Rallying the masses to feed a family
Grimsby woman launching initiative that will require contributions from individuals, businesses, municipalities
Renee Delaney wants to feed people.
The Grimsby resident has been doing it since September 2017 with the Local Food Program, a ready-to-eat meal preparation operation she runs for Niagara residents that focuses on using local ingredients. In turn, for every meal cooked for program subscribers, Delaney and her volunteer kitchen crew working out of Allanburg Community Centre make another portion for a person in need.
But Delaney wants to put food on the tables of even more people. She plans to do it with Feed a Family, an enterprise she’ll launch in the coming weeks by calling on residents, businesses, municipalities and local organizations to contribute human or financial capital to the cause.
“What I’m trying to do is increase collaboration,” Delaney said. “We have a problem of communication (among people wanting to help) but not of money, not of people wanting to help.”
So, if a business wants to lend a hand, it can create a team of employees and register them online with Feed a Family when the website launches in a few weeks. Those employees can fundraise to purchase ingredients and even come together in a certified kitchen to cook meals for the program, if they choose.
Delaney will source the ingredients through Small Scale Farms (smallscalefarms.ca), her existing network of food gardens scattered throughout the region, and from local farmers, including those whose produce she buys for her Local Food Program. She’ll also find certified kitchens and co-ordinate cooking times for volunteers.
“That organization is what’s missing. (Feed a Family) is coordinating that because people do want to help,” she said.
It sounds lofty, but Delaney is certain it’s the path to greatest impact. By calling on others to fundraise — for example, a business can ask clients to chip in $5 to cover a meal — it skirts the existing grant system, which can be time-consuming to access and unsustainable for financing any cause, she explained.
It also creates a valuable database of people who want to help, and the certified kitchen space where they can do it. Individuals and organizations who need the food, such as food banks, can also put their names forward to receive prepared meals from Feed a Family.
According to Niagara Region, nearly 10 per cent of Niagara households are food insecure, which means they lack reliable access to healthy food. And onequarter of those households have no place to go for something to eat. Meanwhile, it costs about $850 a month to feed a family of four with nutritious food.
“The money that’s coming through this is all going back into the system. It’s a sustainable model … that’s enticing everyone to come into one big collaborative project,” Delaney explained. “It’s getting small businesses, municipalities, individuals to say ‘I can do this. I can help.’ It’s giving people the chance to help together and collaboratively, rather than operating in silos.”
Her ultimate goal goes beyond feeding people struggling with hunger and food security, however. By focusing on sourcing local ingredients wherever possible, Delaney said she’s hopeful she’ll create a stronger local food system — one that will provide greater job security for existing farmers and create a viable career option for new recruits to the field.
“The food system is at the heart of every economy and in our current community, that’s not happening,” Delaney said.
To help the process along, she’ll establish a foodshare program this summer, which will operate like a CSA. People can subscribe to regular deliveries of local produce that Delaney will source from Niagara farmers and assemble for customers. Those connections will also provide her with a pipeline for purchasing seconds, or imperfect fruit and vegetables that might be flawed in appearance, but are ideal for cooking Feed a Family meals.
“This way you know the people getting this food are eating well, not just Kraft Dinner, and it’s sustainable,” Delaney said. “This is self-sustaining and independent of the grant world. If everyone does a little bit, there is abundance.”