On March 23, 2021, nearly 200 people gathered for the launch of our short film, "Why Does Hospital Food Matter for Reconciliation." The film screening was followed by a Q&A facilitated by Kelly Gordon (Six Nations Health Services) with panelists Ben Genaille (Interior Health), Raven Crow (Waasegiizhig Nanaandawe'iyewigamig), and Stephanie Cook (Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region).
Here's a highlight from the discussion:
KELLY: What impact have you seen on patients, has there been early feedback about the impact of bringing traditional food into health care?
STEPHANIE: The feedback from our patients has been fantastic, they feel like we're listening and I think that's the most important piece.
One patient told me that coming to the hospital and having to eat mostly non-traditional food items reminded her of her days in residential schools. She told me stories of being forced to eat Western food in her residential school, and she could no longer eat pork and meat based on that trauma. She was so happy to hear that traditional foods are now being integrated into the hospital setting, as it would help foster her intake and help for the healing of aboriginal and Indigenous patients.
KELLY: We saw in the film that youth are reclaiming their culture and traditional foodways. How do you think your community's health could be impacted?
RAVEN: It would be impacted in a positive way just because they're reclaiming their culture and their traditions by learning how to hunt, learning how to harvest and where to harvest…. it shows that we're connected to the land, we get all our food from the land. It impacts everything: life expectancy, happiness, physical health, nutrition, mental health.
KELLY: What can others learn from the process you took to request the recipes from the community and elders respectfully?
BEN: Reaching out to the communities and sharing the work that we're doing, and how we're going about it – it was so important in the beginning to acknowledge the respect and knowledge that they'll possibly share with us... [to demonstrate] that we were doing good work at the end of the day, for communities, for health care, and hoping to change the system and educate the system in the traditional value and nourishment that's available in traditional foods.
Hospital food matters for reconciliation. Here’s what you can do:
Share this film on social media by sharing our post on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn
Register for the Food is Our Medicine campaign launch (April 21, 2021, from 12 - 2pm ET)
Organize a virtual film screening with your organization
Reflect on your personal and organizational opportunities
Build relationships with Indigenous leaders
Share your reactions to the film on Twitter tagging @NourishLead