ANNUAL REPORT and EVALUATION

NORTHERN FOOD SECURITY PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVE 2007/2008 ANNUAL REPORT and EVALUATION

BAYLINE REGIONAL ROUNDTABLE Northern Food Security Partnership Initiative Box 130, Wabowden, MB R0B 1S0 Ph: (204) 689-2063 Fax: (204) 689-2355 Email: [email protected] Evaluation Report Completed by:

Laurel Gardiner, Healthy Communities Advisor Upstream Connected 143 Queens Bay Thompson, MB R8N 1V8 Phone: (204) 778-7126 Fax: (204) 677-3078 Email: [email protected]

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BAYLINE NORTHERN FOOD SECURITY PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVE (NFSPI)

The Bayline Regional Roundtable (BRRT) was formed in 2001 by the leaders of the six small Aboriginal communities that are located along the Hudson Bay Railway line in Northern Manitoba. Communities comprising BRRT are Cormorant, Wabowden, Thicket Portage, Pikwitonei, Ilford and War Lake First Nation. Bayline Regional Roundtable incorporated in February 2005 as a non-profit community development organization.

BRRT Inc. identified accessibility to food and food security as a primary concern for their residents. The goal of BRRT's Food Security Partnership Initiative Project is to build partnerships with specific stakeholders to examine and address issues related to food security in Northern Manitoba. The objectives are to create linkages between stakeholders, increase awareness about food security issues and to empower grassroots solutions and related activity. These objectives are being accomplished through regional forums, maintenance of a website and posting/publishing food security partners services on the website and in hardcopy. Bayline also partners with provincial and national food security activities by speaking at conferences, hosting the Provincial Food Security Website and membership in the Manitoba Food Charter and Food Secure Canada. We work with multiple partners and stakeholders in an overall cooperative effort to achieve sustainable food systems within all our regions.

BRRT increases northern food self-sufficiency through promoting gardening and greenhouse operations, poultry production and food processing and preservation within the Bayline communities and Oxford House. This year we also began working with Nelson House. Each community has appointed a volunteer local “Food Champion” and an hourly contracted Ag Tech person to assist with garden starts and oversee the care and maintenance of the garden equipment.

We worked with the communities to develop food self-sufficiency and garden plans to submit to the Northern Healthy Food Initiative (NHFI). We also work closely with Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Initiatives’ (MAFRI) Northern GO-Team. Regrettably, MAFRI has not been able to create any new positions or funding for the north but they have identified a team to work with us for support and advice. They have produced a very useful Northern Gardening Manual, which Bayline assisted in field testing and editing.

Funding for our agricultural work (advisory supports and agriculture equipment) has been provided by the Northern Healthy Food Initiative (Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs), Public Health Agency of Canada and Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Initiatives. With these grants we have:  Purchased “quadivators,” rototillers, seeds, fertilizer and lumber for raised-bed gardens, resulting in nearly 90 new garden starts in 3 years.  Placed 4 greenhouses in 4 communities in 2007-08, situated adjacent to the schools.  Supplied the chicks, poultry feed, feeders and heat lamps for a 60-chick pilot in Oxford House in 2006 and in summer 2007 we placed 360 chicks in four communities, including a pilot project with 30 layer hens in Oxford House.  Placed 14 freezers with Bayline families who will repay over an agreed upon period of time. Our staff also worked with other northern communities to place 140 freezers on the 2008 winter road.  Offered workshops on canning, freezing, baby-food making, poultry production, soil fertility, greenhouse construction, freezer purchase programs, community mobilization and strategic planning.

3 Teachers from Bayline area, Thompson and other Northern communities attended Veggie Adventures in Growing curriculum in-services either in 2006 or 2007, at which teachers were given teaching materials and grow-light systems to start bedding plants in the classrooms. This project was accomplished in partnership with NHFI, Frontier School Division and MARFI. There was excellent uptake on these in-services and most of the Bayline and Thompson schools used the materials upon return to their communities. For example, Mel Johnson School in Wabowden added 17 new Grade 4 gardens this year so with the Grade 5s they now have 31 student gardens in their community.

A large event for us was helping to put on the Northern Harvest Forum hosted by Manitoba Food Charter. We hosted it the first two years and this year assisted MFC to run the event. It attracted almost 100 participants and speakers from Northern Manitoba. We held a celebratory dinner with opening greetings from Mayor Tim Johnston of Thompson, the Deputy Premier and Minister of Agriculture Rosann Wowchuk, and our Thompson MLA, Minister Steve Ashton. Other dignitaries present were Deputy Minister Harvey Bostrom of Aboriginal and Northern Affairs, Larry Flynn of the Public Health Agency of Canada, Pat Lachance of the Rural Secretariat and Councillor Charlene Lafreniere of the City of Thompson. The Manitoba Food Charter Signing Ceremony witnessed the signing of the first City, First Nation, School District and Health Authority. Not only will their action steps improve food security in the north but their involvement with the Charter process is a role model to their sister agencies throughout Manitoba. Golden Carrot Awards were presented to individuals or agencies contributing to northern food security. The event was emceed by our advisor, Laurel Gardiner, who has been Northern Co-Chair of the Food Charter since its inception. BRRT is steadily working on our action steps that we committed to last year as the very first organizational signatory to the Manitoba Food Charter.

Bayline Regional Roundtable Board would also like to acknowledge the commitment and skill of the Animator Diana DeLaronde-Colombe who this year was the recipient of the Women's Creativity in Rural Life on behalf of the Women’s World Summit Foundation in Geneva and the Outstanding Community Leadership Award at Rural Forum 2007. Bayline Community Animator Assistant Valerie Parker, in addition to accomplishing many of the administrative tasks of BRRT, is an experienced gardener and poultry producer and is able to provide mentoring and technical advice to the communities. The leadership of these women provides the inspiration and encouragement for community action and success.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of our funders, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Manitoba Northern Healthy Food Initiative of Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs.

4 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary……………...………………………………………………………3

Table of Contents……………………………...…………………………………………5

1) Organizational Structure………………...………………………………………….7

2) Project Intents, Workplan and Timeline………………...……………………....…9

3) Project Reports a) Forums……………………………………………..………………………….…12 b) Partner Survey Results.……………………………..……………………………14 c) Website Development …………………………………………………………...15 d) Community Food Champions.…….……………………...………………...……16 e) Northern Horticulture: Garden and Greenhouses …………...…………………..17 f) Veggie Adventures Gardening Curriculum….…………………………………..21 g) Poultry Production………………………….……………………………………22 h) Northern Freezer Purchase Plan……………………….…………………………24 i) Manitoba Food Charter.………….………………………..……………..……....25

4) Community Support…………….………………………………………………….27

5) Outreach…………………………..…………………….………………………..…29

6) Partnerships ……………………………………..……………………….…………31

7) Public Health Agency of Canada Reporting Requirements………………..……34

8) Financial Report…………………..……………………………………………...…38

9) Recommendation Summary…………………..………………………..…………..39

10) Project Appendices………..………………………….…………………………….40 Appendix 1: Action on Recommendations of BRRT 2006-2007 Evaluation……41 Appendix 2: BRRT Logic Model Evaluation as of March 2008………………...43 Appendix 3: BRRT Freezer Project Forms………………………………………49 Appendix 4: Event Reports and Media Clippings..…………………………...…54

5 6 1. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Membership, Governance and Incorporation

The Bayline Regional Roundtable (BRRT) was formed in 2001 by the leaders of the six small Aboriginal communities that are located along the Hudson Bay Railway line in Northern Manitoba. Communities and populations comprising BRRT are Cormorant (300), Wabowden (527), Thicket Portage (160), Pikwitonei (111), Ilford (65) and War Lake First Nation (110 on- reserve). Bayline Regional Roundtable incorporated on February 1, 2005, as a non-profit community development organization. The Board of Directors of BRRT consists of two members (elected officials and/or community member appointed by Council) from each of the member communities. Mayor Reg Meade of Wabowden is President. BRRT is investigating becoming a Registered Canadian Charity.

BRRT Region and Mandate

The labor market profiles of these communities vary greatly from those accessible to major markets and employers to those remote from all economic activity. Thus, the joblessness rate varies from about 30% to 80% depending on the community and the season. The area is rich in natural resources: fish, wildlife, metals, agricultural potential, timber and other forest products. Turning natural resources into sustainable livelihoods requires knowledge/skills, investment funds and market access, which our communities currently need to develop. Our communities are challenged by the need to develop simultaneously workforces and the workplaces to employ them.

The mandate of BRRT, Inc. is to work collaboratively with Bayline communities in dealing with issues of common concern; to build capacity in the region where communities can take ownership of their destiny; to nurture community and regional pride; to carry out projects/programming; and to advance the initiatives of the corporation. The issues that BRRT communities have identified as priorities for action are: food security and welfare rates, access to health services, road/rail access issues, housing, employment and training, and economic development.

Staffing and Office Arrangements

The BRRT office is located within the Wabowden Council under an arrangement that is a combination of rent and in-kind contribution. We wish to acknowledge the community of Wabowden for this generous contribution to the work of BRRT.

The BRRT programs and staff are capably directed by the Community Animator, Diana DeLaronde-Colombe. The Animator reports directly to the Board and Executive of the BRRT. Reporting to the Animator are the Community Animator Assistant (Valerie Parker) and a part- time website manager. The website manager has recently resigned and we hope to contract this service from the Manitoba Food Charter in 2008-2009. It is important to note that it is extremely difficult to keep excellent staff with year-to-year project funding. Our salaries are lower than comparable public service positions and we do not offer benefit packages. Regular funding would assist us to attract, develop and retain effective staff.

7 Valerie Parker, the Community Animator Assistant, is an experienced gardener and poultry producer and is able to advise the community Food Champions and garden advisors. Bayline has been assisted over the last four years by a contracted advisor, Laurel Gardiner, who will be leaving BRRT next year. The staff is more than capable of continuing on the strategic planning, communications and promotions, which were her primary inputs.

Recommendation 1: Continue to seek core funding from Manitoba to coordinate community development services, and then seek project funding for ancillary purposes; Recommendation 2: BRRT follows through on its intent to become a Registered Charity.

AWARD FOR WOMEN''S CREATIVITY IN RURAL LIFE – DIANA DELARONDE COLOMBE

Reg Meade, (Mayor of Wabowden and President of the Northern Association of Community Councils and Bayline Regional Roundtable) and Pat Lachance of the Rural Secretariat were honoured to present Diana Delaronde-Colombe with the award for Women's Creativity in Rural Life on behalf of the Women’s World Summit Foundation in Geneva. This award is given to women who have made significant contribution for the betterment of their community or region, who have served as a catalyst for positive action, and who exhibit the highest standards of community leadership dedication and ability and innovation. Diana is the only woman from North America to win this prestigious award to date.

This is the citation which accompanies this award: Diana is an indigenous woman and a resident of the community of Wabowden (Manitoba). Married and with four children, she is active in all aspects of the community - from school, sports and recreation to spiritual life. Diana is a natural leader and nurturer, demonstrated repeatedly through her grass roots level work within northern communities. She has become a mentor and role model for many food security agencies, and willingly partners with them offering human, material, and financial resources to help them build capacities.

Diana also was the recipient of the Outstanding Community Leadership Award for the volunteer work that she does in and for the community of Wabowden. She was nominated for this award by Mayor Reg Mead and Principal Bonnie Monias and it was presented to her at the Rural Forum in Brandon, April 2007.

The Bayline Regional Roundtable Inc. thanks Diana for the dedicated leadership she provides to the Bayline Regional Roundtable organization and communities and congratulates her on these well deserved awards.

8 2. PROJECT INTENTS, WORKPLAN AND TIMELINE BRRT Board of Directors identified accessibility to food and food security as primary concerns within their communities. Communities were once more food self-sufficient than they are today. Families raised food and/or procured food from the forests and streams around them. Now, like everywhere else, families are heavily reliant on store-bought foods. Food availability is a key issue in the six communities because only one community has a food store; the convenience stores in the other communities do not carry nutritious foods. Rail-only access means three-day trips to town to get food, which adds cost of accommodation, transportation, and meals to the cost of the food itself. Families have lost the skills of gardening and preserving food. Much of our work plan is centred on increasing these capacities.

