Adults and Seniors

The Regional Nutritionist supports healthy eating through various programs. These programs provide an opportunity for participants to enhance food skills. Participants will also increase their knowledge of buying, preparing and storing healthy foods.

Community Kitchens

A Community Kitchen is a community-based cooking program where small groups of people come together to prepare meals and take food home to their families. In a community kitchen every member contributes by planning, preparing, and cooking food. Community kitchens are great opportunities for learning about the importance of healthy eating and developing the skills to prepare healthy and affordable meals.

Western Health can support communities interested in offering a Community Kitchen. Western Health can provide resources and training to Group Facilitators. The Wellness Facilitator can assist groups with applying for funding opportunities and offer other support as needed.

Community Garden

A Community Garden is a shared space where people gather together to grow fruits, vegetables, small livestock, and/or flowers collectively.  Community Gardens vary widely in their structure, purpose and format. They can consist of collective plots, individual plots, or a combination of the two. Food may be grown for the garden’s members, for a local organization such as a community kitchen or for the community at large. The most common type of Community Garden is one in which garden plots are rented to community members on an annual basis to plant vegetables for their own consumption.

Community Garden Best Practices Toolkit

Western Health can support communities interested in offering a Community Garden. Western Health can provide resources and training to Group Facilitators. The Wellness Facilitator can assist groups with applying for funding opportunities and offer other support as needed.

Colour it Up Program (ages 19-50) (50 years and over)

The Colour it Up Program is a six week program designed to help women and their families to eat more vegetables and fruit. Participants use goal setting to address barriers to eating vegetables and fruit. It is recommended that the program should be held with groups between 9 and 15 women as it allows for meaningful discussion, exchange and participation. The Colour It Up Program can be offered by various organizations through volunteer trained facilitators.

 


Food Skills Workshops

The purpose of the Food Skills workshops is to assist community groups across the western region in fostering knowledge, capacity, and engagement with healthy, traditional food skills in their communities. The workshops are meant to be introductory learning experiences, both for participants attending the workshops and facilitators preparing them.

The workshop kit outlines what community groups will need to know in order to successfully host their own workshops. Once participants take part in a workshop they are given knowledge and skills on a particular topic of planting, picking, preparing, and preserving.

Planting: How to Grow Food

Planting includes all aspects of growing healthy food up until the time when plants are ready to be harvested. Planting can refer to household or community gardening, sprouting, and agricultural cultivation of products like vegetables, fruits, and herbs. The two workshops under Planting are:

1. Container Gardening

2. Composting

Picking: How to Harvest Cultivated & Wild Foods

Picking includes all aspects of harvesting food, both foods that have grown in the wild and those that are cultivated in a garden or on a farm. Picking includes harvesting foods derived from animals as well as plants. Raising backyard chickens and other livestock, beekeeping, hunting, fishing, as well as harvesting vegetables, or gathering wild plants all fall under Picking. The two workshops under Picking are:

3. Seed Saving

4. Edible Wild Plants

Preparing: How to Prepare Healthy Meals

Preparing describes the process of making healthy meals that will be eaten soon after they are prepared. Cooking skills, meal traditions, and information about ingredients are all included under Preparing. The two Preparing workshops are:

5. Preparing Local Vegetables

6. Using Culinary Herbs

Preserving: How to Store and Preserve Food

Preserving incorporates the various methods for storing and preserving food to keep it for future consumption. Root cellars and cold storage, canning (bottling), pickling, drying, salting, freezing, fermenting, and smoking are all techniques under Preserving. The two workshops for Preserving are:

7. Canning/Bottling

8. Root Cellars

 

Western Health can support communities interested in any of the programs or workshops listed above.  The Wellness Facilitator can assist groups with applying for funding opportunities and offer other support as needed. If you are interested or have any questions, please contact the Regional Nutritionist (709-784-5257) or contact a Wellness Facilitator in your area:

  • Bonne Bay and Area; Port Saunders and Area:
  • Bay of Islands and Area; Deer Lake, White Bay South and Area:
  • Port aux Basques and Area; Burgeo, Ramea and Area; Bay St. George and Area: