Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force Food Security Action Group, Media, Partner Activities, Poverty Task Force, Research

Grey Bruce Online Food Map is Launched; Targets Hunger and Waste Reduction

The Food Security Action Group (FSAG) has launched a Bruce Grey Food Assets Map. The map will help to connect organizations and businesses looking to build better food security throughout the region.

Currently, the Food Assets Map includes programs and initiatives like community gardens, community meals, food banks, food education, good food boxes, meal delivery services, student nutrition programs, and other support services. Food businesses on the map include farmers’ markets, distributors, grocers, producers, processors, restaurants and cafés. The map also captures food system infrastructure assets such as dry and cold storage, commercial kitchens and transportation opportunities.

Are you part of the food system in Grey Bruce? If so, FSAG wants you on the map. Individuals and groups may submit new assets for the map using a crowd-source form hosted by Grey County.

Over the next few months, FSAG will use mapped resources to engage partners in a Grey Bruce Food Gleaning project. Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover foods that would otherwise go to waste and connecting those foods to people in need. According to a 2014 Value Chain Management Centre report, Canadians waste a staggering $31 billion in food every year. Food gleaning can play a role in reducing food waste and its impacts, producing social, environmental and economic benefits.

The map was developed in partnership with Grey County GIS Mapping Services following a survey and interviews with food security programs and services. The Food Security Action Group is a branch of the Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force.

Community members are encouraged to connect with Jaden Calvert of FSAG to help populate the map or to contribute to regional food gleaning projects:  jaden.calvert@gmail.com.

For technical issues with the map, contact Grey County GIS at gisdesk@grey.ca.  Please reference Bruce, Grey, Food Asset Map.

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Link to map: http://grey.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=a70b87bc334846638b8d738ab26fced9

Link to map form: http://grey.maps.arcgis.com/apps/GeoForm/index.html?appid=ed0501c109e7401eb1f0f262a51dac17

uwbgexecdir General Information, Research

Poverty and Children’s Brains – there is an affect!

Association of Child Poverty, Brain Development, and Academic Achievement

Poverty is tied to structural differences in several areas of the brain associated with school readiness skills, with the largest influence observed among children from the poorest households. Regional gray matter volumes of children below 1.5 times the federal poverty level were 3 to 4 percentage points below the developmental norm (P < .05). A larger gap of 8 to 10 percentage points was observed for children below the federal poverty level (P < .05). These developmental differences had consequences for children’s academic achievement. On average, children from low-income households scored 4 to 7 points lower on standardized tests (P < .05). As much as 20% of the gap in test scores could be explained by maturational lags in the frontal and temporal lobes.

Translation:

Being poor puts kids behind from the beginning!

seeing is believing 027

jillumbach Advocacy, Food Security Action Group, Media, Research

2014 Nutritious Food Basket Survey released in Grey Bruce

The 2014 annual Nutritious Food Basket survey identifies it costs $782.82 a month to feed a family of four in Grey Bruce; up from $775.37 a month in 2013. The survey measures the cost of basic healthy eating based on the prices for representative food products. Provincially, the cost has risen 4.5 percent from last year.
The Nutritious Food Basket reflects more than the cost of food. It assists our understanding of the health of our community. In reviewing the Nutritious Food Basket, the Bruce Grey Poverty Task Force has compiled a Holiday Wish List addressing poverty in the region in 2015. The major pillars of the Wish List deal with income security, adequate housing, food security, transportation and dignity. Each is an important component for an individual to achieve their full health potential.

Often the food budget is considered the most flexible; which means individuals will cut back on the quality and amount of food they buy to put that money to rent or utilities.Cutting back on the food budget to pay for other living expenses puts those individuals at increased risk of chronic disease such as diabetes and heart disease. This is of particular concern in Grey Bruce where rates of many chronic diseases are higher than Ontario as a whole. The local rate of hospitalizations due to heart attacks is 28 percent higher than the provincial average.

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jillumbach Media, Research, Resources, Video

Wealth Inequality in Canada: A shocking study from the Broadbent Institute

Wealth Inequality in Canada: A shocking study from the Broadbent Institute that is hard to swallow.

What Canadians think is the wealthy inequality in Canada is so wrong! Our healthy middle class does not exist and things are dire for the bottom 20% of income earners.

70% of wealth is owned by the top 20% Canadian Income Earners. The bottom 20% own less than 1% of the wealth. The bottom 10% own no assets – only debts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBkBiv5ZD7s