future and inspired her tobegin acquiring start-up resources and gathering people around her to help herfulfill her dream.
After completing the Exploring Your Small Farm Dream course,Kalynn was provided with an internship opportunity through the Manitoba FarmMentorship Program. This initiativeconnects aspiring farmers with experienced mentors and contributes to costsassociated with farmer training. Inreturn for the training she received through the Manitoba Farm MentorshipProgram, Kalynn passed on the gift by interning for 13 weeks on two mentorfarms. The internship helped hone herskills and further develop her farm plans. “I see my farm being very mixed,” Kalynn says about her farm dream, “Isee vegetables. I see chickens and pigsfor sure… After spending a summer on acattle farm, I’m not sure about having cattle, but it’s good that theexperience showed me that early on.”
The Manitoba Farm Mentorship Program is a Heifer Canadaproject that provides training, networking, and resources for new and aspiringfarmers in Manitoba. Kalynn is one of 16interns, 30 Explorer course participants, and over 750 people who have attendedManitoba Farm Mentorship Program courses, workshops, farm tours and othertraining events.
Kalynn’s involvement in the Manitoba Farm Mentorship Programhas only increased her passion for growing and raising food. “It’s changed from a romantic dream tofeeling that it’s something young people should be doing. It will make me happy. I will be contributing to society andimpacting people’s lives.”
“I want to be a role model,” Kalynn says. “I think we need to engage more youngpeople. My generation needs to considerfarming as a career, consider its impact, and realize they can actually doit.”

In Context: A Spotlight on Poverty in Canada

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Editor’s note: In Context is a new series designed to inform and educate you on Heifer’s work in each country we have a presence. Every two weeks we’ll tackle a different country and examine unique situations related to hunger and poverty, how Heifer works to address them as well as take some time to explore local culture and traditions.


Photo by Darcy Kiefel, courtesy of Heifer International

Canada has seen some noticeable economic improvements in thelast ten years; however:

  • 1 in 10 Canadians live in poverty
  • 1 in 3 Canadian adults that work full-time do not makeenough money to sustain themselves and their families with a healthy lifestyle

Canada measures poverty in relative terms and does not havean official poverty line. Canadian poverty statistics are calculated byCanada’s Low Income Cut-Offs (LICOs), which is calculated by comparing thepercentage of income individuals and families spend on basic needs with otherCanadians.

Many blame unemployment as the “big, bad” reason for povertyin Canada and other developed countries, but that’s not always the case. As amatter of fact, the Canadian unemployment rate is in decline. An overlooked andunderlying factor of poverty in many of the world’s wealthy, industrializedcountries is income inequality, which is the extent to which income is unevenly distributed in one country.
In 2008, for everydollar the average Canadian family in the poorest 10% of the population had, Canadianfamilies in the richest 10% of the population had 13 times as much.
When income inequality in a country is high, it reflects onhow a country uses its resources. The higher the income inequality in acountry, the slower the economic growth, usually begging the question: “Is thecountry utilizing its citizenship’s skills and capabilities to the fullestextent?”
Measured by the Gini Index (which calculates how far incomedistribution among individuals in a country deviates from an exactly equaldistribution), income inequality in Canada has increased more over the last 20years than in any other country with similar income per capita.
Nearly 400,000 full-time, Canadian adult employees earn lessthan $10 an hour, drawing them and their families deeper into the cycle ofpoverty. And with poverty comes poor health— The World Health Organizationhas named poverty as being the single largest determinant of health.
  • The majority of theworking-poor cannot afford secure and affordable housing and healthy (or inmany instances an adequate amount of) food
  • Parents on limitedincome often skip meals so their children have an adequate diet
  • Limited food budgetsand lack of access to fresh food often results in Type 2 diabetes—which wasformerly seen in adults only, but is now increasing in children

And perhaps one of the scarier statistics to surface:

  • According to a studyconducted by McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario, there is a 21-yeardifference in life expectancy between the poorest neighborhood and thewealthiest neighborhood

Research by Poverty is Making Us Sick show that if annualincome were increased by $1,000 a year to the poorest 20% of Canadians, it wouldlead to as many as 10,000 fewer chronic conditions and 6,600 fewer disabilitydays every two weeks.

So, while poverty in Canada doesn’t look like poverty inunindustrialized nations, it exists nonetheless. The difficult decisions familiesmust make (pay rent or buy food) are the same, contributing to a decline inquality of life and degrading the emotional and physical health of a nation.
Photo by Darcy Kiefel courtesy of Heifer International

You can help make a difference and learn more about howHeifer Canada is helping at www.heifercanada.org.


In Context: Canada

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Editor’s note: In Context is a new series designed to inform and educate you on Heifer’s work in each country we have a presence. Every two weeks we’ll tackle a different country and examine unique situations related to hunger and poverty, how Heifer works to address them as well as take some time to explore local culture and traditions.

Population: 34 million

Native Greeting: Quanuq itpin? (Inuvialuliktum for How areyou?)

Capital: Ottawa

Official language: English and French

Local currency: Canadian dollar


Overview
Canada is the second largest country in the world but thelargest to border only one other country. With the continental United States tothe south, Canada is located in northern North America with the North Atlanticon the east, North Pacific on the west and the Arctic Ocean on the north.

Photo by alexindigo courtesy of Creative Commons
90% of the 34 million people that live there live within 100 miles of the US border where the climate is mostly temperate. Canada reachesarctic and sub-arctic temperature in the north. In the west, the landscape ismostly plains and mountains with lowlands in the south.
Despite Canada being ranked #6 on the Human Development Index, the country has an alarmingly high rate of povertyand homelessness, nearly 16% of Canadians live in poverty and over 3 millionpeople live in food insecure households.
Among the poor, the indigenous populations in particular are at high-riskof malnutrition and hunger due to wage disparity in urban centers coupled withrising unemployment rates, high cost of nutritious food on reservations andlack of education.
Did you know…
  • A basket of healthy food costs twice as much in the norththan in the south.
  • Nearly half of the aboriginal population living in majorCanadian cities live in poverty.
  • In 2001, only 8% of the 25-34age group of Aboriginal peoples had a completed university degree, while 28% ofall Canadians did.
  • Rural farmers are athigh risk of losing their land and livelihoods to largecorporations.
Heifer’s approach in Canada
A growing interest in organic farming and eating local provides a positive opportunity for change.
The Heifer Canada approach has grown and evolved over the years and projects nowspan three primary areas of focus: family farm preservation, First Nationsagriculture, and urban and rural community food security.

The foundationof Heifer’s efforts in Canada has always been the partnerships it establisheswith those in genuine need. This, combined with the rapid decline of farmersacross the country demands a continued strong presence of Heifer’s work inCanada. Heifer Canada began in 1980. They currently have 17 projectsand have assisted more than 2,000 families to date.
Livestock portfolio: Apiaries (bees), chickens, worms, cows,horses, pigs, turkeys, fruit trees and vegetable seeds
Issues addressed: Poverty among the indigenous and urbancommunities, land preservation, loss of biodiversity and environmentaldegradation.