Objectives of Original Proposal of the BRRT Food Security Partnership Initiative

1. To build partnerships with stakeholders who work in and for the North and to share concerns around food security; 2. To create a forum to discuss issues of food security; 3. To share perspectives and come to understand what “food security” means to different stakeholders; 4. To determine the perspectives of partners on how food security relates to other community health issues such as diabetes, healthy child development, economic development, climate control, etc. 5. To prioritize issues we would deal with; 6. To define strategies for dealing with food insecurity; 7. To identify community activities that are ongoing or planned in relation to food security; 8. To identify economic opportunities arising out of food security; 9. To review existing information on food security at the local, provincial and international levels; 10. To collaborate with governments at local, provincial, and federal levels; 11. To educate community members and others that food security is not only food on the table; and 12. To empower communities to address the issues with their own solutions.

Each of these objectives is accomplished through multiple partners and stakeholders in an overall cooperative effort to achieve sustainable food security systems within all our regions. We gratefully acknowledge the support of our first funder, the Community Animation Program co- funded by Health Canada and Environment Canada, and our current funders, the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Manitoba Northern Healthy Food Initiative.

The following workplan has guided our work over the 2007-2008 year:

9 Bayline Regional Roundtable Northern Food Security Partnership Initiative Work plan April 1, 2007 – March 31, 2008 GOAL: is to build partnerships with specific stakeholders to examine and address issues related to food security in Northern Manitoba Objective Activities Output Short-term Long-term Outcomes Outcomes

1. To create linkages among 1.1 Partner’s surveys are completed and  Contacts listed on  People in  Partnerships will stakeholders and increase posted to the website. web communities will form and be awareness about food 1.2 Partners list updated by March 08  Revised list is have a resource to strengthened as security issues 1.3 To raise awareness of northern food printed and find out whom to the north security issues within partner distributed call for continues to organizations and throughout Manitoba.  Attend and present help/partnership in address its food 1.4 To continue to host the food security on northern food addressing their security issues. website for Manitoba. security at as many food security issues.  Partnerships will 1.5 To promote the Manitoba Food Charter in venues as possible.  Food security issues form & be Northern Manitoba continue to be strengthened 1.6 To role-model and promote our processes raised and between the to other northern communities. positioned for public north and exposure. rural/urban MB.  Northern Signatories for MB Food Charter.

10 2. To increase food self- 2.1 To promote new garden starts through  Garden & Food Self-  30 new garden  Re-establish sufficiency in partner school and community gardening Sufficiency plans starts in partner gardening and communities. programs. are completed & communities. food 2.2 To assist communities to complete submitted.  5 schools in partner preservation as gardening and food self-sufficiency plans.  In partnership with communities will a self-sustaining 2.3 To provide equipment and advisory FSD encourage & teach the gardening practice in supports to communities, within limits of provide resources curriculum. partner existing resources or new funding for schools  2 workshops on communities. received. interested in canning freezing 2.4 Partner with schools to encourage use of gardening and food gardening curriculum using Wabowden ’06 curriculum in ‘08. preservation. as example.  Provide resources  1 family tries 2.5 Work with MAFRI to produce and deliver and advice for new chickens training on food preservation & processing. garden starts in ’07.  Promote poultry for meat production.

3. To improve food access and 3.1 To complete local food price inventories  Complete food price  Good food box  Bayline storage capability of partner with special focus on reliable availability inventories in program provides communities communities. of nutritious food. Member groceries in with no food 3.2 To develop a “good food box” pilot communities. communities at stores now have program with local supplier for  Stakeholder consult- reduced cost. regular access communities with no store on Bayline ations and proposal to nutritious rail. for good food box foods without pilot program. expensive time-  Begin good food consuming box pilot if desired  At least 10 freezers shopping trips. by communities. will be placed in 3.3 To expand the freezer program piloted in  Stakeholder consult- Bayline Oxford House to Bayline communities. ations and proposal communities with for freezer purchase first option to good program for partner food box program communities. participants.

11 4. To evaluate our process and 4.1 Develop goals, objectives, activities,  Evaluation  Evaluation  Improve our progress, with a focus outputs and outcome indicators with framework acknowledges both services by toward increasing Board and Food Champions. successes and building on organizational 4.2 Pursue core funding or A-Base agreement weaknesses. strengths and sustainability. with MB government learning from 4.3 Pursue Charitable Status.  Attain charitable weaknesses. 4.4 Pursue 100% GST rebate. status & 100%  Organizational Rebate Status sustainability.

12 3. PROJECT REPORTS

FORUMS

The Northern Harvest Forum was our largest event of the year. Bayline hosted this for the last three years. This year it was hosted by the Manitoba Food Charter with assistance from Bayline and the other regional projects. We are reporting it here because BRRT invested considerable time, energy and finances in assisting the Food Charter to put on the event.

Forum Northern Harvest Forum (Full Conference Report is available on www.manitobafoodsecurity.ca ) Location Thompson, MB Date October 16 & 17, 2007 Participants 94 Communities Brochet Pikwitonei, Represented Berens River Red Sucker Lake Cormorant St Theresa Point Garden Hill Sherridon God’s River The Pas Ilford Thicket Portage Leaf Rapids Thompson Lynn Lake Wabowden Mafeking War Lake Nelson House Wasagamack Oxford House Winnipeg Pelican Rapids

Agencies Bayline Regional Roundtable Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Represented Burntwood Regional Health Authority Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural City of Thompson, Initiatives First Nations and Inuit Health Nickel Belt News Fort Whyte Nature Centre Northern Association of Community Councils Four Arrows Health Authority North West Fish Co-op Frontier School Division Public Health Agency of Canada Frontiers Foundation Rijotte Productions (for APTN) Island Lake Television stations Rural Secretariat Mel Johnson School, Thompson Zoo

Format/ There were two days of workshops covering: The evening of the October 16th was the Agenda  How to Get My Community Involved: Northern Harvest Banquet consisting of: Motivating And Mobilizing  A sumptuous feast of northern food  Chicken Production  Greetings from dignitaries: Mayor of  Beekeeping Thompson, Minister of Agriculture,  Food Processing Deputy Minister of Northern Affairs,  Traditional Foods Public Health Agency of Canada, Rural  Community Gardening and Greenhouses Secretariat, Minister of Intergovernmental  Making a Food Project Plan with My Affairs. Community: Strategic Planning  Awards and presentations  The Northern Freezer Purchase Plan  Food Charter signings  Northwest Co-Operative Fisheries  Mel Johnson School fiddlers

13 Effectiveness and Recommendations:

The Northern Harvest Forum done in partnership with the Manitoba Food Charter was successful at raising awareness of government, media and the general public. The workshops were interesting and well attended. However the hall could not accommodate two workshops at the same time. People could not hear the speakers because it was too noisy. Also the hall was quite a far distance from Thompson Zoo where the gardening and wild food preparation workshops were. Thompson is central and therefore more cost effective to get to but has a serious lack of suitable venues for conferences. There were also some discrepancies in what travel subsidies were given by the different sponsoring groups that seemed unfair to some of the participants. Also as this was the first year that BRRT didn’t host the event, one of the objectives that we usually achieved in the Fall Forum we didn’t get to: our Food Champ supper and strategic planning session.

Recommendation 3: Try to find a location with larger hall or one with breakout rooms.

Recommendation 4: Add a half-day or a supper/evening meeting on to the Northern Harvest Forum to meet with our Food Champions and Ag Techs to discuss the successes, lessons learned and plan for the following year.

14 PARTNER SURVEY RESULTS

Partner Surveys were distributed to organizations that contribute to Northern Food Security work. Partners were asked to describe:  Mandate of Organization, Relation of Mandate to Food Security;  Primary Areas of Interest/Activity Related to Food Security;  What political jurisdictions do you work with/what jurisdictional barriers do you face?  Services Available from your Organization in Relation to Food Security;  Projects your organization contributed to in the past that impacted or were related to Food Security Projects;  Resources produced by or available from your organization in relation to food security;  Plans for future activity in relation to food security.

Partner Surveys have been completed on: 1. Amisk Centre, Leaf Rapids 2. Babies Best Start, Thompson 3. Bowden Lake Greenhouse, Wabowden 4. Burntwood Food Security Committee 5. Cormorant Community Council 6. Heifer International 7. Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives 8. Manitoba Food Charter 9. Mel Johnson School, Wabowden 10. Northern Association of Community Councils 11. Northern Healthy Food Initiative, Aboriginal and Northern Affairs 12. Upstream Connected, Thompson 13. Vicki Fleming 14. Aboriginal Head Start, Wabowden 15. North West Co-operative Fisheries Ltd, Leaf Rapids 16. The NorthWest Company (Northern Stores) 17. Norman Regional Health Authority 19. North Central Development 20. New Beginnings, Wabowden 21. Brandon Social Planning Council 22. O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation 23. Manitoba Hydro 24. Public Health Agency of Canada 25. Burntwood Regional Health Authority

Effectiveness and Recommendations:

This project is slowly getting there. We did not anticipate the time and energy it would take to have agencies complete these. Repeated phoning, faxing, and e-mailings resulted in so few completions. We have found that the most effective way of getting it done is to telephone survey a key contact person of the agency and input the information ourselves. The Partners we work with are itemized in Part 6 of this report. We are not sure if the outcome is worth the effort, when there is so much else to do.

Recommendation 5: Work in partnership with the Northern Liaison person of the Manitoba Food Charter to August 2008. Compile and print for distribution at the Northern Harvest Forum October 2008. If future partners choose to send in surveys, we will post them to the website only.

15 WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

Bayline Regional Roundtable received funding through Public Health Agency of Canada to host a website for Manitoba Food Security. We contracted the services of CIMnet for training and Website development assistance. (This is the same non-profit organization that hosts the Bayline and Aboriginal and Northern Affairs community websites.) We received comments that the Website looked “amateurish” so BRRT and Manitoba Food Charter staff took more training and worked with CIMNET to improve its look.

Home The Manitoba Food Charter Rural Region Urban Region Northern Region Login

About Us

What’s Happening The Bayline Regional Roundtable Inc. is hosting the

Calendar of Events Manitoba Food Security Network website by providing a central location for accessing information on food BRRT security. It is our intention to capture all the initiatives Four Arrows that are happening in Manitoba and share best practices NACC-NHFI and lessons learned from here and elsewhere. If you Rototillers would like to add your initiative please contact us. We Freezer Purchase would be happy to share your story......

Links and Resources

Contact Us

This is a busy site. Both BRRT and the Manitoba Food Charter generate a considerable degree of public interest as our work is becoming better known. The BRRT portion of this site briefly describes most of our programs, but not all content is current. We had a change of webmaster this year and it was not updated as regularly as it should have been.

Recommendation 6: Staff need to send the Web-master new information to put on the site, we could and should be using the site for minutes, project reports, PowerPoint presentations etc.

Recommendation 7: BRRT continue to hosting the website, but transition its maintenance and hosting to the Manitoba Food Charter who can more easily be in touch with Urban and Rural happenings and can more closely work with CIMnet as the service provider.

16 COMMUNITY FOOD CHAMPIONS

Each community appointed a volunteer “food champion” to be the local contact person for us and to organize the project activities within the community. These volunteers have been valuable to us in moving the project forward. Time to commit to the necessary project work is a problem for some, who have otherwise heavy workloads.

At our May Strategic Planning workshop we decided that we would take our Ag tech money and pay community experienced gardeners to mentor new gardeners in the community. We learned that not very community had a gardener with that much experience; some weren’t as experienced as they thought, and for others it worked great. In general the idea is supported and in October people felt they wanted to stick with this plan, and improve on it. It would be an ideal job for an avid gardener retiree who wants to “pass on the gift” to a new group of growers and a new generation.

We would like to thank the following people who assisted in making the program a success:

Bayline Food Champions/Ag Advisors: Colleen Wright, Cormorant Donald Pronteau, Sr, Thicket Portage Francis Hall, Wabowden John Halcrow, Pikwitonei Raymond Beardy, War Lake/Ilford Miriam Okemow, Manto Sipi Robert Weenusk, (Bunibonibee) Oxford House Bella Leonard, Nelson House

Recommendation 8: Continue to support the food champions through twice yearly development/capacity building workshops.

