The STOP & Rosalie Hall Proposal

Urban Agriculture Expansion Team

The Stop Community Food Centre 1884 Davenport Road Toronto, ON M6H 4E1

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Building Strong Neighbourhoods Funding Committee United Way of Toronto & York Region 26 Wellington Street East, 12th Floor Toronto, ON M5E1S2

December 20, 2015

RE: Request for Funding

Dear Committee Members,

Thank you for your consideration of our attached proposal. The Stop, in partnership with Rosalie Hall, present a request for funding in the amount of $30,087.05 over two years to support us in tackling the issue of food insecurity and food illiteracy among at-‐risk, young mothers in priority neighbours in Scarborough. With food prices rising steadily, and the landscape of our city’s poverty shifting out towards the inner suburbs, we are seeing a disturbing trend where more and more families are living in food deserts where they have inadequate or unaffordable access to healthy food. Our proposal offers a strategy to increase food security for at-‐risk young families through a 16-‐week workshop series to teach food literacy and to address the stigma associated with being a young mother and trying to feed one’s family on a restricted budget.

Where many food security programs aim only to address the immediate need, as in the example of food banks or meal programs, we aim instead to build up young women through skills-‐based and group-‐based experiential learning to be more confident in navigating and challenging the food systems in their communities. They will leave our program with tangible skills in budgeting, meal planning, cooking and accessing resources, which will empower them to prepare healthy, nutritious food for themselves and their families on limited resources, and will increase their capacity overall as role models, community members and leaders.

Thank you for your generous consideration of our proposal. We welcome your questions and look forward to making you partners in our mission to address this important area of need.

Sincerely

Kathryn Desormeaux, Project Manager Urban Agriculture Expansion Team



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Funding Proposal The Stop’s Urban Agriculture Expansion Project

In Partnership with Rosalie Hall’s Women’s Residence

Kathryn Desormeaux

Jena McTavish Deqa Osman Rachel Paris

Kathleen Slater



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Table of Contents

Executive Summary ……………………………………………………………… 4 About Us Our Past .……………………………………………………………………….. 5 Our Present………………………………………………………..………… 5-‐6 Our Partnership………………………………………………………………. 6 Our Future …………………………………………………………………… 6-‐7 The Need The Community………..……………………………………………………… 7 The Barriers…..…………………………………………………..…………. 7-‐8 Similar Projects and Gaps in Service……………………………..... 8-‐9 The Solution Our Objectives ……………………………..……………………………….. 10 Program Structure ……………………………………………………. 10-‐11 Methods and specific examples……………………………………….. 11 The Garden .……………………………………………………………. 11-‐12 Ensuring Cultural Competency………………………………...……… 12 Reporting Success (M & E) ……………………………………………….. 12-‐13 Budget……………………………………………………………………………... 14-‐16 Resources……………………………………………………………………………… 17 References…………………………………………………………………………….. 18 Appendices

A. Our Team…………………………………………………………………... 19 B. Map of The Stop’s Catchment……………………………………… 20 C. Testimonials………………………………………………………………. 20 D. Key Findings from LDCP Report…………………………….. 21-‐22 E. Project Timeline…………………………………………………………. 22 F. Sample Workshop Outline…………………………………………... 23 G. List of funding sources……………………………………………..…. 24

Urban Agriculture Expansion Project Body of Proposal

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Executive Summary

The Stop Community Food Centre has been combatting the root causes of poverty and hunger in downtown Toronto for over 30 years. What began as a food bank has expanded into a multi-‐dimensional agency providing a myriad of programs which are improving food literacy and building capacity in marginalized communities. With our Urban Agriculture Expansion Project, we aim to build on our legacy and expand The Stop’s reach to match the shifting landscape of poverty in Toronto.

We will be working in partnership with Rosalie Hall’s residential program: a home for at-‐risk young mothers in the priority neighbourhoods of Woburn and Scarborough village. Not only do these young women face a combination of social, structural and geographic barriers which limit their access to healthy and affordable food, recent reports have shown that they are also experiencing a phenomenon of food deskilling that is perpetuating the cycle of poverty in their homes and communities. As it stands, there is both a lack of role models and a lack of appropriately tailored resources for this specific population. We intend to address this by implementing a program that would run seasonally, for 16 weeks, and involve the creation and maintenance of a community garden that will generate fresh food for the residence while serving as a site for the provision of a series of capacity-‐building and food literacy workshops.

Ultimately, our goal is to develop and build capacity in the client population at Rosalie Hall through a series of food-‐focused, participatory, skills-‐based workshops. We will do this using the Life Skills model for group facilitation, which has also demonstrated success in building self-‐esteem, self-‐efficacy and confidence in groups. To monitor our success, we intend to qualitatively measure the changes in participants’ knowledge and feelings of preparedness to navigate food systems for themselves and their families.

We are requesting a total of $30,087.05 for a two-‐year pilot of this project. The initial startup cost of our project will be $24,927.91, while the annual cost of second and future years will be approximately $13,159.14. We are expecting $8000 from other funders and in-‐kind donation, and will be eligible in our second year for a TD Friends of the Environment grant for $2500.


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About Us

Our Past

The Stop Community Food Centre operates as an alternative to traditional methods of charitable food giving. Our organization was founded by Reverend Cam Russell and his wife Shirley in the early 1970’s. In its infancy, The Stop was a food bank tucked away in the Rectory of a church in Toronto’s Kensington Market. While they provided as much as they could to those who accessed the food bank, Cam and Shirley began to recognize that it wasn’t enough. Cam began to expand the reach of the food bank by doing advocacy work for and with his clients; he would act as a liaison between agencies, speak to landlords, and make referrals. “Anything he could do,” he said, to “fill in the gaps whenever possible – attempting to break through those barriers to communication that relegated our friends to the margins of the page.” (Community Food Centres Canada, 2015).

This advocacy work transformed the organization from a food bank into The Stop 103, which officially was registered as a non-‐profit organization in 1982. The Stop was able to run with this agenda up until the early 1990s, when funding was drying out and their small staff were exhausted of both human and financial resources. At this time, The Stop was still able to provide their food bank and a peri-‐natal nutrition program for low-‐income, but they were no longer focused on advocacy or systemic policy change (Saul & Curtis, 2013).

This changed after the 1998 arrival of Nick Saul, the Stop’s executive director, who was hired to re-‐structure the organization. He implemented policies which moved the Stop away from the charitable giving framework and created what we now recognize as the first ever Community Food Centre. One of the very first things he did as E.D. was to organize the planting of a community garden which, to this day serves as “a way to build community, engage people with their food, and foster new skills” (Saul & Curtis, 2013).

Our Present

For over 30 years, The Stop Community Food Centre has been at the forefront of dignified, innovative programs that provide access to healthy food; build skills, health, hope, and community; and confront the underlying issues that lead to poverty and hunger. Our wide range of programs include drop-‐in meals, a food bank, community kitchens and gardens, perinatal and family support, civic engagement, and children and youth education (The Stop Community Food Centre, 2015)

Ultimately, we strive to strengthen marginalized communities through improved food access and programming focused on food literacy and community engagement (Community Food Centres Canada, 2015). Currently, The Stop serves the Davenport-‐Perth neighbourhood, with our catchment area being north of Bloor, south of St. Clair West, west of Dovercourt, east of


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Runnymede (The Stop Community Food Centre, 2015)1. Our goal with this program is to expand our reach beyond downtown Toronto and into the priority neighbourhoods of Woburn and Scarborough village. We are proposing programming that is modelled after two of our successful existing programs. Firstly, we will pull from our Medicine Wheel Garden project with Na Ma Res, a local native men’s residence. The garden we have built with Na Ma Res has met a need unique to this community, providing the men of the Apaenmowinneen (Having Confidence in Oneself) program with the opportunity to share teachings and learn more about plant medicine, gardening, and healthy living. We will also be using our Healthy Beginnings program as a guideline. Healthy Beginnings is a pre and post-‐natal nutrition and support program that has been an important part of the Stop since its inception (The Stop Community Food Centre, 2015).

Our Partnership

With our proposed program, we will be partnering with Rosalie Hall’s residential program, which provides both a home and capacity building services for young, at risk mothers and their babies.

Rosalie Hall’s residential program is designed to assist young mothers in developing skills to adjust and adapt to their individual life situations. [Our] values are based on a holistic, client-‐focused, shared decision-‐making philosophy. Service interventions are designed to enhance motivation and promote behavioural and life change.

We at The Stop recognize the innate connection between healthy babies, healthy parents and healthy communities. Food security plays a fundamentally important role within that relationship. Our goal with this partnership is to extend our reach and address the phenomenon of food deskilling, lack of role models and lack of appropriately tailored resources that is the reality for this population.

The Stop’s mission has always been to reduce hunger, improve health, and create real social change with a visionary program mix that has food at its core. Rosalie Hall’s mission is to, with compassion and respect, assist young parents in need and their children to realize their potential through the provision of a wide range services. Our partnership is a natural fit (Rosalie Hall, 2014).

Our Future

Cam and Shirley Russell sought to reduce poverty and marginalization by breaking down the systemic barriers they saw their clients facing. Nick Saul built on this goal by incorporating a radical approach to food justice through community engagement. We would like to build on this even further by expanding the reach and impact of the Stop’s programming to match the shift of poverty within the City of Toronto away from the core and towards the inner suburbs.

1 map available in Appendix B 2 Images of the testimonials in full can be found in Appendix C


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The Need

The Community

There are currently twenty-‐two ‘priority neighbourhoods’ located in Toronto. The areas of Woburn and Scarborough Village are among these areas with extremely high poverty rates (45% and 42.4%) (Doolittle, R. 2014). Most people in these neighbourhoods live farther than 1,500 metres from a supermarket. Areas meeting this description can be termed food deserts, with limited public transportation options. For those who don’t have a vehicle, this creates an added barrier to accessing healthy food.

In 2015, it is estimated a family of four’s weekly cost of groceries is $195.65 per week (City of Toronto, 2015). Food prices have increased by 1.3% from 2014 (City of Toronto, 2015). Price is a significant factor for lower income families when it comes to purchasing food, many families are likely to prioritize the cost of food when the selecting foods to purchase and value is often defined by the ability to “fill up” rather than getting the most nutritious choices.

Rosalie Hall serves the populations of Woburn and Scarborough Village, particularly at-‐risk young parents and pregnant women. The issues that this population face around food security are a priority to us; they face a combination of social, structural and geographic barriers to accessing healthy and affordable food options, and this limited access can have a domino effect downwards through families and subsequently into their communities.

The Barriers All parents have a concern for their children, and feel a sense of responsibility for

their child’s welfare; this is no different for young parents. They also see knowing how to cook as a life skill, one they can pass onto their children. It is hard trying to accomplish this as well as many other daily life responsibilities while living on a fixed income.

Young parents can feel ashamed in accessing services, especially when they feel they’re being continuously scrutinized by someone in a higher authoritative position. “Food banks are intended to provide short – term relief from hunger, they do not offer the necessary changes needed to address food insecurity” (City of Toronto, 2015). It is easy to feel isolated as parents, even more so due to the stigma attached to ‘teen parents’. Our program will help to develop confidence while navigating the food systems and accessing food-‐based resources.

In the Ellen Desjardins’ LDCP Food Skills Report (2013) it was noted that participants (young parents) felt more often than not recipes were too complicated and required ingredients that are not always accessible to lower income families. Without having learned the skills to follow a typical recipe, or having the knowledge of which foods can be supplemented for the items you have on hand, it can be hard to provide for their own and their child/ren’s dietary needs.

The Food Skills Report (2013) also showed a connection between food insecurity and an increased risk of dropping out of school. It showed that amongst pregnant women


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and young parents, 42% of the participants had dropped out of high school and 43% lived alone with their children. We should consider this because when thinking through the struggle of trying to cover the cost of living independently, it adds another dimension of difficulty to juggle school with work and parenting responsibility. If young parents had the tools and confidence to implement a weekly meal plan to fit their income, they would have more time and energy to contribute towards their self-‐actualization (for example, through academic achievement).

The cost of nutritional food is extremely high and could seem unattainable for young parents. Particularly when living on a fixed income and below the poverty line, the lack of access to fresh and healthy foods can lead to a steady diet of processed and easy-‐to-‐cook, boxed meals, which can cause or exacerbate medical conditions like diabetes. This has a ripple effect into managing the cost of health issues from a ‘poor diet’, both to the individual and the health care system. “The more food insecure a household is, the higher the cost of the health care of the adults that live there.” (City of Toronto, 2013).

This program is a necessary asset to this specific community and has the potential to change lives. It could help young parents build their confidence and skill set when considering learning how to cook healthy and affordable meals for themselves and their families. The program will also offer the participants a sense of community connection with the other members of the group. By sharing the workload with each other, they will share the benefits of working together for a common goal of achieving and sustaining a community garden for the residents of Rosalie Hall.

A number of people will benefit from this program. Firstly, the participants for the above stated reasons, but additionally, it will cause a ripple effect into the community as the participants achieve the goals set out in the program. Moving forward, they will be the ones facilitating and delivering the program to future participants, thus building up leaders with the necessary lived experience from within the community to stand as role models for other young parents. This program will also help to reduce some of the stress and hardship experienced by young parents so they can start working towards other goals. If they are able to go back to school and/or maintain stable employment, they will be able to provide for their family, ultimately increasing their self-‐ confidence and reducing the risk of continuing the cycle of poverty within their families.

Similar Projects and Gaps in Service While we mentioned the Healing Garden at Na Ma Res and our Healthy Beginnings program earlier as projects we are drawing inspiration from, it is important to understand why we believe that The Urban Agriculture Expansion Project is not only different, but necessary. Currently, there are no programs available specifically tailored to this at-‐risk population with the goals of capacity building around food, rather than band-‐aid solutions and handout programs like food banks and meal programs. While we see the value in providing for the immediate need, we also don’t see these solutions breaking the cycle of food insecurity, so we propose a solution that inspires change beginning at the individual level.


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We operate from a feminist perspective that focuses on skill building and promoting self-‐confidence and self-‐determination, both of which are essential to the development of young women as caring and able role-‐models for their families and communities. The emphasis on skill building in the specific areas of food literacy and food justice set us apart from more generalized parenting programs, which are also not usually targeted at communities of just women, for whom food plays a large role in nurturing and taking care of children, and therefore we address our programming to the specific meaning that food plays in being a mother. Our decision to implement this kind of project in a residential setting is strategic as well. There is an often overlooked and severely underreported issue surrounding the quality of food available to individuals living in group homes and other residential facilities. The majority of the food available to the residents is donated and, as a result, tends to be of poor nutritional quality. When relying on food donations from the public, a charity mindset tends to suggest to donors that any contribution is better than nothing, but this does not always reflect the needs or preferences of recipients. Donations are heavily skewed towards what is cheap, available and non-‐perishable. Larger bodies, like the Daily Bread Food Bank or Second Harvest, can acquire other items in mass quantity, but only when those items are unpopular or about to expire and therefore need to be cleared from retailers' and distributors' shelves (Tarasuk, Dachner, & Loopstra, 2014). Aside from having a tremendous impact on one’s physical health, this also takes a toll on recipients’ mental health, as this kind of donation implies that they are less worthy of high-‐quality, nutritious food. Changing this narrative can be transformative. George Herman House, a residential facility for women transitioning from institutional psychiatric care to independent living, has adopted a program similar to ours which focuses on holistic, food-‐related capacity building workshops and activities. Their testimonials say it all2.

I have become more independent, and confident in my abilities. I learn every day about the benefits of eating well… I have positive and supportive role models everywhere I turn. – L

With such an emphasis on healthy eating and all around healthy living, it’s not like living in a group home-‐ i’m living in a community of women I’ve come to love… GHH was my first taste of stability. -‐ J

2 Images of the testimonials in full can be found in Appendix C


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The Solution

Our Objectives

At its core, our program aims to develop and build capacity in the client population at Rosalie Hall through training in food literacy skills as defined in the research of Ellen Desjardin (2013). Through a series of participatory, skills-‐based workshops, we will provide opportunities for participants to share knowledge and address the specific barriers of their community to acquiring & preparing healthy meals for themselves and their families on a restrictive budget. We will do this using the Life Skills model for group facilitation, which has also demonstrated success in building self-‐esteem, self-‐efficacy and confidence in groups.

At the end of this program, participants will have developed greater food literacy and skills in the procurement, planning and preparation of nutritious meals. They will have developed more confidence navigating food systems, accessing food-‐based resources and engaging with social justice initiatives in food security. They will build capacity and connection with their fellow participants through shared work, shared goals and by seeing/eating the literal fruits of their labour. They will be able to build on these successes in their own lives and families and will be offered opportunities to become role models in the sustainable plan for future sessions of the program.

As a secondary set of activities, we will construct a community garden plot which residents and local volunteers can plant, sow and harvest to provide fresh food supplements to the kitchen at Rosalie Hall. This will help ease budgetary constraints on the host organization as well as provide opportunities for community connection, engagement, and light physical activity for residents.

