Vital Signs 2013National Report & Launch

Today we will:

• Share details of Canada’s Vital Signs 2013• Outline our communications strategy• Discuss opportunities for connection &

sharing

Reminders

• You can hear us, but we can’t hear you• Presentation slides will be available on:

http://www.cfc-fcc.ca/members/cflinks/webinars.cfm• For the best webinar experience, close all other

applications• Turn up your computer’s volume

Reminders

• Have questions? Type into the question log

• Victoria• Abbotsford*• North Okanagan• Central Okanagan• South Okanagan• Calgary• Edmonton* (food)• Northwestern Alberta• Southwestern Alberta*• Southeastern Alberta• Windsor Essex*• Kitchener-Waterloo (CIW pilot)• Cambridge (food)

• Burlington • Mississauga• Toronto• Peterborough*• Prince Edward County*• Sudbury• Kingston (CIW pilot)• Temiskaming Shores* (food)• Stratford and Perth County* (food)• Cape Breton Regional Municipality*• Wolfville• Lunenburg County• Prince Edward Island*

26 community foundations participating + exciting firsts!

Launch Date: Tuesday, October 1

• A basic human need: a common denominator in every community

• Lots of funding to symptoms, not necessarily root causes• Incredible momentum from CFs and citizens

Our value• CFC as the unusual observer

Our goals• Build understanding and action at every level• Convene, identify high impact areas for support

Why Food?

• Nick Saul, President and CEO, Community Food Centres Canada • Diana Bronson, Executive Director, Food Secure Canada • Beth Hunter, Senior Program Officer, J.W. McConnell Family

Foundation • Evan Fraser, Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair in Global

Human Security, Department of Geography, University of Guelph• Ruth Richardson, Coordinator, International Collaboration for

Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems• Bob Maxwell, grower; Chair, Peninsula Agriculture Committee,

member of BC Association of Farm Markets • Plus CFs already active in food…

Our researcher talked to:

Our most challenging issues

Grassroots

engagement

Connect the dots

Greater impact

Momentum is building

Food: the intersection where our most pressing problems meet

Food

Poverty

Health

Environment

First Nations

Local economies

Sense of community

Our communities are acting. How can we contribute?

Organic foods

Farmer’s Markets

Community Gardens

Community Shared

Agriculture

Community Food

Centres

Food Policy

Councils

Food security

strategies

Fighting the symptoms isn’t working.• The principal cause of hunger is poverty

• For 30 years communities have been responding to hunger with food banks and other strategies, but food bank usage shows no signs of slowing down – in fact it’s 31% higher than it was before the downturn in 2008.

• Combine this with food prices that are rising at nearly twice the rate of the Consumer Price Index and it’s clear that this problem won’t be solved with food donations.

Report Findings

• There are more obese people than undernourished people in the world

• More than 3 in 5 Canadian adults are overweight or obese

• Type 2 diabetes is one of the fastest growing diseases in Canada

Our choices are hurting our health…

• Feeding the world’s population has led to massive changes in agriculture over the past century

• The practices we’ve developed to build a more efficient food system are having a major impact on our environment – monoculture farming, irrigation demands, pesticides and herbicides, long distance transportation to worldwide markets

• The industrial food and agriculture system is the leading contributor to climate change responsible for up to 57% of total greenhouse gas emissions

And taking a toll on our environment…

• In Nunavut 57% of children live in food insecure homes.

• Residents spend 25% of their total expenditures on food – while the rest of Canada spends about 11%

• Aboriginal people have three to five times the risk of developing type 2 diabetes than other Canadians.

• Contaminants in traditional First Nation food has lead to a shift from ‘country foods’ which used to be central to aboriginal diets to more store bought foods

First Peoples are among the hardest hit

• We’ve got to find a better way to feed ourselves• Agriculture and agri-food provide one in eight Canadian

jobs, employing 2.1 million Canadians and accounting for 8% of our total GDP

• Many rural and coastal communities rely on fisheries and aquaculture, which provides more than 80,000 jobs

• Family farm numbers have been declining steadily since 1941 and farmers are getting older

• New breed of ‘young farmer enterprises’ are entering the market – and performing better than other farms!

Many of our communities rely on food production

• Canada’s organic sector is experiencing double digit growth in production and retail sales every year

• Farmers markets reported more than $1B in sales in 2009, with an economic impact of more than $3B

• How many local programs can you name? Momentum has been building for more than a decade…how can we leverage these actions for coordinated change and maximum impact?

Canadians are driving change locally…

• We are the sixth-largest exporter and sixth-largest importer of agriculture and agri-food products in the world

• Relative to other countries, we enjoy some of the lowest food costs in the world

• Our ‘food movement’ is gaining momentum rapidly – making the timing perfect for greater collaboration and impact

Canada has the potential to be a leader on the world stage

Questions?

A platform for understanding and action

Community Foundations

Curate tools for action

Report sets the stage & context

National media re: VS

Ideas for CF action

Food Groups

Focused lens for shared action

Bring national groups together post launch

Acupuncture on ‘our way’ going forward

Piggyback ops on existing events

Policymakers

Media + briefings

Media conference on the Hill

Briefing with key MPS

Arrange speaking opportunities

Public

3Things4Food

CFC, CFs, public

U of O media launch on Oct. 1

Infographic, video

Public event in mid-Nov host Evan

Solomon

Tools for actionA.  COMMUNITY LED APPROACHES (Food Roadmaps, Asset Based Community Development, Food Assessments)• Tool:  Community Food Assessment Guide  and

Community Food System Assessment:  A Companion Tool for the Guide• Victoria Foundation:

A Collaborative Roadmap for Achieving Community Food Security in the Capital Regional District and map

B.  IMPLEMENTATION EXAMPLES• Edmonton's Food and Urban Agriculture Strategy, called fresh is now being

used for the implementation of the Edmonton Food Council.

 

C.  INNOVATION AND INVESTING RESOURCES• The "Roadmap for City Food Sector Innovation and Investment" •  Food, Farms, Fish, Finance Forum 2013, Hosted by Sustain Ontario.

Victoria Foundation Food Security Roadmap

Social media• Livetweet launch event in Ottawa, RT

from local launch events

• 10 tweetable facts about the national report

• Share national & local media hits and interviews on Facebook, Twitter

• Feature one local report per day on Facebook, Twitter (post-launch)

• Animated video on food

• Infographic of key report findings

• Blog posts from CFC

@CommFdnsCanada

#VitalSigns

#3things4food

/CommunityFdnsCanadaHome

• What’s the story you’re telling locally?

Share your food story

• How is your CF tackling food?

• Share interview sources for national media

• Tell us about tools that work for your community

• Other?

How can you contribute?

• Tools for action

• Social media buzz

• National media push

• Webinars from actors in this space

• Local events?

• Other?

How can we contribute?

• National media advisory: Sept. 10• Briefing all CFs: Sept. 10• Briefing food groups and others: Sept. 24• Website portal content due: Sept. 25

– Introductory text– Report– News release– Pix + vid

Dates to remember

Questions?

Cindy Lindsay 613-236-2664 ext. 301

Anne-Marie McElrone 613-236-2664 ext. 304