17 GARDEN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

The garden projects were reasonably successful in 2007. Community members were already equipped and motivated from the previous year. Most families got their gardens started in time. We had early hot weather then it was cool and rainy for a long time, with early killing frosts. This clearly points to a need to extend the season through some type of greenhouse system. Education on composting and fertilizer applications would address decreasing soil fertility in established multi-year gardens. Please see the table on pages 20 & 21 for our accomplishments and the plans (thus far) for next summer. In addition to our work with the BRRT communities and Oxford House, this year we also assisted Nelson House with establishing two household and two community garden plots. ←This photo shows the oldest gardener in the Bayline, Granny Florence, at age 90. It also illustrates an important lesson. We just have to engage experienced gardeners, offer them some supports and let them teach. That is what we did with our Ag Tech resources again this year.

GREENHOUSE INTRODUCTION

Through a Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Initiatives program called Covering New Ground (CNG), we received funding to introduce greenhouses into selected BRRT communities. The grant received for the fiscal year 2007/2008 was $20, 947.50 With this and some of our technical equipment funding we purchased and shipped greenhouses for use in the 2008 growing season. Oxford House’s Food Champ, Robert Weenusk picked up the greenhouse and their ag equipment and drove it over winter road. VIA will provide the freight for Pikwitonei and Thicket Portage. We are experimenting with three different greenhouse styles from the more costly heated and highly insulated ones down to inexpensive portable shelters. In several communities the greenhouses are located beside the school for easy access for the children participating in the gardening curriculum. The greenhouse activities proposed in this project will be a collaborative initiative involving the community school program, the student body and community members in germination and growth and plant development under greenhouse and garden production systems to produce garden vegetables for family consumption. Communities received greenhouses as in the chart on the following page.

Old Mel Johnson School Greenhouse, Wabowden Interior of New Mel Johnson School Greenhouse

18 BRRT Greenhouse Projects Community Greenhouse(s) Supplied Location Cormorant Not this year Ilford/War Lake Not this year Oxford House Solexx 8’ X 16’ X 8’9” Beside School Pikwitonei Essex 8’ X 16’ X 7’5” Beside School Thicket Portage Essex 8’ X 24’ X 7’5” Beside School Wabowden Replaced 24’ X 50’ X 12’ Beside School

MAFRI Seed Stands

Bayline Regional Round Table, Northern Association of Community Councils and Four Arrows Regional Healthy Authority have been making seeds and bedding plants available to northern & remote communities for the last two years. This will continue for the upcoming season. We know too, that there are people who want to purchase their own seeds, they want to start their own bedding plants or want to plant another row of vegetables mid-summer; however they are unable to get supplies locally.

To give our Northern residents the option of purchasing seeds in their own communities, MAFRI and ANA developed and distributed seed stands for Northern Healthy Foods Initiative communities.

The stand is set up with 10 of the most common vegetable seeds. MAFRI will send out seed potatoes and onion sets closer to the gardening season. It is the responsibility of the three regional partners (BRRT, NACC and 4AHA) to restock the stand as needed.

Effectiveness & Recommendations:

We arranged for seed packets and bedding plants for each of the gardens planned for Summer 2007. Garden packages consisted of carrot, lettuce, pea, bean, turnip and beet seeds, seed potatoes, onion sets, and bedding plants for cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers, petunias and marigolds. (Flowers attract bees, which pollinate the garden, improving yields and are also good for mental health!)

Recommendation 9: Continue to promote the gardens, while beginning to focus introducing greenhouses and strategies like composting and crop rotation to increase soil fertility.

Recommendation 10: Continue with the local mentor as Ag tech, making sure to include them in training workshops and send them gardening resources we receive from MAFRI.

19 BRRT Community Food Self-Sufficiency: Gardens Community/ Successes Challenges and Completed in 2007 Planned for 2008 Tech Support Equipment Food Champ Questions Raised Regular CG* Raised Regular CG* Provided Provided Cormorant Grew garden in No money to rent Ag advisor To each Colleen Wright camp, rototiller, existing 3 3 packages community: Grandchildren soil is poor for  Potatoes thrilled growing, needs  Seeds Packs testing then  Bedding Plants adjusting its (Vegetables & composition to Marigolds) improve yields.  Fertilizer Don’t have truck to  Lumber for haul the dirt. raised beds Ilford/War Lake First Time gardens, Local &  Growlights Raymond Good Experience 11 5 1 Regional  Peatmoss and Beardy needed for starter mix soil next year.  Belts for Tillers Nelson House* Vegetables were Was on a hill and  Get Growing Bella Leonard big, Potatoes grew poor access, next 2 2 and well. year it will be in a  Northern different spot. Gardening Oxford House* One family began They had fewer Good tech Manuals Robert Weenusk composting this gardens this year. support from  Round-Up year. Most of the MAFRI (3 Experimented with gardeners are the visits, phone  Weed Barriers manure and elderly and some 32 help)  Rototillers chemical fertilizer have become too ANA &  Garden Tools this year. frail to garden and MAFRI visited their children don’t community. want to. Tried oats, planted too late and too close together. Didn’t mature in time.

20 Pikwitonei All vegetables Wasn’t warm, 1 Needed for 2008: John Halcrow tasted good. Got off to a late Community  Raspberries and Grew potatoes, start. 4 1 strawberries cabbage, carrots 1 cucumbers School Thicket Portage Vegetables were Trouble with roto- Donald Pronteau small but tasty. tiller, very poor growing 5 1 1 conditions. Wabowden Grade 4 Science Quad wasn’t that Very Frances Hall Curriculum taught easy to operate. 6 experienced ag Led to 14 gardens But worked well to Family 12 0 14 tech. Families 17 gardens break ground. New Beginnings 31 involved learned Student canning. Oldest gardener: 90

21 VEGGIE ADVENTURES GARDENING CURRICULUM

A three-way partnership between Frontier School Division, Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives (MAFRI) and the Northern Healthy Food Initiative (NHFI) of Aboriginal and Northern Affairs (ANA) produced Veggie Adventures, a gardening curriculum based on provincial science and health objectives. Bayline sponsored participants from Cormorant and Oxford House to attend the second Veggie Adventure teacher in-service (this year held in Leaf Rapids). Each school took home a kit of resources containing grow lights, videos, worksheets and activity guidelines that were very user-friendly. Developers and funders were encouraged that almost all the participating schools got growing!

Partnerships continued once the curriculum reached the community level. For example at the Mel Johnson School in Wabowden the gardening curriculum is introduced in Grade 4. Each student is involved in starting bedding plant seedlings then growing their own garden. The plan is for each child to then continue to plant their garden each year, thereby increasing the number of student/household gardens in the community. Either the Grade 4 teacher, Ms. Woitowicz or Bonnie Monias, the school principal, visited the children and their gardens weekly all summer. This year there were 14 Grade 4 and 17 Grade 5 student gardens. The challenges they faced were garden raiders such as: bears, rabbits, dogs, slugs and friends, as well as flooding and frost. Here is one child’s report:

22 My Garden First we planted a little seed and then we watered it. We put it under a light when it started growing. Before we planted them we used planting food so they wouldn’t get hungry. We gave them to Ken Milne to watch for a while. Then it was big, Ms. Woitowicz came to each of our houses. We put our plants in our gardens. Every second day we watered our garden unless it’s raining. Planting was pretty COOL!!! On sunny days I water my garden because the sun will make my plants dry and thirsty. I was surprised when I saw my first pumpkin and I had yummy cauliflower and a lot of tomatoes. I loved the peas. When the garden is done growing, I will go shopping there at my garden. And make salsa and other recipes. But once the frost comes, we got to pull all of the plants out, except the carrots and underground plants. I felt proud when I was done. I felt like a famous gardener. It’s a little hard work but I’m been there done that. It was funny and yummy. Now I have gardening skills. I’m happy that Mrs. Woitowicz taught me how to garden. When I’m a teenager or an adult I will be good at gardening.

Thompson Zoo also got involved with this process. They have raised bed gardens for all six Thompson elementary schools at the zoo. They also introduced verma-composting in Thompson and Norway House schools this winter. Red wrigglers have invaded the north!

Effectiveness and Recommendations: This program was enjoyable for the students and user-friendly for the teachers. Committed adult supervision and mentoring of the young gardeners is the key to success.

23 Recommendation 11: Continue to support attendance of teachers at the Veggie Adventures in-service. Recommendation 12: Be prepared to offer from our Ag equipment and Ag tech funding some resources to support this important initiative, and encourage our local community food champions to promote it. Recommendation 13: If possible place one of the greenhouses in each community on school property. POULTRY PRODUCTION

In 2006 Oxford House successfully raised of 58 out of 60 chickens at an average weight of 3.56 kg, exceeding the industry standard. For $260 plus their effort, approximately $1550 (local store cost) of chicken was produced. Myles Hodge (Ag Rep from Teulon) and Carlyle Bennett (Poultry Consultant for U of M/MAFRI) advised on the project. Based on the successful pilot project in Oxford House in 2006, Bayline increased the poultry production to 360 birds in four communities. The project is summarized in a table on the following page.

Effectiveness and Recommendations: Challenges to the project were getting the chicks into the communities quickly. The last day of chick availability for small flocks is June 8th. We needed to get equipment in to the communities and help them set up their chicken house and yard area. We were grateful to the zoo for housing the chicks for us for up to a week for some of them to get in to the communities. Early stressors which may have impacted their survival were the zoo building being a little cool and some chicks had fallen into a water tray and become chilled earlier. (We learned that being chilled can cause heart attacks at about 6 weeks of age.) Prior to the Oxford House chicks going on the plane, they visited Wapanohk and Riverside Schools in Thompson and were handled quite gently by the students. Dogs and owls were responsible for the loss of 22 birds.

Sally Bradburn in Oxford House wanted to try raising laying hens as well as broilers this year, (the black ones opposite) so she got 30 of each. These “Cree speaking hens” are all alive and happily laying 2-3 dozen eggs a day. The Deputy Ministers from ANA and MAFRI toured Oxford House and saw Sally’s chickens and her freezer from the freezer project. (See page 25)

We found that the hardest and most time consuming part of the slaughter/processing procedure was the plucking, so we purchased two pluckers with our Ag equipment funds from NHFI. This speeded up the process considerably.

Valerie Parker produced a draft manual and PowerPoint which details all the steps involved in raising and processing chickens. All in all we are quite proud of our first year as poultry producers. It is a steep learning curve and it will only continue to get better. (Right: A chicken raised by Lena Johnson in Thicket Portage beside a store-bought chicken.)

Recommendation 14: Promote poultry production with a more thorough orientation for families before they get their chicks so they understand what is required to feed, house, and protect them.

24 Recommendation 15: Investigate local food sources (what wild grasses or seeds could the chickens eat?) or experiment with growing grain for feed in the northern communities, Otherwise laying hens are not cost effective or sustainable.

25 BRRT Community Food Self-Sufficiency: Poultry Production Community/ Successes Challenges and In 2007 Requested Tech Support Equipment Other Notes Producer Questions Received Finished For 2008 Provided Provided Wabowden Great tasting chickens Trouble with dogs, owls Advised to Feed and water Val drafted a 2 producers Family & friends and unsupervised 58 48 tuck fencing a trays, Chicken Manual to learning the skills of children. Wabowden few inches Heat lamp guide the families. slaughtering. Didn’t notify when they 56 44 90 under the Fencing gave mother 10 in ground. Chick Starter Cormorant Developer Chicks Oxford House 3½ to 4 dozen Difficult & expensive to 30 24 Broilers Pluckers Deputy Ministers Sally & Harold eggs/day get food in to the Broilers Broilers 30 Myles Hodge Scalder of Agriculture and Bradburn She speaks to the community. Turkeys from MAFRI Killing cone Northern Affairs chickens in Cree and Took 6 months to get the 30 30 3 visited visited Bradburns has named many of first egg. Layers Layers community and saw the laying them! On going twice. hens, oat “field” Anatomy lesson with food for and freezer. the youth on Laying hens slaughter day. Cormorant Shelter wasn’t ready for We advised For Next Year: Two Grade 10 Youth were interested the chicks and producer 60 46 Cormorant the girls over Need: youth and sought us out. didn’t know what to 30 the phone,  Heavier fence expect. Wasn’t caring for how to care for  Adequate care Another producer them, community wasn’t the sick chicks for chicks able to find a new home inside the enroute to for the chicks. 58 0 house. families Thicket Portage BIG chickens, Mosquitoes Thicket Advised re  Source of straw, Children, neighbours, Feather Loss & Skin sores Portage smudges and dry hay, or 1 producer and friends learning Unable to find someone to 57 45 60 Vapona strips. sawdust. and teaching where care for the chickens  Grain for the food comes from when they wanted to go last two weeks. away.  Diary & film Ilford /War Lake Cancelled due to work 60 travel conflicts Nelson House Cancelled due to illness in family 30

26 NORTHERN FREEZER PURCHASE PLAN

Food in the north is expensive. Many families do not have chest freezers or the resources to buy one. The freezer compartment on the top of the family fridge does not allow for any major storage of food. Families could save money if they could freeze meat, fruit and vegetables which could be locally grown, hunted or gathered. It would also allow families to buy in bulk when they can take advantage of sales or trips to major centres. In 2002-2003 a study on Northern food prices was completed by Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs and Dept. of Agriculture and Food as mandated by the Healthy Child Committee of Cabinet. Every strategic option that was put forth to increase northern food production and self-sufficiency depends on the families’ ability to store food. A freezer purchase program recommended to address this issue (Northern Food Prices Report (2003) p 20, 21, 91, 92).