Program Structure

We propose a 16-‐week workshop series to be conducted with approximately 20 women living at Rosalie Hall, using a Life Skills model of group facilitation and employing a feminist, anti-‐oppressive framework to address the structural and social barriers faced by this client population. Trained co-‐facilitators will conduct the once-‐weekly sessions in a variety of experiential learning environments within the residence, including the kitchen and garden plot we will construct on site, engaging the participants in direct skill-‐building as well as group discussion around the core skills to navigating food systems.

In identifying these skills, we have drawn from the specific recommendations outlined in the LDCP report (2013), including creating space to discuss such issues as the impact of food access on women’s understandings of their bodies and self image, building confidence in the skill of improvisation surrounding food, and providing opportunities for women to practice skills within a safe and supportive environment. A sample workshop outline is included in Appendix C to illustrate ways to apply these learning principles within a food-‐based conversation. A feminist workshop format allows the freedom to tackle certain stigmatized topics such as body image, self-‐esteem and poverty (which are notable barriers to food literacy) without framing these as the primary objectives of the programming. We believe women will sign up for and participate with less hesitation in an


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ostensibly skills and knowledge-‐based program, and would further incentivize participation by offering a lottery draw for a prize package of kitchen starter essentials to women who meet a minimum attendance record.

After the first workshop cycle, we would track the success of program graduates; we would seek to hire participants from within the program to facilitate the second cycle of workshops, both to create opportunities for these women to demonstrate the leadership they have built, and also because we believe in the value to future program participants of having shared lived experience with their facilitators and role models who reflect the success they can achieve once they leave the program and Rosalie Hall.

Methods and specific examples

Some concrete examples of learning activities would include a guided tour of a supermarket led by a registered dietician, offering the opportunity for the group to ask questions about food labeling, healthy food choices and balanced nutrition for special diets (e.g. diabetes or food allergies), as well as hands-‐on workshops in the garden plots to explore ways to convert small spaces to generate food and/or herbs, save money and live more sustainably. To ensure that the project includes a tangible benefit to participants’ future employability, we will be building in certification in Food Handling, so that graduates of the program will leave our group not only with new skills and knowledge, but a marketable certification as proof of their learning.

We would also propose to engage the group in developing a resource together over the course of the 16 week program, which they could take away as a record of their accomplishment and as a reference tool to consult when navigating food systems. We would decide the format of this project in collaboration with the group, but ideas we might recommend would include a recipe book (including photos of the dishes we prepare within the cooking sessions in the program), or a Young Mom’s Survival Guide to Food, which might include templates we would develop for weekly budgeting, meal plans, or shopping lists.

By introducing a group project within the format of the workshop series, we would hope to reinforce collaboration and teamwork between residents, and would ideally see this reflected in the culture and interactions between residents outside of workshop hours.

The Garden

Community gardening offers myriad benefits, including opportunities to introduce light exercise, reduce stress and practice nurturing and caring for living things, which with our particular target population can be hugely affirming. There are long-‐term health benefits to gardening (TCGN, 2015), and it has been supported by doctors like James Clapp, M.D., that exercise such as gardening, which emphasizes stretching, mobility, and light cardiovascular work, can reduce birthing complications and improve post-‐natal recovery times (2002). Developing these activities as part of a stress-‐management and wellness plan builds healthy habits and tools which our participants can take with them after the close of our program and their discharge from Rosalie Hall.


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In addition to the health benefits, the ability to see things grow as a result of one’s effort is reinforcement and positive proof of self-‐efficacy, which will directly support the goals of our workshop program; to be able to cook with and eat the literal “fruits of one’s labour” is a profound experience, and one that our participants can look at as a source of personal pride. Additionally, learning the skills to grow food for oneself and one’s family builds and supports feelings of self-‐reliance and can be used to supplement their access to nutritious food once they are living independently; it represents one small way in which these women can reduce their dependence on dominant food systems and create something entirely of their own.

Ensuring Cultural Competency

Our model is firmly built on the inclusion of the perspectives and lived experiences of young mothers, and ensuring that the programming and the way it is delivered is accessible and responsive to the needs of the women who will be participating. In the second program cycle, where we will be able to hire past participants to facilitate, there will be a built-‐in peer support network that allows participants to see strong role models with experiences reflective of their own, which evidence proves invaluable to developing strong group connection and alleviating social isolation (O’Hagan et al, 2010).

In the first program cycle, we will be targeting schools and organizations that offer Life Skills Coaching programs to post the on-‐site staff positions, and would give priority to candidates with lived experience as young mothers as well as past professional experience facilitating support groups or topic-‐based workshops for women. As an additional safeguard, we will request that a representative of Rosalie Hall sit on the interview panel along with the Stop’s Coordinator to ensure that the successful candidates will be a suitable fit for the culture and community at the residence. Because it is a feminist and peer-‐based model, we will only be looking to hire woman-‐identified facilitators.

Reporting Success (M&E)

Since our program objectives are more directed towards building up the program participants in terms of confidence, capacity and food literacy, there exist fewer opportunities to measure the impact of this programming, but we propose a number of ways to qualitatively measure the changes in participants’ knowledge and feelings of preparedness to navigate food systems for themselves and their families. The following table outlines the ways that feedback from self-‐reporting questionnaires, and observations from our facilitators and staff at Rosalie Hall can be collected to demonstrate this impact, and help us to identify ways to improve this program for future sessions.

The vast majority of the residents at Rosalie Hall continue to access services and supports within this organization after discharge (2011); we therefore anticipate being able to gather usable follow-‐up feedback at checkpoints of 6 months and 1 year, the first of which will also serve as an excellent opportunity to begin fielding applications from past participants to facilitate the second program cycle.


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Evaluation Questions Indicators Source of

Data Method of Data Collection

Who Collects this Data

When is this Data

Collected

Did program participants learn tangible skills and tools (cooking, meal planning, budgeting, etc.)?

-‐ participant knowledge -‐ participant information seeking behaviours -‐ creation of program artifact/records

Participants Facilitators

Self-‐report (outtake questionnaire)

Qualitative Feedback on engagement in sessions

Physical product of a guidebook, resource

Facilitators STOP Coordinator

End of Session

Do participants have greater confidence in navigating food systems?

-‐ improved self-‐efficacy

Participants Self-‐report (outtake questionnaire); Check-‐in interviews


End of Session; 6 months & 1 year

Has the program strengthened community at Rosalie Hall/expanded participants support network?

-‐ attendance & active participation in sessions -‐ increased engagement with fellow residents -‐ reduction of conflict within residence

Participants Facilitators Rosalie Hall Staff

Self-‐report (outtake questionnaire); Check-‐in interviews

Program documents (e.g. attendance records)

Qualitative Feedback; interviews, check-‐ins


End of session During session run time

Do participants have more knowledge of community supports and food resources?

-‐ participant knowledge

-‐ participant information seeking behaviours

-‐ participants accessing community resources

Participants Rosalie Hall Staff

Self-‐report questionnaires; Check in Interviews

Qualitative Feedback; interviews, check-‐ins;


End of Session; 6 months & 1 year 6 mos & 1 year

Is the garden generating a useful food supply for the kitchen at Rosalie Hall?

-‐ production of food -‐ reduction in budget for purchase of fresh produce

Rosalie Hall Staff

Qualitative Feedback, periodic check-‐ins RH budget

STOP Coordinator

During growing season; periodically


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Budget Our year 1 budget is made up of $12,690.00 in personnel expenses of which $8000 is covered in kind by garden coordinators Jack and Margaret Markham, and volunteers from St. Georges-‐on-‐the-‐hill Anglican Church, and the residents of Rosalie Hall. A total of $6768.82 is budgeted for workshop expenses including the incentives for participants to receive upon completion of the program. Building two 10’x4’x2’ raised bed gardens will initially cost $3,202.92 including all the soil and soil additives, seeds/plants, tools and equipment, and storage shed. We chose two raised bed garden because they heat up quicker prolonging the growing season, and require less soil additives to grow decent sized vegetables (having not enough nutrients in the soil will result in smaller vegetables or wilted plants). We have included a 10% overhead expense to cover the resources and personnel time that The Stop will incur by launching this project.

In year 2 and beyond we will not have the costs associated with the initial installation of the garden beds. The workshop expenses remain the same, as will salaries for program staff, but we will not require a large input of volunteer hours as in the construction of the garden. Garden expenses will also go down by $2,698.89, requiring only $504.03 for new seeds, transplants, and soil additives, which will be necessary each year. The 10% overhead expense is added again in year 2, bringing the second year total to $13,159.14. In this year, we will also qualify to apply for TD’s friends of the Environment $2,500.00 grant.

Year 1 Expenses Salaries # Amount In-‐Kind Justification 1 On-‐site Program Coordinator

2010.00 One (1) On site Program Coordinator @$30.00/hour, three (3) hours a week, for sixteen (16) weeks plus 10 hours paid training/prep & 3 hours for evaluation. Total 67 [email protected]=2010.00

2 On-‐site Program Facilitators

2 2680.00 Two (2) On-‐Site Program Facilitaors to facilitate focus group three (3) hours a week, for sixteen (16) weeks @20.00/hour, plus 10 hours paid training/prep & 3 hours evaluation. Total hours [email protected]/hour=2680.00

Garden Coordinator 2 2000.00 2,000.00 Two (2) gardeners have offered their expertise in planning the garden. 1000.00x2 (In Kind Jack and Margaret Markham)

Labourers 10 6000.00 6000.00 Ten (10) [email protected]/hour x 50 hours for initial building of the garden. (In kind, volunteers from St. Georges-‐on-‐the-‐hill)

Salaries Subtotal 12690.00 8,000.00 Workshop expenses Amount Justification Food 1600.00 8 cooking classes, with an estimated 10.00 per

participant for food, 10.00 x 20 = 200 x 8 = 1600.00 Honoraria 400.00 $200 x 2; one (1) each for a Registered Dietician and a

Culinary instructor Food Handlers Certification

20 1926.00 Cost for Twenty (20) Food handlers certificates includes 6 hours of instruction by a certified Public Health Inspector, and an exam. 20 x 96.30 = 1926.00

TTC Tokens 138.00 $6 x 23; participants & facilitators, return travel for field trip for guided tour of supermarket


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Book Binding 7 496.97 Twenty-‐Two (22) participant-‐designed resource guides. 21.99 + tx = 24.85 x 20 = 496.97

End of session participation package

20 2033.31 One (1) Handheld blender (for homemade baby food) 39.99 + tx = 45.19 x 20 = 903.77, One Rice cooker/slow cooker 39.99 + tx = 45.19 x 20 = 903.77 , One (1) cookbook 9.99 + tx = 11.28 x 20 = 225.77 (All from Kitchen Stuff Plus)

Misc. expenses 174.54 Self Stick easel paper 54.05 = tx = 61.08, Sharpie Flip chart markers pack of (8) 10.99 + tx = 12.42, Twenty (20) Hilroy 3-‐subject notebooks 3.85 + tx = 4.35 x 20 = 87.01 , One (1) pack Bic pens (60) in a pack 9.02 + tx = 10.19, One (1) pack of (48) pencils 4.28 + tx = 4.84 (all from staples)

Workshop subtotal 6768.82 0.00 Garden Expenses Amount Justification Lumber Supplies 503.66 Two (2) 10'x4'x2' raised bed gardens. 336 linear feet of

lumber is required to build the beds. Forty two (42) 4"x4"x8' lumber beams @$10.43+tx = 503.66 (Home Depot)

Garden Storage 957.11 One (1) 7'x4.5' Storage Shed model# 60057@ $847.00+tx=957.11 (Home Depot)

