A second round of Indigenous-focused grants from the Nourish Food Rx: COVID-19 Patient Food Security Fund was made possible through a partnership with the Frontline Fund.
These grants will support projects by health care organizations to meet the needs of Indigenous communities and patients for whom the pandemic has created, or is exacerbating, food insecurity.
Nourish is pleased to announce support for the following Indigenous-focused projects:
Waasegiizhig Nanaandawe’iyewigamig ($50K)
This project will support every First Nation in the Waasegiizhig Nanaandawe’iyewigamig catchment area to host an Anishinaabe Perspectives event with children, youth, adults and elders to increase knowledge and understanding of traditional harvest practices therefore, enabling increased access to healthy food and build food sovereignty.
Interior Health Authority ($50K)
This project will support Interior Health to develop a traditional food program by working with a First Nations chef. Meals would be served to patients and available to community members as frozen “Dinners at Home,” distributed by At Home Support Workers.
Morning Sky Health and Wellness Society ($50K)
This project will address food security issues expressed by patients visiting/receiving services from Morning Sky Health and Wellness Society Health Centre located in the Frog Lake First Nations. MSHWS will contract a dietitian/nutritionist to assist in developing appropriate packages for chronic conditions in the community.
Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation ($50K)
In partnership with the Edmonton Urban Indigenous Strategy, the Indigenous Wellness Clinic at the Royal Alexandra Hospital would develop a daily food, health, and education security program for Indigenous people in the Edmonton area using a robust community engagement and participatory action methodology.
Saskatchewan Health Authority ($50K)
This project aims to advance a traditional foods program by creating knowledge-sharing opportunities to engage nutrition and food service leads. At least four unique traditional patient meals will be prepared in bulk (1000 meals) by well-known Saskatchewan Indigenous Chefs to offer patients over the next three months, along with the development of a Traditional Foods menu at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital.
See the first round of fourteen Food Rx grantees, which included six additional Indigenous-focused projects. Grantees from both rounds will be convened for knowledge exchanges and learnings from projects will be shared in 2021 through various media.