In 2006, BRRT assisted Oxford House to receive funding from Northern Healthy Food Initiative for researching and administering the project. A Freezer Purchase Plan Committee, consisting of the Finance Manager, Welfare Administrator, and Food Champion designed the repayment process, application and evaluation forms. 22 freezers were placed with 100% payback within a year. On the strength of this successful pilot, BRRT formed a Freezer committee of two BRRT and one Oxford House food champions to arrange the details. We purchased and placed 14 freezers, with family payback plan arranged through a Harvey Bostrom Sally Bradburn Barry Todd pre-authorized withdrawal plan at our Deputy Minister (ANA), Oxford House, Deputy Minister, MAFRI bank. Payments are coming in steadily. With moosemeat, with one of her chickens with pickerel fillets. VIA provided free transportation on the rail. We will be purchasing more freezers as these are repaid. (See Appendix 3 for forms for the BRRT Freezer Project)

We participated in meetings with MARFRI and ANA regarding the freezers and assisted KTC to draft a proposal for 62 freezers for the four diesel generator communities. In total 140 freezers went in to the north this winter road season. We are still trying to work with Family Services and Housing to have freezers identified as an essential appliance for northern families. This has not progressed as yet.

Recommendation 16: Continue the Freezer Purchase Plan in BRRT communities until all homes who want a freezer have one, administering the funds on a revolving loan basis. Recommendation 17: BRRT negotiate with Family Services and Housing for freezers to be an essential appliance for SA recipients and Low Rental housing units.

27 MANITOBA FOOD CHARTER

Bayline Regional Roundtable was a part of the Local Organizing Committee for the 2 nd National Food Security Conference held in Winnipeg in October 2004. At the end of the conference this committee had some money and energy left to try to do something to maintain the momentum toward increasing food security in Manitoba. After much deliberation they decided to develop a Manitoba Food Charter. 71 consultations were held across the province, (BRRT assisted or facilitated 8 of these). Data was collated and summarized and the draft Manitoba Food Charter was revealed on April 28, 2006 at Rural Forum in Brandon, exactly one year after BRRT held the first public consultation there. Aboriginal people, academics, fishers, high school students, farmers, politicians, local food retailers, community health workers, consumers, university students, food action agencies, and seniors from urban, rural and northern Manitoba participated in these consultations. The Manitoba Food Charter links government, food producers and harvesters, processors and retailers, advocates, and northern, rural, and urban consumers in effective cross-sectoral and cross-jurisdictional partnerships toward food security.

BRRT assisted the Food Charter Project by hosting their information on the Manitoba Food Security website, and by mentoring them in organizational development until they were incorporated and more firmly established. Our BRRT Advisor, Laurel Gardiner, is the Northern Co-Chair of the Manitoba Food Charter Board. BRRT is pleased to play a role in this major Manitoba initiative, making sure that Northern Food issues were represented in the consultations and reflected in Charter document. ← Manitoba Food Charter is launched, April 2006 at Rural Forum, Bayline’s’ Animator Diana Delaronde-Colombe and Laurel Gardiner participated.

This year Bayline assisted the Manitoba Food Charter in hosting the Northern Harvest Forum which included more northern charter signings. Frontier School Division, The City of Thompson, Sherridon Community Council, the Town of Leaf Rapids, Burntwood Regional Health Authority, and Bunibonibee Cree Nation signed the charter this year. Their action steps can be viewed in the Conference report.

Bayline Regional Roundtable was the first agency to sign the Charter. Our Action Steps are: 1. Promote gardening and livestock production to increase local food self-sufficiency; 2. Promote a program for making home freezers available to families at reasonable cost to increase families ability to store larger quantities of wild, home-grown or bulk purchased food; 3. Promote a program for bringing nutritious food boxes to families in communities with no food stores; 4. Work with local stores and communities to help stores to be more competitive in their pricing and carry more nutritious foods, while also encouraging consumers to buy local; 5. Encourage all Bayline community schools to use the Gardening Curriculum and to comply with Frontier School Divisions Healthy School Nutrition policy; 6. Work with young moms in the New Beginnings and Canadian Prenatal Nutrition Program, teaching how to prepare healthy economical meals and snacks for their families; and

28 7. Raise concerns regarding northern food insecurity issues with the appropriate officials toward improving food security in the North.

BRRT has always made use of the recommendations from the Northern Food Prices Report (2003) as a guide to our practice. Now we have a second great document to refer to. While the Manitoba Food Charter provides a common focus for discussion and action which helps us to address northern food security issues, it also pulls us into the broader food security scene and helps us to explore and understand how our issues relate to the plight of rural farmers and hunger in the inner city and globally. It also helps us to dialogue with multi-sector stakeholders, encouraging them to “claim their piece,” thereby building stronger partners for Bayline and Manitoba food security.

The relationship between BRRT and the Manitoba Food Charter Inc. is an interesting one. We had a fairly major role in creating both the Manitoba Food Charter document and organization and now we are able to use it as a focus for action and common vision with our northern partners. There is an interesting circle, we helped build the Charter and it is now helping to build us.

Concerning progress on our action steps: we are doing quite well on all but 3 and 4. Only one of the BRRT communities has a food store; for the others just getting to the food is a time-consuming and expensive process (three days trip on the train, overnight accommodations and meals in addition to the actual groceries and their freight charges.)

Recommendation 18: That BRRT promote the Charter with our northern partners by encouraging them to think about what they can do to increase northern food security, and encouraging them to contact the Charter office for discussion about signing.

Recommendation 19: That BRRT pursue make a concerted effort to address our Food Charter Action Steps 3 and 4 in our 2008-2009 Workplan. This area has been discussed among staff as an area for increased activity next year. It is recommended that the convenience store owners be sought out for advice on how to best work with them so they can carry an assortment of nutritious staple foods in their stores. We may use freezer project to place freezers in their establishments for holding bread, meat and vegetables.

29 4. COMMUNITY SUPPORTS March 17 and 18, 2005 was really the kick off of BRRT’s gardening and food self-sufficiency initiative. Five members from each of the BRRT communities were invited to a Forum and strategic planning session in Thompson. Since this time we have had two meetings each year with BRRT board members and food champions for skill-builder workshops and strategic planning. At these meetings each of the communities had the opportunity to list their key food security issues and develop a community plan toward their identified issues. They also identify what help they will need from Bayline and our partners, Northern Healthy Food Initiative, Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Initiatives and Heifer International.

a) Cormorant: Cormorant was the market garden for much of the north in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They supplied fresh vegetables by river barge to other communities. There are about eight families that still have gardens there. The mayor and their Food Champion are active and supportive of BRRT’s project. Because Cormorant is accessible for the MAFRI rep at The Pas, it was decided that she would provide tech services to Cormorant. The Bayline Animator and Assistant visited the community three times last summer. The first visit was a community meeting on gardening. The second visit was to deliver the chicks to the families who would be raising them and meet with the garden advisor to go over the programs and see the gardens. The third visit was to slaughter the chickens and show a couple from Nelson House what a chicken operation was like. They exceeded their plan, and completed 3 new raised bed and 3 family gardens.

b) Ilford /War Lake: This community has little recent agriculture experience, although historically they had a few. Tech support was needed for this community, as there is no one here who can mentor neighbours. The person who was hired as the garden advisor had no gardening experience, but he was a willing learner and eager to help others. BRRT provided phone support on a regular basis. This summer they developed five raised bed and five regular gardens.

c) Pikwitonei: Established four more family gardens and a garden beside the school, in addition to the one large community garden they prepared last year. The school children were taught how to make potato and carrot soup with their local produce. The school principal is very interested in promoting gardening and we hope that the community will reach their goal of six new garden starts this coming summer.

d) Wabowden: The Food Champion is an experienced local gardener. New garden starts are 6 raised bed gardens for community members and 17 for the Grade 4 gardens. There are 12 family gardens and 14 Grade 5. The school greenhouse was damaged beyond repair so we had to rebuild it from the ground up. Our intention for next year is to buy all our bedding plants from the local greenhouses. Their plan for this coming summer is 14 more Grade 4 raised-bed gardens, and 11 family gardens. BRRT has also begun dialogue with the local storeowner in Wabowden toward being a food box supplier to Bayline communities that have no food stores. We haven’t moved this plan much past the initial discussion stages…maybe this year, when the work’s all done this fall! The quadivator was used for spring and fall tilling and will be used to break ground for the raspberry and strawberry patch.

e) Thicket Portage: We sent them garden manuals and weed barriers. The community started one new garden in addition to the four they started last year. They didn’t plant in the large community

30 garden. The local Ag Tech realized he needed some extra help so and experienced gardener from Wabowden went in to give a hand.

f) Manto Sipi First Nation (God’s River): BRRT assisted Manto Sipi to partner with Heifer International, a great deal of time and resources went in to their project, with heritage seeds, site visits, school visits and community workshops. We stay in touch and their food champion is invited to all our events.

g) Bunibonibee Cree Nation (Oxford House) Oxford House has more recent experience with agriculture than any other remote First Nation. We hope to help Oxford House generate success stories and northern Ag processes that can be replicable best practices in other northern communities. Oxford House’s poultry and freezer pilot projects of 2006 were replicated by Bayline in 2007. We highlighted the chicken project and this year four more families from Thicket, Wabowden and Cormorant signed up. We highlighted their freezer project and this year Bayline ran it in three of our communities. BRRT acknowledged the hard work of their Food Champion, Community Health Representative, Robert Weenusk, and the poultry producers, Sally and Harold Bradburn. In September, BRRT advisor met a delegation of senior bureaucrats from ANA and MAFRI in Oxford House for a community tour of the gardens, freezer and poultry programs. Oxford House is working with MAFRI’s Ag representative on increasing soil fertility, developing cold storage systems for potatoes and producing local feed for the chickens. Another concern for Oxford House is the age of the gardeners (primarily the elders). This year there were fewer gardens than before, the reason being the deaths or increased frailty of some of the gardeners. Bunibonibee Cree Nation became the first First Nation in Canada to sign a food charter. There is now one in BC that has also developed a food charter and Oxford House shared their action steps with them.

h) Thompson: BRRT is a member of the Burntwood Food Security Committee. As such we have presented at or assisted with a number of events. In September, BRRT had a booth highlighting northern produce at Thompson’s Health and Leisure Mart. At leisure mart we had a sign up list for the rototiller and also a request sheet for information on recipes, northern garden manuals and other information on soil sampling, sources of wild food, etc. Valerie, Laurel and Erin from the Food Charter responded to these requests. We also had poster displays at the Chronic Disease Prevention Initiative forum. BRRT also helped staff a booth on World Food Day at City Centre Mall in Thompson. BRRT stores their “spare” rototiller in Thompson, so it can be easily put on the train if one in the communities breaks down. While it is here it can be signed out by any individual in Thompson with the same kind of loan agreement as the Bayline communities. Our advisor, as Northern Co-Chair of the Manitoba Food Charter, made presentations to Burntwood Regional Health Authority, the City of Thompson and Frontier School Division’s Area 1 Annual meeting.

i) Nelson House: Our Animator Assistant Valerie Parker visited Nelson House and provided ag tech support and supplies (raised beds, seeds and seed potatoes). We also brought in print resources about northern gardening and chicken raising. With our help they were able to start one family garden and one community garden. There were some problems with the site they selected in that it was on the side of a hill. Next year they will change to a different location. We brought a family from Nelson House that was interested in chickens and gardens with us to Cormorant to see their chicken operation and gardens. They are planning for chickens and more gardens next year. We invited and covered the costs for Nelson House members to attend one of our meetings and the Northern Harvest Forum. 5. OUTREACH

31 It is a goal of BRRT’s Northern Food Security Partnership Initiative to “create linkages among stakeholders and increase awareness about food security issues, especially in or relating to Northern Manitoba. The table below briefly lists the events we have attended outside the Bayline and Oxford House borders and our contribution at those events.