Tools 250.17 Two (2) Kobalt fiberglass digging shovels@ 31.49+tx=71.17 (Lowes) Two (2) Action Tools Shock -‐ Handler garden spade@ 18.74+tx=42.35 (Lowes) Two (2) True Temper garden hoe@ $13.99+tx=31.62 (Lowes) One (1) True Temper Professional Spading pitch [email protected]+tx=37.28 (Lowes) Four (4) Scott's Dual Action pruners@ $14.99+tx=$67.75 (Lowes) One (1) True Temper Wheelbarrow@ 69.99+tx=$79.80 (Lowes) $250.17

Garden Equipment 754.77 One (1) Gardena Reel Lawn Mower #4024@ 199.00+tx=224.87 (Home Depot) Two (2) Miracle Grow 50' [email protected]+tx=67.75 (Home Depot) Two (2) Gardena Sprinklers@$39.99+tx=$90.38 (Home Depot) One (1) SUN-‐MAR200 [email protected]+tx=371.77 (Home Depot) $754.77

Paint &Paint Supplies 71.86 Two (2) large pails of paint, plan to get mis-‐tint at reduced price from Dulux paints on St. Clair Ave W. budget will be $60.00 Two (2) Paint [email protected]+tx=$2.82 (Dollarama) Four (4) Large paint brushes@$2.00+tx=9.04 (Dollarama)

Plants & Transplants 75.00 Details to be determined by garden coordinators. They have estimated we need a budget of $75.00 (Plant World)

Soil, and soil additives 499.85 Six (6) Bags of Vigoro Triple Mix soil @3.98+tx=53.97 (Home Depot) Six (6) bags slow release potassium green [email protected]+tx=74.51 (Fiesta Farms) Six(6) bags Kelp Meal @8.99+tx=60.95 (FiestaFarms) Six (6) bags of Organic Bone Meal @6.99+tx=47.36 (Lowes) Six (6) bags AG-‐Global Tomato & Vegetable granule @21.64+tx=146.72 (Lowes) Twenty four (24) bags of Limestone Drainage Gravel @4.29+tx=116.34 (Lowes) $499.85


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Seeds 30 90.50 Two (2) packs of each seed (Amish paste Tomato, Beefsteak Tomato, Scarlett Nates Carrot, Bull's Blood Beet, Tendergreen Cucumber, Black Beauty Eggplant, Little Gem Lettuce, Jupiter Seet Pepper, Black Beauty Zucchini, plus an additional two (2) packs of six (6) different types of seeds undecided, waiting for resident input, all at $3.25 per pack. 2x15 = 30 [email protected]=$90.50 (Urban Harvest)

Garden Expense Subtotal 3202.92 Overhead 2266.17 Overhead for transportation, use of utilities, stationary,

photocopying, legal fees and insurance Grand Total Year 1 24927.91 8,000.00 Funds needed to complete project

16927.91

Year 2 Expenses Salaries # Amount In-‐kind Justification 1 On-‐site Program Coordinator

1 2010.00 See Above

2 On-‐site Program Facilitators

2 2680.00 See Above

Salaries Subtotal 4690.00 0.00 Workshop expenses Amount Justification Food 1600.00 See Above

Food Handlers Certification

20 1926.00 See Above

Honoraria 400.00 See Above Book Binding 7 496.97 See Above TTC Tokens 138.00 See Above End of session participation package

20 2033.31 See Above

Misc. expenses 174.54 See Above Workshop subtotal 6768.82 0.00 Garden Expenses Amount Justification Plants & Transplants 75.00 Details to be determined by garden coordinators. They

have estimated we need a budget of $75.00. (Plant World)

Soil, and soil additives 338.53 Two (2) bags of Vigoro Triple mix @3.98+tx+8.99 (Home Depot) Six (6) bags slow release potassium green sand @10.99+tx=74.51 (Fiesta Farms) Six (6) bags kelp meal @8.99+tx=60.95 (Fiesta Farms) Six (6) bags Organic Bone Meal @6.99+tx=47.36 (Lowes) Six (6) bags AG Global tomato and vegetable granule @21.64+tx=146.72 (Lowes) 338.53

Seeds 30 90.50 See Above Garden Expense Subtotal 504.03 0.00

Overhead 1196.29 Overhead for transportation, use of utilities, stationary, photocopying, transportation as needed, legal fees and insurance. Calculated at 10% of total expenses.

Grand Total Year 2 13159.14 0.00

Funds needed to complete project

13159.14


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Resources

A our partner in this project Rosalie Hall will be contributing the necessary space for program delivery; the kitchen is equipped for cooking, prepping, and storing fresh and cooked food. The dining hall has enough seating for the classes, and guest speakers to present in. The Stop will provide staff resources in developing the program materials, driven by evidence-‐based programming we already offer. The Stop will also be the home base in the early planning stages where we will have access to an office, office supplies, a van, and a team of mentors and guides, and bookkeeper/accountant.

Dr. Elizabeth Brothers, ND is a homeopathic doctor, licensed dietician and mom based out of Kingston, Ontario who is very excited to join us here in Toronto for a guided tour of the supermarket, Rosalie Halls cupboards, and a crash course on body cures through a healthy diet.

Loblaws has so kindly paired us with Chef Florence Kwok who has great experience in both western and eastern cooking. She is a mom and has developed a healthy kid friendly menu she wants to share with the moms at Rosalie Hall. She will also be our main contact for arranging other chefs from PC Cooking School to come in to do classes for gluten free cooking and/or classes for special allergies.

There are several resources needed to build the garden like soil and soil additives, seeds, transplants, tools and equipment that will be purchased from Plant World, Home Depot, Lowes, Urban Harvest, and Fiesta Farms. We also need to purchase the items for the end of session gift packages which will all come Kitchen Stuff Plus. By the time we are ready to purchase these items we expect to be able to get about five of each item donated in kind.