Date Event BRRT’s Contribution April 23, 2007 Thompson City Council, Regular BRRT Advisor was invited to give presentation meeting, on Manitoba Food Charter as several councillors had expressed interest in signing. April 25, 2007 Second Veggie Adventures in Sponsored participants from Cormorant and Growing In-service, Leaf Rapids, Oxford House. Now each of our member and MB partner communities have attended this Partnership between Frontier workshops. School Division, Manitoba Agriculture and Northern Healthy Food Initiative April 25, 2007 VIA Rail Meeting, Ricky Pronteau Discussing late trains impact on medical attended schedules, freight rates etc. April 27-29, Rural Forum Diana gets Capturing Opportunities 2007 Award honouring rural Manitobans who show hard work, dedication and leadership necessary to make their communities and regions a better place to live. May 3 & 4, Access to Health Care Meetings Rural Development Institute presented their 2007 with Rural Development Institute research findings and discussed issues related and BRRT communities to health services delivery in Bayline communities, made plan for approach to BRHA May 25, 2007 Access to Health Care Meetings Working on Action plan related to above with BRHA and BRRT communities research. May 18, 2007 Recreation and Community Advisor met with four members of Council to Services Committee of Thompson discuss the City’s action steps for fall Food City Council Charter signing. May 29- Community Collaboration Project Rita Ducharme, Chief Betsy Kennedy, and 31,2007 Annual Meeting & evaluation in Diana Delaronde-Colombe attended. Haines Junction YT June 9, 2007 Burntwood Health Authority Diana shared information on the Access to District Health Advisory Committee Health Care research project and activities/initiatives of BRRT June 12-14, International Union of Health BRRT Advisor does presentation on “Charting 2007 Promotion and Education, Our Course” about how the Manitoba Food Vancouver, BC Charter is used in the day to day work of BRRT. Powerpoint available. Aug 21-23, Annual General Meeting, Northern BRRT had booth, poster display and handouts. 2007 Association of Community We also helped with conference registration, Councils, Wpg. and other services. Sept 4, 2007 Ministerial visit to Oxford House BRRT advisor met with government reps and and Garden Hill communities. made a presentation to them in Oxford House

32 Sept 7 & 8, Thompson Health & Leisure Mart, BRRT’s booth featured a poster display, fresh 2007 Thompson northern produce and canning, a rototiller sign-up sheet, list of questions and request for services, copies of Manitoba Food Charter and a door prize. We sold home-made jams and relish and home-made bread and bannock. Many people stopped by; much opportunity for dialogue. Sept 13, 2007 Frontier School Division signing BRRT Advisor assisted Frontier School Division Manitoba Food Charter, Area 1 in developing their action steps; at this Annual Meeting, Mystery Lake ceremony she thanked the FSD for their Hotel leadership in the food security movement since the early 1970s to present. October 13, World Food Day Booth in City To raise awareness of World Food Day and the 2007 Centre Mall, Thompson new Canada Food Guide Oct 16 & 17, Northern Harvest Forum and BRRT assisted in planning, making travel 2007 Banquet, Thompson arrangements, paying for participants to attend, giving presentations, setting up displays, assisting with registration, etc. Presentations on poultry production, the Freezer Project, and community mobilization were made by BRRT staff. Nickel Belt News Coverage. Nov 19, 2007 Regional Partners Meeting with BRRT and other Regional Partners met with Management Committee of the NHFI management committee to discuss Northern Healthy Food Initiative, our programs, challenges and successes. The Winnipeg management committee has representatives from five government departments and it is a good forum for raising inter-departmental issues. Feb 5-7, 2008 Chronic Disease Prevention BRRT staff attended, as well as many reps Initiative Conference, Thompson from BRRT communities. BRRT set up a display booth and provided information on northern food self sufficiency. Several of the communities developed garden plans for CDPI funding. Feb 20, VIA rail meeting, Thompson Ricky Pronteau attended to present concerns and to hear plans for rail revitalization. Feb 29, 2008 Regional Partners Meeting of BRRT to assist with planning NHFI evaluation, Northern Healthy Food Initiative, BRRT’s evaluation template will be used for all regional projects. Mar 7 & 8, Manitoba Food Charter Annual BRRT assisted with planning, our staff made Conference, four presentations. Winnipeg Mar 18 & 19, “You are Special” Northern Wrote proposal for funding, assisted with Women’s Health Conference planning and administration. Mar 26, 2008 CBC Radio Interview on “The BRRT Advisor interviewed by CBC regarding Morning Show” chickens and freezers in the North.

BRRT has been faithful to the goal of building linkages and creating awareness. We are consistently invited to speak at events and conferences and we do appreciate this. However, because what we are doing seems to us to be just a common sense, cooperative and grassroots approach to making things happen in the communities, we don’t really see anything all that extraordinary in it. It takes others coming

33 from the outside to tell us that we are doing something that is special and that it is worth talking about beyond our communities. Up close, this is just our day-to-day work but it is obvious to others that we are pretty passionate about what we do.

Recommendation 20: Since invitations to speak at events are becoming more numerous, BRRT needs to use its criteria for deciding which engagements to accept and which to decline. Points to consider:  Who is the audience? (Community represented, probable number of participants, reason for inviting BRRT)  What is the potential that action would be taken on our message and that something will change?  What will attending this event cost in terms of finances or time away from other Bayline and personal priorities? Can we afford this? After considering all this, give a reply and if it must be said, “It’s okay to say no!”

34 6. PARTNERSHIPS

a) Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) PHAC was our first partner. PHAC had identified food security as a health determinant they wished to address through the Population Health Fund. They knew of Bayline’s interest in food security and invited BRRT to submit a proposal. PHAC provides a large portion of our core project funds that gives us the staff to do the work that needs to be done. Their program consultant has been a tremendous support to our project. She takes part in many of our events and when she comes, she works right along side us.

b) Northern Healthy Food Initiative (NHFI) NHFI was created by Aboriginal and Northern Affairs in response to the Northern Food Prices Report mandated by the Healthy Child Committee of Cabinet. This program has gone through some management changes and we have come a long way in our ease of partnering. Through NHFI, BRRT and our partner communities have received program support, Ag tech and Ag equipment funds that have made it possible for us to get the results we have. This year we were invited to meet with their management committee twice. These meetings are invaluable as they provide us an opportunity to dialogue with provincial managers and decision makers from several key government departments.

c) Burntwood Regional Health Authority (BRHA) BRRT is actively involved with the BRHA Food Security Committee. This committee discusses and makes plans to address Food Security needs in Thompson and throughout the BRHA area. Sitting on this committee are NHFI, Baby’s Best Start, New Beginnings, Ma-Mow-We-Tak Friendship Centre, YWCA, Income Assistance, BRHA Public Health and diabetes program staff. Membership on this committee offers many partnership benefits. For the second time, we assisted BRHA with a two-day Chronic Disease Prevention conference strategic planning session. It is encouraging to see that several communities requested funds for small gardening projects from CDPI and that Health Services is also partnering in horticulture and food security work. In October BRHA became the first Health Authority to sign the Manitoba Food Charter; Winnipeg Health Authority is now in dialogue with them. Marie O’Neill, the CEO who signed the Charter, is now the Assistant Deputy Minister of Health.

d) Heifer International Heifer has shared with us a very useful facilitation method and has demonstrated for us many excellent approaches to community agriculture development. We have learned much from this partnership. The link BRRT made between Manto Sipi and Heifer is strong and continuing.

e) Northern Visions Regional Roundtable (NVRRT) NVRRT has been a “sister” regional roundtable in Community Collaboration Projects in Northern Manitoba, along with Hudson Bay Neighbours. Leaf Rapids and their school have been very active in NACC’s and Frontier School Division’s gardening projects and will be hosting this year’s Veggie Adventures in-service in April.

f) City of Thompson (Thompson) City Councillor Brian Wilson has attended most of our partners’ meetings and has reported back to the City on these events. Mayor Tim Johnston and four councillors attended our Northern Harvest Banquet and brought greetings; Thompson became the first city to sign the Manitoba Food Charter.

35 g) Manitoba Metis Federation, Thompson Region (MMF) *See note in Effectiveness h) Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) * See note in Effectiveness i) Keewatin Tribal Council (KTC) This year we began our first work with KTC in developing a Freezer Project with them to place 62 freezers in the four diesel generator communities (Shamattawa, Lac Brochet, Brochet and Tadoule Lake.) j) Northern Association of Community Councils (NACC) BRRT communities are all members of NACC, with the exception of War Lake First Nation. NACC has a food-pricing project and also has a gardening project with NHFI. We are collaborating with them in the development of the food pricing process and share resources regarding northern agriculture initiatives. k) North Central Development Corporation (NCDC) NCDC has been involved over the years with a variety of agriculture related projects: the Greenhouse Project with Manitoba Hydro in the Diesel Generator communities (Shamattawa, Brochet, Lac Brochet and Tadoule Lake); partnering with Environmental Youth Centre in the fish-gut composting proposal to generate fertilizer from fish offal and sawdust. l) Environmental Youth Centre, Thompson Boys and Girls Club The Environmental Youth Centre is involved in collecting of edible non-timber forest products, as well as the fish offal composting described above. We hope to work more closely with these projects in the future. m) Community Collaboration Project Models Project, Rural Secretariat (CCP) BRRT attended the CCP evaluation and planning meeting in Haines Junction, YT. This was a very useful meeting in terms of contacts and information on what is happening with community development in Nunavut, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. n) Rural Development Institute: RDI is working with BRRT on a research project related to improved Access to Health Services; however their staff is also available for assistance and advice in many ways, mostly with regard to process /governance issues. They edify and encourage us. o) Mr. Barry Little, Agriculture Advisor Barry Little was the former Ag-Tech in Thompson (when there was a Manitoba Agriculture office in Thompson). He has remained in the North and has a small farm north of Paint Lake. He has been of immense help to us in understanding what is required to produce food in the North. p) Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives Northern “GO Team” Manitoba Agriculture has not been able to identify any new resources or personnel toward northern agriculture and food security. Although this is a large disappointment to us, they have identified a northern “GO Team” that has offered us every assistance they can. This team has been enthusiastic and willing to do whatever they can to assist and advise. One Ag advisor is assigned to work with each Northern Healthy Food Initiative project; BRRT’s is Marnie McCracken from The Pas. They have developed and we have field-tested a northern gardening manual and some other print resources. Myles Hodge, Ag advisor from Teulon, has made three trips to Oxford House and is communicating closely with their Food Champion, Robert Weenusk in delivery of services in Oxford House.

36 q) Frontier School Division Frontier has developed a gardening curriculum to augment their health and science curriculum. This project was developed in partnership with Manitoba Agriculture, Northern Healthy Food Initiative and Northern Association of Community Councils. The second teacher in-service was held in Leaf Rapids School in April 2007. The third teacher in-service for this new curriculum is planned for February, 2009. It is an interesting, informative and highly interactive workshop and teachers were very enthusiastic about going home and doing these activities with their classes. Our advisor worked with FSD to help them design their action steps as the first school division to sign the food charter.

r) Corporate Sponsors This year we had many corporate sponsors who assisted us with obtaining and transporting goods for the community programs. We are grateful for their corporate social responsibility and good will.

Via Rail For transportation of dirt, lumber and Ag equipment at no cost to the Bayline communities. Perimeter Aviation For transportation of chicks at no cost and for reduced freight on freezers that we couldn’t get in on the winter road. For transporting milk to remote communities at no extra baggage charge. Canadian Tire For reduced rates on rototillers & garden tools for the 2007 growing season. The Brick For giving us an excellent price on freezers for Bayline and South Indian Lake’s 2007 freezer project. Manitoba Hydro For covering the cost of the 62 freezers to the four diesel-generating communities.

As can be seen from the above list, Bayline has been very effective in building partnerships and contributing to the overall Food Security effort in Manitoba. In general, we have not had as great a success in partnering with the Aboriginal organizations in the North, (MMF, MKO and KTC organizations) although we do work with some of their communities. Toward the end of this year there appears to be some encouraging overtures but it is too soon to tell what the result of these will be.

Recommendation 21: Continue to invite Aboriginal organizations to our partner events and to offer assistance if requested and as we are able.

37 7. PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY OF CANADA REQUIREMENTS

Public Health Agency of Canada has been our principal funder; secondary funding has been received from the Northern Healthy Foods Initiative of Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs. PHAC has specific reporting requirements for all their recipients. These are: Action on Determinants of Health; Logic Model Planning Process; Capacity Building, Knowledge Awareness and Development; Partnerships and Networking; and Volunteerism and Sustainability of Purpose and Resources. The Canadian Government also requires all funding recipients to report on environmental impacts.

1. Action on determinants of health and use of a population health approach:

Food security is inextricably linked to the determinants of health. It involves social, economic, political and environmental factors including all determinants of health. Poverty and lack of employment, lack of education, loss of social networks and supports in community and family, loss of self-esteem and self- confidence from increased dependency on outside systems, gender, culture and abused substances and loss of sense of responsibility for self-sufficiency all impact on food security. The BRRT Project aims to address root causes of food insecurity in the Bayline and other northern communities. A holistic planning approach assists community groups to explore root causes of food insecurity and what their communities might do to address these issues. We have not only examined the root causes of food insecurity, many of us on the Bayline live them individually and in our families or work with it every day in our jobs. This gives a sense of passion and urgency to our work on northern food security.

During the 07-08 fiscal year, Manitoba increased northern Income Assistance recipients food allowance incrementally related to isolation from major centres. Because of the Social Union Framework Agreement (SUFA), this means that Indian and Northern Affairs Canada would also have to follow suit for the First Nations in Northern Manitoba. Minimum wage in Manitoba was also raised to a paltry $8.00, a step in the right direction but still way below the poverty line, especially in the north. We had an opportunity to address these issues with the Canadian Senate in March, 2007. BRRT continues dialogue with the Manitoba government regarding realizing the recommendations contained in their Northern Food Prices Report (2003).

2. Logic Model Planning Process:

PHAC has adopted the Logic Model as the planning approach it encourages its recipient agencies to use. It is a comprehensive planning tool that can be used by agencies to scope their intents, identify actions and evaluate progress and impacts. January, 2005, the BRRT Partnership project evaluation committee held a full-day evaluation workshop with an evaluation consultant from PHAC, who led the group through a process of clarifying goals and objectives and developing indicators and outcome criteria. In spite of the frustrations of this meeting, the logic model is a good planning tool and we emerged from it with a clear framework for our goals and objectives, which we added to in the 07-08 fiscal year. The workplan is found on page 10 and 11 and the logic model evaluation for this plan is found in Appendix 2.

38 3.Capacity Building: Highlights of BRRT capacity building work are: a) Participation: BRRT has worked with people across the lifespan. We have held sessions with new moms and preschoolers in New Beginnings and Daycares; we have used senior experienced gardeners as mentors for novices; we have worked with Elementary grades with gardening presentations and curriculum supports. We work mainly with First Nations and Metis adults of both genders in on-reserve and off-reserve communities and within the northern towns. The BRRT also works with non-Aboriginal people. b) Strengthening the Capacity of Local Structures: Community structures refer to smaller or less formal community groups and committees that foster belonging and give the community a chance to express views and exchange information. Local leaders and managers helped us organize and facilitate the work done together with their communities. We have also taught community mobilization and strategic planning processes at two conferences this year. Both these skills are transferable to other issues. We have begun a planning process to partner with community convenience store owners to have them carry more nutritious food. c) Linking with others: Bayline staff are wonderful linkers. We know how to connect with many government, non-profit and community groups for greater effectiveness toward the betterment of the community. Through forums and workshops, the Manitoba Food Security Website, and responding to direct calls for information the Project staff have assisted with many linkages between food security stakeholders. See Section 5 on our Project Partnerships. d) Sense of community: Our process of regional meetings and local forums build sense of local and regional community. Through the regional meetings people realize they are not alone in the issues they face; in hearing what others are doing they gain ideas and hope. At the community level we encourage them to share their successes, draw out their skills (garden mentors) and have suggested that when the gardens are harvested they should have a harvest feast or some type of community celebration. Our board has also become a community of friends and collegues. They work well together. They may disagree, but they don’t walk away. Bayline board and staff also see northern Manitoba as a community and are willing to reach out, sharing staff and resources. For example, when Bayline had some Ag Tech money left over, they bought two rototillers for Oxford House and sent them in on the winter road.

4. Partnerships, Networking and Volunteerism:

BRRT has developed partnerships and working relationships with many players, locally, regionally and provincially. Each of these relationships is unique and at differing stages of development. The North is diverse and with great geographical distances yet very connected by common issues and concerns. a. We have worked closely with the councils, boards and Food Champions of the six communities which comprise BRRT (Ilford, War Lake First Nation, Wabowden, Thicket Portage, Pikwitonei and Cormorant. We have also developed significant partnerships with two other First Nations: Bunibonibee (Oxford House) and Manto Sipi (God's River). We have assisted these communities to access resources and have invited them to our meetings and workshops. We have worked with the City of Thompson and with the Burntwood Regional Health Authority to promote healthy living and gardening in the city and surrounding communities. We are also beginning to work with Nelson House Community Council. We have been actively trying to engage the First Nation side of the

39 community Nisichiwayasihk Cree Nation. Currently their decision makers have other responsibilities that prevent their participation. b. We have worked with the School District of Mystery Lake, Frontier School Division and the band- operated schools in Bunibonibee & Manto Sipi promoting gardening curriculum, assisting schools to find resources for earth, raised beds, teaching planting seeds, etc. We work with New Beginnings (Aboriginal Head Start) in three communities to promote gardening, homemade baby food, etc. c. We have worked with businesses such as Perimeter Aviation, Canadian Tire, Glazier Manufacturing, VIA rail, Dwyer's General Store, Sears, The Brick Furniture Store, Manitoba Hydro and Springhill Lumber to reduce the cost of materials and freight related to the project and are beginning dialogue on strategies to bring nutritious food into the communities at reasonable cost. d. We have developed an excellent working relationship with Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives, and Heifer International in promoting agriculture in communities. Our working relationship with Northern Healthy Food Initiative has improved in terms of communication and trust. e. NACC and Four Arrows Health Authority are our sister organizations within the Northern Healthy Food Initiative (NHFI) project. We link with these organizations to provide each other with tips on best practices, sources, good deals, etc. f. PHAC and NHFI are very involved committed funders that have been a source of encouragement and advice as well as the obvious funding. It is much appreciated!

5. Sustainability of Purpose and Funding (Leveraging of Funds):

BRRT is a non-profit organization providing services to very under-resourced communities. We are dependent upon government, corporate and charitable donors for the continued existence of the organization. Sustainability of the BRRT as an organization is for now dependent on government funders considering that our productivity and results represent taxpayer’s money well spent. Sustainability of purpose would be through creating systems and skills that can be capably continued by communities, individuals and businesses after BRRT is gone. It is frustrating to be trying to survive on short-term seed money projects when the big picture view of development is long term (not a quick fix). We are pleased to report that since starting with PHAC funding, our provincial funding has increased steadily. None of our funding is committed for more than one fiscal year at a time. It is hard to keep good people that way.

6. Environmental Impacts:

Recipients of federal funding are usually required to report on environmental impacts of the project relative to the Sustainability reporting requirements of Treasury Board.

The Project has the potential to have positive indirect effects on the environment. Growing food closer to home, teleconferencing, e-mailing, car-pooling and using public transportation saves freight costs, paper and fuel. We are teaching composting and promote the use of organic fertilizers and non-toxic pesticides and herbicides. For example, when gardens in one community became infested with slugs, we took special care in selecting non-toxic pesticides. We work with hunters and fishermen who express concern over the environment and wildlife and fish stocks. The non-timber forest product partners tell us that there is more profit to be gained from leaving the trees standing and harvesting and consuming the annually re- generating non-timber products, many of which are edible.

40 7. On Evaluation:

BRRT values self-evaluation. When a funder contracted a consultant to tell our story, we didn’t think they quite got it right, even though we had multiple interviews and suggested amendments. BRRT is improving how we collect evaluation and progress information throughout the year, but we are not as organized as we could be. BRRT has identified objectives, activities, and the outputs and impacts to measure. We have designed event tracking forms, and a logic model progress report form. However, we need to regularly take the time to use these resources and examine our progress throughout the year, not just at the end.

PHAC requires the final report within 10 days of fiscal year end. This is almost undoable. For the financial report, the utility bills and bank statements are not usually available until mid month. For the narrative, if it is to be at all participatory or insightful it needs longer than 10 days. We usually like to have the final report approved and officially submitted by our board which also takes time. This report has been reviewed by the BRRT executive but has not yet been seen by the full board. The reporting window for other federal and provincial funders varies from 30 to 75 days. We hope that the PHAC will consider revising this in the future.

Recommendation 22: Hold at least quarterly staff meetings were objectives are reviewed, progress evaluated and modifications made. Make concerted efforts to reach or exceed targets.

Recommendation 23: This year we did a much better job of maintaining a chronological binder which tracked newspaper clippings, event forms and conference agendas that we were involved in. This makes reporting much easier. BRRT needs to continue the progress by having the clippings properly catalogued with date, journal citation and, hopefully, on an 8½ x 11 format for easy duplicating for board and annual reports.

41 8. FINANCIAL REPORT

Projects Income Summary for Period April 1, 2007 - March 31, 2008

Revenue Expense Net NFSPI-Federal Health Canada 97,588.00 Accounting Expenses (O) 500.00 Administrative Assistant (P) 19,697.76 Consultant Fees (P) 7,762.50 Website Assistant (P) 1,794.35 Telephone / Fax (R/U) 900.00 Bank Charges (O) 456.00 Office Supplies (M) 1,000.00 Rent (R/U) 1,800.00 BCA Travel - Project (T) 5,000.00 Bayline Animator (P) 39,220.95 Employer Costs (MERCS) (P) 4,224.44 Evaluation (E) 1,500.00 Website (O) 256.46 Forum Public/BRRT (O) 8,439.99 Incorporation Costs (O) 20.00 MB Food Charter (O) 5,015.55 ______97,588.00 97,588.00 (0.00)

NFSPI-Provincial Aboriginal & Northern Affairs 58,000.00 Accounting Expenses (O) 12.50 Administrative Assistant (P) 3,810.00 Consultant Fees (P) 4,612.50 Telephone / Fax (R/U) 700.04 Postage/Courier (E&S) 294.37 Bank Charges (O) 5.90 Office Supplies (M) 1,162.98 Rent (R/U) 1,800.00 BCA Travel - Project (T) 2,080.36 Bayline Animator (P) 5,962.23 Employer Costs (MERCS) (P) 992.88 Evaluation (E) 1,575.00 Software (O) 178.96 Forum Public/BRRT (O) 5,701.02 Community Development (O) 100.00 Ag Tech 9,079.42 Ag Equipment 19,513.91 MB Food Charter (O) 417.93 ______58,000.00 58,000.00 0.00

Prepared for BRRT 2007/2008 Annual Report by Diana Delaronde-Colombe, BRRT Community Animator.