Our facilitators are a group of young aspiring Life Skills coaches currently finishing a Life Skills Certificate program. They have the skills needed to develop interesting, and interactive workshops for the residents of Rosalie Hall. Certified public health inspectors of The City of Toronto will be the provider of the accredited Food Handlers Certificate classes. This certificate will help with developing a social enterprise later on if the residents should choose to sell their harvest, or prepare preserves to sell.


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References

City of Toronto. (2015, October 6). Retrieved from http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2015/hl/bgrd/backgroundfile-‐84588.pdf

Clapp, J. (2002). Exercising Through Your Pregnancy. Washington, DC: Atticus Books.

Community Food Centres Canada. (2015). Community food centres canada -‐ history. Retrieved from http://cfccanada.ca/history

Desjardins, E. (2013, Nov.). Making Something out of Nothing: Food literacy among youth, young pregnant women and young parents who are at risk for poor health. LDCP Food Skills Ontario report to Public Health Ontario. [Technical report]. Retrieved from http://foodsecurecanada.org/sites/default/files/report_ldcp_foodskills_dec2013.final5_.pdf

Doolittle, R. (2014, March). Toronto to expand ‘priority’ neighbourhoods to 31. The Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/toronto2014election/ 2014/03/19/toronto _to_expand_priority_neighbourhoods_to_31.html

Native Men's Residence. (2015). Medicine Wheel Garden -‐ Native Men's Residence. Retrieved from http://www.nameres.org/residences-‐programs/medicine-‐wheel-‐garden/

O’Hagan, M., Cyr, C. , McKee, H. , & Priest, R. (2010, Sep.). Making the Case for Peer Support. Report to the Peer Support Project Committee of the Mental Health Commission of Canada. [Government report]. Retrieved from http://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/system/files/private/document/PS_Making_the_Case_for_Peer_Support_Report_ENG.pdf

Rosalie Hall. (2011, Sep. 21). Residential Program: Outcomes from June 1st 2010 to May 30th 2011. [Research data summary]. Retrieved from http://www.rosaliehall.com/ downloads/residentialprogramoutcomes.pdf

Rosalie Hall. (2014). Rosalie Hall :: About Us. Retrieved from http://www.rosaliehall.com/about.php

Saul, N., & Curtis, A. (2013). The Stop: How the fight for good food transformed a community and inspired a movement. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House Pub.

The Stop Community Food Centre. (2015). The Stop Community Food Centre. Retrieved from http://thestop.org/

Tarasuk, V., Dachner, N., Loopstra, R. (2014). Food banks, welfare and food insecurity in Canada. British Food Journal, 116(9) pp 1405-‐1417. Retrieved from http://nutritionalsciences.lamp.utoronto.ca/wp-‐content/uploads/2014/09/BFJ-‐02-‐2014-‐0077.pdf

Toronto Community Garden Network. (2015, Jan 25). Including Everyone in the Benefits of Community Gardening. [Web page]. Retrieved from http://www.tcgn.ca/wiki/wiki.php?n=StartingAndSupportingCGs.FrontPage#introduction

Urban Agriculture Expansion Project Appendices

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Appendix A -‐ Our Team Kathryn Desormeaux Kathryn has experience in workshop development and delivery in both local and international settings. She also has a background in culinary arts. Currently, she is working with women in a residential facility providing food-‐related capacity building programming. She has a keen interest in systemic policy reform. With this project, she hopes to create a model that can be modified to fit communities with similar needs. Jena McTavish Jena McTavish is a second year Social Service Worker student who has 3 years of front line experience working with homeless, or street involved youth amongst some who are young moms. She also has experience in health and safety with St. John Ambulance as an instructor starting in 2005, and has connections with experienced community garden developers, and coordinators. Deqa Osman Deqa Osman, a graduate from the International Development Studies at York University and currently a student taking Social Service Worker program at George Brown College. She has always had a profound interest in urban development, the use and regulation of space in cities. Her mission is to provide the necessary support to critically understand current urban dynamics both locally and globally, and the professional study of actual sustainable urban development. Rachel Paris Rachel brings experience in program development and the delivery of experiential educational programming. She has facilitated life-‐skills based workshop series with a variety of populations including women, children and youth. As a volunteer coach for women’s sporting organizations, she also sees the benefit of creating strong community networks for women and building capacity through shared goals, incremental successes and strong role models. Her vision for this project is to support young mothers to become leaders in their own communities and role models for their children by applying a feminist model of group work and skills development training. Kathleen Slater Kathleen is a community leader in the neighbourhood of Scarborough Village and an example of the positive impact of Rosalie Hall’s programming; as a young mother herself, she has overcome barriers to become a role model and a leader. She brings training in the field of social services and direct frontline experience in a food security setting, and is therefore well positioned to ensure our programming remains relevant and accessible to the community. She is proud to return to Rosalie Hall using her knowledge and life experience to help new mothers find their potential.


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Appendix B – Map of The Stop’s Catchment

Appendix C – Testimonials


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Appendix D -‐ Summary of key findings, models and definitions from LDCP Food Skills Report (pp.61-‐62) • There is a broad range of food skills among teens and young parents, both male and female. A hierarchy of

food preparation levels was developed, based on the meanings of food skills expressed and practiced by study participants.

• Youth grow up in a food environment that normalizes and promotes highly processed food, and they learn to judge and navigate this environment as they become more independent, especially when they move to places where they pay for and prepare their own food and when they become parents themselves.

• Those who acquired food skills at a young age have an advantage in terms of food skills and confidence in preparing food; but those who learn later display a high degree of self-‐directed learning – mostly from people they know or live with.

Youth are motivated to learn food literacy skills because of:

• cost – when they realize they cannot afford to eat out and buy pre-‐prepared meals on a limited income; • taste – when they become bored with the lack of variety among their regular processed food choices; • personal health – when they link a steady diet of processed foods (especially those high in fat and sugar) with weight gain, risk during pregnancy, lethargy, onset of diabetes or other conditions;

• child health – when new parents realize a sense of responsibility for their child’s welfare and fear that undernourishment may be perceived as negligence;

• feeling independent and in control, often in opposition to their own upbringing; • the pleasure of creativity and cooking for and with others, when the opportunity arises.