42 9. SUMMARIZED RECOMMENDATIONS

1 BRRT seek core funding from Manitoba government to coordinate community development services and then seek project funding for ancillary purposes. 2 BRRT follow-through on its intent to become a registered charity. 3 Rent a larger hall next year. 4 Add a half-day or a supper/evening meeting on to the Northern Harvest Forum to meet with our Food Champions and Ag Techs to discuss the successes, lessons learned and plan for next year. 5 Work on the Partner Surveys with the Manitoba Food Charter Northern Liaison person until August 2008; then compile and print for distribution at Northern Harvest Forum October, 2008. If future partners choose to complete surveys, we will add them to the website Partners Inventory. 6 Staff need to send the web-master new information to put on the site. We could and should be using the site for minutes and project reports, conference PowerPoint presentations, etc. 7 BRRT continue to hosting the website, but over the next year transition its maintenance and hosting to the Manitoba Food Charter who can more easily be in touch with Urban and Rural happenings and can more closely work with CIMnet as the service provider. 8 Continue to support the food champions through twice yearly in-person meetings (fall & early spring) 9 Continue to promote the gardens while beginning to focus on introducing greenhouses and strategies like composting and crop rotation to increase soil fertility. 10 Continue with the local mentor as ag tech, making sure to include them in training workshops and send them gardening resources we receive from MAFRI and other sources. 11 Continue to support attendance of northern teachers and schools at Veggie Adventure workshops. 12 Be prepared to offer from our ag equipment and Ag Tech funding some resources to support school gardening and encourage our local community Food Champions to promote it. 13 If possible place one of the greenhouses in each community on school property. 14 Promote poultry production with a more thorough orientation for families before they get their chicks so they understand what is required to feed, house, and protect the chicks. 15 Investigate local food sources (what wild grasses or seeds could the chickens eat?) or experiment with growing grain for feed in the northern communities. Otherwise laying hens are not cost effective or sustainable. 16 Continue the freezer purchase plan in BRRT communities until all families who want a freezer have one, administering the funds on a revolving loan basis. 17 BRRT negotiate with Family Services and Housing for freezers to be an essential appliance for Social Assistance recipients and low rental housing units. 18 Promote the Charter with our northern partners by encouraging them to think about what they can do to increase northern food security, and encouraging them to contact the Charter office for discussion about becoming a signatory. 19 That BRRT pursue make a concerted effort to address Objective 3 (To improve food access and storage capability of partner communities) in the Workplan in

43 2008-2009. It is recommended that BRRT seek out the convenience store owners for advice on how to best work with them so they can carry an assortment of nutritious staple foods in their stores. 20 Use criteria developed for which speaking engagement invitations will be accepted or declined. 21 Continue to invite Aboriginal organizations to our partner events and to offer assistance as we are able and if asked. 22 Hold at least quarterly staff meetings where objectives are reviewed, progress evaluated and modifications made. Make concerted efforts to reach or exceed targets. 23 Continue the progress we are making to track chronological entries in an events binder.

44 PROJECT APPENDICES

45 Appendix 1: BRRT 2006-2007 Evaluation Recommendations for Action in 2007-2008 Recommendation Action Taken on Recommendation 1 BRRT seek core funding from Manitoba to coordinate community development services, then seek project funding for ancillary purposes. 2 BRRT follow-through on its intent to become Meeting date set with Manitoba Food Charter to a Registered Charity. discuss how they did their process.

3 Give dates for community feedback, or work Still variable rates of return of info from assignments to be received by us then communities, example on freezer project, some immediately follow-up if it is not received. communities didn’t reply by deadlines in spite of reminder calls. 4 Block time to complete meeting report Improved. Reports are generated, distributed and immediately after the event. Commit to filed in a more timely fashion. finishing it. 5 BRRT continues compiling results and posts We still continue to pursue responses. these on the website. Organizations hesitant to complete. 6 BRRT produces a hardcopy of the Partnership Will print all obtained by October 2008. Will work Survey for the Fall Forum in Oct/07. with Manitoba Food Charter to produce and distribute for Fall Forum October, 2008. 7 Staff needs to send the web-master new Webmaster to explore and use site more information to put on the site. We could and effectively. should be using the site for minutes, and We have had two webmaster changes in the last project reports, conference PowerPoint year which has required much time and presentations, etc. development. 8 BRRT send fax notices to the communities to Website promoted on all documents and encourage them to check the web for new presentations. We should also put it on the additions to our website, or that they have letterhead. been sent an email. 9 BRRT should use the “return receipt” feature We request fax confirmations and keep a fax to be able to track which communities confirmation file for all important notices. receive the messages. 10 Continue to support the Food Champions Monthly teleconferences don’t work well. We through monthly teleconferences and twice provide regular phone support, workshops and yearly in-person meetings. information packages to the Food Champions. 11 Continue to promote the gardens, while 28 new garden starts this year; beginning to focus introducing greenhouses 4 greenhouses purchased in 2007-2008 for use in and strategies like composting and crop 2008. Workshops on greenhouses, soil fertility rotation to increase soil fertility. and composition were offered at the Northern Harvest Forum; Some families in Oxford House are composting now. We will recommend composting and fertilizer use as topics for next year’s Harvest Forum. 12 Continue with the local mentor as Ag Tech, Some Ag Techs worked better than others. The making sure to include them in training reporting was poor. In future years we need to workshops and send them gardening link reporting to pay cheques. The new Northern resources we receive from MAFRI and other Gardening Manual and info sheets from MAFRI

46 sources. have been well received by community members. 13 Continue to support attendance of northern We supported teachers/reps from Cormorant and teachers and schools at Veggie Adventures Oxford House this year and assisted in getting In-service. information out. 14 Be prepared to offer from our ag equipment We provided grow-light systems to all our and Ag Tech funding resources to support communities again this year and sourced and this important initiative and encourage our provided some funds for the Mel Johnson school local community food champions to promote greenhouse “extreme makeover” in Wabowden. the gardening curriculum in their communities.

47 15 Promote poultry production; try for at least Four families in Bayline communities tried one more community for next year. poultry production this year. We (Valerie) produced a draft manual for poultry production. 16 Purchase a chicken plucker and a propane Purchased 2 chicken pluckers and killing cone turkey fryer with large vat, to make to be shared among communities. We will be scalding and plucking easier. This could be purchasing the scalding vat this year. shared between the communities if we coordinate the slaughter days. 17 BRRT run a freezer plan in Bayline 14 freezers placed in 2007-2008; we have communities next year. (BRRT’s freezer purchased software needed for a Pre- seed money was from 2006-2007 ag Authorized Chequing plan with the bank. equipment budget. This project will be Payments have come in without default so far. reported on next year.) As funds come in more freezers will be purchased. 18 BRRT negotiate with Family services and Aboriginal and Northern Affairs is negotiating Housing for freezers to be an essential with Family Services and Housing to do a pilot appliance for Social Assistance recipients in a northern community. and low rental housing units. 19 Promote the Charter with our northern Worked with BRHA, Thompson City, Oxford partners by encouraging them to think House and Frontier School Division on their about what they can do to increase action steps toward Charter signing at the northern food security and encouraging Harvest Forum. them to contact the Charter office for discussion about becoming a signatory 20 Approach the Manitoba Food Charter host Successfully completed as reported. the Harvest Banquet and signing ceremony at our fall workshop, and work with the Food Charter to have more northern signatories at that event. 21 Develop criteria for deciding which We will choose events that are northern, speaking engagement invitations to improve awareness of northern food security accept and which to decline. issues, and/or build understanding or capacity for our processes. 22 Continue to invite Aboriginal organizations Continuing. to our partner events and to offer assistance if requested and as we are able. 23 Continue to gather partnership data for Continuing. & 6 our publication from each of these partners. 24 Block sufficient time immediately after the Getting better. event to complete the whole report, then distribute and file it. 25 Hold at least quarterly staff meetings Informally done; needs to be booked with where objectives are reviewed, progress dedicated time next year. evaluated and modifications made. Make concerted efforts to reach or exceed targets. 26 Make chronological entries in a binder and Having a system in place now is improving our have the clippings properly catalogued record keeping, but we still need to make sure with date, journal citation and preferably48 that we insert items on a timely basis. on a 8½ x 11 format for easy duplicating for board and annual report. 49 Appendix 2: Bayline Regional Roundtable Inc. Logic Model Evaluation as of March 2008 1 What is/are the overall goal(s) of the project? . 1. To build partnerships with specific stakeholders to examining and address issues relating to food security in northern Manitoba; 2. Partnerships will form and be strengthened as the north continues to address its food security issues; 3. Partnerships will form & be strengthened between the north and rural/urban Manitoba; 4. Re-establish gardening and food preservation as a self-sustaining practice in partner communities; 5. Bayline communities with no food stores now have regular access to nutritious foods without expensive time-consuming shopping trips.

Inputs/Resources Activities Outputs/Deliverables Outcomes/Impact Quarterly Report Evaluation Activity Leader Who will lead What Activities will How many and what kind of What will happen as a How are you doing? this? take place during products and/or services will result of your project? Are you Ahead, On-Time or Behind on your What resources the project? be generated from these (e.g., increase in food produced workplan schedule? are needed? (e.g., development of activities? (e.g., number of in north, increase in skills and What have your successes and challenges (e.g., equipment, program materials, needs participants, training sessions or technology, etc). been? project materials, assessments, events/ meetings, advertising, Have you had to modify or change any of your transportation, staff consultations with brochures, pamphlets, DVD/video, objectives? resources, etc.) community agencies, website, etc.) workshops, etc.) Objective 1: To create linkages among stakeholders and increase awareness about food security issues Inputs/Resources Activities Outputs/Deliverables Outcomes/Impact Evaluation 1.1 Partners We now have 25 partner Intended outcome is that Complete; Ahead; On time; Assistant & surveys are surveys completed People in communities will Behind Webma completed and Directory was not printed by have a resource to find out It is very difficult to get partners to ster posted to the Oct 07 whom to call for help/ complete the surveys; it took much website. partnership in addressing phoning, faxing, letter writing. 1.2 Partners Directory food security issues. We will work with Manitoba Food Charter Assistant updated by Oct 07, to compile, print and distribute the for distribution at Directory for Oct/08 (Northern Harvest Conference Forum)

50 Inputs/Resources Activities Outputs/Deliverables Outcomes/Impact Quarterly Report Evaluation Activity Leader Who will lead What Activities will How many and what kind of What will happen as a How are you doing? this? take place during products and/or services will result of your project? Are you Ahead, On-Time or Behind on your What resources the project? be generated from these (e.g., increase in food produced workplan schedule? are needed? (e.g., development of activities? (e.g., number of in north, increase in skills and What have your successes and challenges (e.g., equipment, program materials, needs participants, training sessions or technology, etc). been? project materials, assessments, events/ meetings, advertising, Have you had to modify or change any of your transportation, staff consultations with brochures, pamphlets, DVD/video, objectives? resources, etc.) community agencies, website, etc.) workshops, etc.) 1.3 To raise awareness Presented at nearly 20 Food security issues Complete; Ahead; On time; Animator/Advisor of northern food conferences, workshops and continue to be raised and Behind Speakers Kit security issues public venues. positioned for public BRRT leadership and staff are great within partner BRRT developed PowerPoints exposure. ambassadors for food security PowerPoint organizations (eg. on: Partnerships will form and be awareness and advocacy. There is much projector and Aboriginal Head strengthened as the north more work still to be done, so we can presentations  Creating Greater Food Start, BRHA, etc) Security in Northern continues to address its food never say this is complete, but Display Board and throughout Manitoba security issues. considering the size of our communities, Pamphlets Manitoba.  Poultry Production (a long ◦Partnerships will form & be we have influence beyond our size and and short version), strengthened between the geographic borders. BRRT staff  Freezer Purchase Program, north and rural/urban demonstrates a collegial approach to and Manitoba. problem solving and works well with  Mel Johnson School’s government, other non-profit gardening program organizations and the community We also produced a display members. board, banner, and two pamphlets for use at Poster/Trade show venues.