The majority of young people in this study:

• were able to prepare meals at a moderate or advanced level • said that home food preparation saves money • said that food preparation is an important life skill for everyone • named school classes and community programs as an important places to learn these skills.

What young people know how to prepare and what they actually do prepare on a daily basis depends upon psychological, social, environmental and financial circumstances. These are determinants which can influence the actual practice of food skills once they are acquired. For example:

• Stress, poor body image, depression or loneliness may deter home food preparation. • Youth who have acquired cooking skills at home (or in a group home or structured setting where

others bought the food) often still face the challenge of learning to budget, plan and shop for food when they live independently.

• Without money for food or access to an adequately-‐equipped kitchen, food skills cannot be applied.

• Most young people in this study named basic food skills, with both theory and practice, as essential for school programs, and thought it should be regarded as a mandatory life skill. However, existing school food classes were often found lacking or inadequate. Some said they had learned about Canada’s Food Guide and food safety in school, but little that would help them make healthy choices in the grocery store and in the kitchen. Culinary programs leading to job opportunities were welcomed by those who had access to them.

• Community cooking programs were praised by all who had access to them, and were seen as positive learning opportunities for people who were less motivated to learn food skills during high school but wanted to learn later. Direct experiential learning was the preferred way of learning food skills. Learning food skills at an early age, which tends to be experiential, may lead to greater confidence in food preparation in later years.


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• The internet was not found to be a useful substitute for the inter-‐personal teaching and modeling of food preparation skills. Recipes were not a learning method of choice for novices in the kitchen; they were most useful for those who already had experience with food preparation. Use of recipes requires math and reading skills, familiarity with and availability of ingredients, cooking or baking utensils, knowledge of techniques, and ability to visualize the outcome.

• Improvisation in the kitchen was commonly cited as a highly valuable skill, involving flexibility, adaptability and creativity in working with existing resources. These attributes also enhance resilience. Kitchen appliances like slow cookers and blenders were seen to facilitate improvisation.

• Young people in this study articulated a broad array of personal strategies for managing on a limited income, including skills for food shopping, storage and preparation as well as building social networks. Many would be capable of leading peer cooking programs; some were already doing it, and several others agreed, when asked, that leading a cooking program would be something they would like to try.

Knowledge about nutrition seemed to be limited in this study group, and reading food labels was not common practice. Still, there was a general understanding that “boxed foods” and fast foods are “not healthy” and that cooking with basic ingredients is better. Most knew that vegetables and fruit are healthy, and young parents usually prepared it for their children although they often avoided it themselves. Whole grains were not mentioned by anyone, but high cholesterol, fat, salt and sugar content was commonly given as a reason not to eat fast food or boxed food in excess. Most participants said that they tried to prepare healthier foods some or most of the time, but that convenience foods were usually an acceptable part of their diet as well.

Appendix E – Project Timeline Phase one: Focus group consultation with Rosalie Hall staff & residents to determine exact schedule of workshop topics – early-‐mid April, 2016 Hiring and training on-‐site facilitators – April 2016 Phase two: Construction of the garden – April 25 to May 6, 2016 Refinement of workshop modules & program resources Phase three: On-‐site workshop delivery at Rosalie Hall – May 9 to Sep 2, 2016 Planting and upkeep of the garden (into perpetuity) Phase four: Evaluation & refinement of program – at closing of session, at 6 months (Mar 2017) and one year (Sep 2017) Hiring and training of past participants as on-‐site facilitators -‐ April 2017 Phase five: Repeating adapted workshop series with program graduates as facilitators – May to Sept 2017


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Appendix F – Sample Workshop Outline

IMPROVISATION Goals:

-‐ To explore how things can go wrong and how we deal with it -‐ To strategize ways to improvise with food -‐ To practice responding to unexpected situations

Stimulus: Imagine you are trapped in the wilderness for 48 hours, and in addition to the clothes you’re wearing, you only have the following 10 items (…) What can you use them for? N.B. none of the items listed are specifically camping or survival equipment. Evocation: How did that feel? Challenging? Exciting? Does anyone feel proud of how they would have managed in that situation? Objective Inquiry: Explore some of the things that could go wrong with food prep. How about when grocery shopping (e.g. the store has run out of a particular thing)? Sticking to a budget? What about with recipes? Do you always need to use the exact ingredients? What if you don’t have the materials for cooking, or something isn’t going the way it’s supposed to? Skills Practice: Have participants work in pairs to complete a worksheet with scenario questions related to food prep, etc. and how they would improvise. Get the group to share some of their solutions and collect the brainstormed ideas onto a chart paper (to be developed into a resource/handout/page in the survival guide). Application: Participants are asked to consider ways they already improvise and problem solve in their daily lives. They are asked to reflect on how it feels to manage an unexpected scenario in a new way, and to set a goal for how they might respond the next time an unexpected event comes up (short term goal setting). Evaluation: Check out about feelings that came up in the lesson, moments of personal learning. Were the goals met? What other resources might participants want to have access to to help with this? Remind group to use their notebooks to record successes they have practicing this skill, and bring any new learning to group next week.


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Appendix G – List of Funding Sources Government Food Security Investment Programs, City of Toronto Live Green Toronto Grants Environment & Energy Division Corporations TD Friends of the Environment Foundation Home Depot-‐Evergreen Rebuilding Nature Grant Foundations McLean Foundation Metcalf Foundation Zukerman Family Foundation The Junior League of Toronto Max Bell Foundation George Weston Limited Shoppers Drug Mart/Pharmaprix WOMEN Ontario Trillium Foundation Community Agencies and Organizations Toronto Food Policy Council Community Food Centres Canada

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The STOP & Rosalie Hall Proposal

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