Inputs Activities Outputs/Deliverables Outcomes/Impacts Evaluation

51 1.4 To continue to host Website is advertised on all People are using the website Complete; Ahead; On time; Webmaster the food security promotional material of to register for events and to Behind website for BRRT and the Manitoba Food provide feedback There is still very limited connectivity in Manitoba. Charter(MFC) We know it is being used a lot BRRT communities, thus the website is Hosted training for BRRT, used more by people outside BRRT area. NACC and MFC in web design Print off “hits” each month so we can and use. measure its use. We now have added a www address that is easier to access our site. 1.5 To promote the Our advisor worked with We assisted the following Complete; Ahead; On time; Advisor Manitoba Food several groups this year in signatories with developing Behind Charter in Northern helping them to develop their action steps: These organizations represent the first Manitoba. their action steps.  City of Thompson city, health authority, school district, and First Nation to sign the Manitoba Food  Burntwood Regional Health Charter, creating a role model for their Auth. sister organizations in Manitoba. We  Frontier School Division have already seen evidence of BRHA  Bunibonibee Cree Nation influencing the Winnipeg RHA, Bunibonibee assisted a First Nation in BC, and Frontier is talking with Kelsey and Mystery Lake School Divisions.

52 All 1.6 To role-model and This year we assisted 62 freezers were placed in Complete; Ahead; On time; promote our Keewatin Tribal Council to Brochet, Lac Brochet, Tadoule Behind processes to other implement a Freezer Project & Shamattawa. Certainly with KTC and Nelson House we northern in the four diesel generator can see the results of our interventions. communities. communities. Nelson House developed 2 Freezers are in place and gardens are We assisted Nelson House regular and 2 raised bed planted. With activity like the calls for with their gardening gardens information, it is harder to know if they program. will make use of the information we have We received calls from 9 sent them. BRRT leadership has been Packages with information on generous in allowing staff to work First Nations requesting gardens, freezers, chickens information and assistance. outside our member communities, but and the Food Charter were we need to have balance. We are We presented on gardening, sent to Dakota Tipi, Fairford, beginning to offer services like a chickens and freezers at Sandy Bay, Pine Creek and government agricultural extension office several conferences. Brochet. Advice also given to without the training, funding or mandate Assisted YWCA to obtain Norway House, Cross Lake, to do so. funding for You are Special: Wasagamack, and Thompson. a Northern Women’s Health 80 women attended this Conference conference from all over northern Manitoba

53 Objective 2: To increase food self-sufficiency in partner communities. Inputs Activities Outputs Outcomes Evaluation Frontier School 2.1 To promote new Sent garden manuals, tech 28 new gardens were started Complete; Ahead; On time; Division garden starts advisor books, workplan and 4 out of 5 schools in partner Behind Community through school and reporting templates for the communities are teaching the Schools community Food Champs and Ag Techs, gardening curriculum. gardening Garden manuals were made Val (Program programs. for each new gardener. Grade 4 Class in Wabowden, Assistant) 2.2 Partner with Grow light boxes were sent had a harvest display of their Grow light schools to to all 5 schools in BRRT vegetables and products systems, encourage use of communities, along with soil, (salsa, pickles, fruit leathers, Greenhouses or gardening seeds and fertilizer. etc made from their produce). repairs. curriculum using Greenhouses have been sent Wabowden ’06 as to four communities for example. placement adjacent to the schools. Strawberries and raspberries have been ordered for next year. Val 2.3 To assist Garden & Food Self- Complete; Ahead; On time; communities to Sufficiency planning was Behind complete gardening done regionally and and food self- submitted to NHFI for sufficiency plans. funding. 2.4 To provide equipment and advisory supports to communities, within limits of existing resources or new funding received.

54 BRRT staff 2.5 Provide chicks, Equipment, feed and chicks Our goal was for one more Complete; Ahead; On time; Feed feed and equipment were offered to five families. family to try chickens in Behind to families Water and feed BRRT staff was available by addition to the Oxford House We learned much about how to care for interested in poultry trays phone and two community family. Five families tried chicks and about what the families’ key chickens. questions and concerns were. We found Heat Lamps visits (the day the chicks were delivered and the day 360 chicks were purchased, that there weren’t any simple good Fencing they were slaughtered.) 237 were processed. One man resources on raising chicks so Val By the end of the year a lost all 60 chickens; 22 others produced a draft easy to understand draft manual was produced. were killed by owls, dogs and manual that we will be focus testing with unsupervised children. next year’s families. A family in Oxford House As an incentive to families, we provided raised 30 laying hens which all the start up costs for these chickens. are now producing 2-3 dozen The families provided the building and eggs a day. the sweat equity then kept the meat or the profits. In their second year they should purchase the chicks and the feed from us. We will provide advisory supports and the freight. Laying hens are not economically viable, but they are a labour of love cost-shared between the family, BRRT and the First Nation. We are investigating local feed production. Patti Eilers, 2.6 Work with MAFRI Workshops on canning, Workshop was video recorded Complete; Ahead; On time; MAFRI to produce and freezing and food for broadcast over APTN and Behind Francis Hall, deliver training on preservation were presented the Island Lake local television Anecdotal reports of people from the first elder, food preservation & at the Northern Harvest stations. workshops in 2005 and 2006 have APTN TV crew, processing and Forum. Over 60 participants went reported trying their own jams and making home-made relishes and are pleased with the results. Island Lake TV Each community was home with experience and a baby-food. People are now experienced at blanching crew, outfitted with a starter kit of jar of jam or relish. canners and jars. We vegetables for the freezer. canning Frontier School Division also purchased one pressure equipment, taught students to make salsa canner to share among and pickles with their garden fresh berries and communities. produce. vegetables.

55 Objective 3: To improve food access and storage capability of partner communities. Inputs Activities Outputs Outcomes Evaluation Food Inventory To complete local Food price inventories in Of greater concern than the Complete; Ahead; On time; Form food price Member communities were price of the item is the lack of Behind Food Champions inventories with completed in 2006. food in the communities. Only Food price inventories will be completed special focus on one community has a grocery in 2008 either as a part of the province reliable availability store, the others have wide food costing being done by the of nutritious food. convenience stores that sell Food Charter or as a baseline for BRRT’s primarily junk food. work. To develop a “good We have had a meeting with No outcomes as yet. Complete; Ahead; On time; food box” pilot the only grocery store owner Behind program with local in a Bayline community. We WE are reshaping this objective for the supplier for will be meeting with the next fiscal year in that we want to try to communities with convenience store owners in engage the convenience store owners to no store on Bayline the new year. carry nutritious staple foods and then rail. encourage consumer loyalty to local suppliers. To expand the BRRT appointed a committee 14 freezers were placed in Complete; Ahead; On time; freezer program to develop freezer purchase Bayline communities. Behind piloted in Oxford program. Payments are coming in so far More families wanted large freezers than House to Bayline Arrangements were made without default. small freezers; 14 cu. ft. was the size of communities. with our bank for pre- choice. authorized chequing We will purchase freezers on a revolving program. basis as freezers are repaid.

56 Objective 4: To evaluate our process and progress, with a focus toward increasing BRRT organizational sustainability. Inputs Activities Outputs Outcomes Evaluation Laurel 4.1 Develop goals, Evaluation framework tools Evaluation reveals both Complete; Ahead; On time; objectives, were completed. successes and weaknesses. Behind activities, outputs Improve our services by BRRT evaluation framework has been and outcome building on strengths and borrowed by NHFI as a user-friendly tool indicators with learning from weaknesses. to standardize their project evaluations. Board and Food As a staff we need to recap at least Champions. quarterly to make the best use of the evaluation. Reg/Diana 4.2 Pursue core No activity on this to date. Complete; Ahead; On time; funding or A-Base Behind agreement with MB government Diana/Laurel 4.3 Pursue charitable We have scheduled a No outcomes as yet Complete; Ahead; On time; status. meeting with MFC to advise Behind us on how they did the process. We will need to complete more of this in the next fiscal year. 4.4 Pursue 100% GST Application was made to Unfortunately, we did not Complete; Ahead; On time; rebate. Revenue Canada receive 100% (municipal Behind status); we remain at 50% This objective is linked to the charitable recoverable. status. If we receive charitable status GST rebates will increase to 100% recoverable.

57 Appendix 3:

FREEZER PROJECT

58 BAYLINE REGIONAL ROUNDTABLE Inc. Northern Food Security Partnership Initiative Box 130, Wabowden, MB R0B 1S0 Ph: (204) 689-2063 Fx: (204) 689-2355 Email: [email protected]

Bayline Freezer Purchase Plan

Do you need more freezer space?

Would you like to store more garden produce, freeze more meat, or buy in quantity when you get the chance?

To purchase a freezer an easy pay back plan can be arranged for Pre-Authorized Chequing on a BRRT Micro-loan. Contact Diana Delaronde-Colombe or Val Parker

Applications will be accepted until June 15, 2007

59 BAYLINE REGIONAL ROUNDTABLE Northern Food Security Partnership Initiative Box 130, Wabowden, MB R0B 1S0 Ph: (204) 689-2063 Fx: (204) 689-2355 Email: [email protected]

Bayline Freezer Purchase Plan Application Form

Name: Treaty #: Address: Phone:

1. a. Do you have a garden? [ ] Yes [ ] No b. Do you hunt or fish for meat? [ ] Yes [ ] No c. Do you gather berries or other wild plants? [ ] Yes [ ] No

2. I have in my home: a. [ ] only the freezer compartment in the top of my fridge; b. [ ] a separate freezer and a fridge;

3. (Check all that apply.) I would use a freezer for storing: a. [ ] local garden produce; b. [ ] wild meat, fish and berries; c. [ ] store bought groceries.

4. How many people a. in your household? ______b. do you buy groceries for? ______

5. (Optional ) My family’s… a. average monthly grocery bill is: $______b. average household income is: $______

I wish to participate in the Bayline Freezer Purchase Plan

I choose to purchase a Small 9 cu ft freezer, for $425.00 Large 14 cu ft freezer, for $500.00

I wish to pay this freezer off over 6 months; 12 months; 18 months.

This means a monthly payment of $______/ ___ months = $______per month. I am willing to make this payment through the pre-authorized withdrawals as indicated on the Pre-authorized Withdrawal Form attached.

Name: ______Signature: ______Date: ______

60 BAYLINE REGIONAL ROUNDTABLE Northern Food Security Partnership Initiative Box 130, Wabowden, MB R0B 1S0 Ph: (204) 689-2063 Fx: (204) 689-2355 Email: [email protected]

Bayline Freezer Purchase Plan Pre-Authorized Withdrawal Form

Applicant Information:

Name: Birth Date: Treaty #:

Marital Status: Spouse: Dependents:

Address: Phone: Financial Institution Information:

Bank: Branch”

Branch Address: Account Information or Attach a Blank Cheque with “VOID” printed across it.

______Branch Transit Institution Bank Account Number

Authorization:

I authorize Bayline Regional Roundtable Inc. to withdraw $______from the above bank account on the 21st day of each month for the next ______months, until the entire amount is repaid.

Name: ______Signature: ______

Date: ______Witness: ______

For BRRT: ______Signature:______

Date: ______Witness: ______

61 BAYLINE REGIONAL ROUNDTABLE Northern Food Security Partnership Initiative Box 130, Wabowden, MB R0B 1S0 Ph: (204) 689-2063 Fx: (204) 689-2355 Email: [email protected] Bayline Freezer Purchase Plan Evaluation Form

1. a. Did you have a garden this summer? [ ] Yes [ ] No b. Did you hunt or fish for meat this year? [ ] Yes [ ] No d. Did you gather berries or wild plants this summer? [ ] Yes [ ] No

2. (Check all that apply.) This year I used my new freezer for storing: c. [ ] local garden produce; d. [ ] wild meat, fish and berries; e. [ ] store bought groceries.

3. Would you like to learn more about how to prepare food for freezer storage? [ ] Yes [ ] No

4. a. How many people in your household? ______f. How many people do you buy groceries for? ______g. How many families in your household? ______h. How many families use this freezer? ______

5. Your household’s… i. average monthly grocery bill is: $______j. compared to your bills before the freezer is this [ ] more; [ ] less; or [ ] about the same

6. Did you buy your freezer through: k. [ ] Payroll Deduction/Personal Advance l. [ ] Social Assistance Basic Needs deduction m. [ ] BRRT Micro-loan Program n. [ ] Other ______

7. About your payments: o. What was your monthly payment? ______p. Was this payment: [ ] too much; [ ] too little; or [ ] just about right

8. Did you have any difficulty or problems with the payment plan or suggestions for how it could be better next year?

9. What was the benefit of the Freezer Purchase Plan to your family?

10. Do you recommend that Bayline or other northern communities continue this program? [ ] Yes [ ] No Any other comments??

62 Appendix 4:

MEDIA CLIPPINGS