Manitoba Food Charter Is

2006/2007 Evaluation Report Manitoba Food Charter

Prepared by

Michael Heasman, PhD

July 5, 2007 Table of Contents

1. Introduction and Summary...... 1 2. 2005-2006 Evaluation...... 3 3. The Evaluation Process...... 12 4. 2006-2007 Evaluation From ‘start-up’ to ‘scale-up’...... 13 5. Evaluation Summary of MFC Work Plan Outcomes...... 14 6. Internal Activities...... 18 7. External Activities...... 24 8. Evaluation Findings...... 28 9. Towards the Future and Recommendations...... 31

Appendix 1 Manitoba Food Charters and Signatory Forms Appendix 2: The 2006/2007 Logic Model And Evaluation Framework Appendix 3: Summary of MFC Key Project Activities 2006/2007 Appendix 4: 2006-2007 MFC Signatory Action Steps Appendix 5: Events Participated In by the MFC Appendix 6: MFC Media Clips Appendix 7: First Issue of The MFC Newsletter Appendix 8: MFC Background Document Introduction and Summary

The Manitoba Food Charter emerged from Manitoban’s common vision for a just and sustainable food system in the province. The Food Charter is a one page document resulting from almost a year of consultations throughout the province that sets out a vision and principles to guide and inform all levels of government, businesses, non-profit organizations, communities, families and individuals in planning, policy development, programs and practices in mutual effort toward community food security1 and community development.

The goal statement of the Manitoba Food Charter (MFC) is: “to use the Manitoba Food Charter to identify and promote concrete actions towards food security and sustainability of food systems in Manitoba”

For the sake of convenience the collective work and activity associated with the Manitoba Food Charter is being described in this report as the Manitoba Food Charter (MFC). In this context, the MFC is seen as the people and activities that have been built around the development and implementation of the Manitoba Food Charter document. The MFC has been funded from a variety of sources to help develop its work on food security particularly within communities and with community-based organizations.

For 2006/2007 the Food Charter document was finalized and then taken out to the public to be used to engage with a wide range of stakeholders in a food security dialogue built around the Food Charter document. People and organizations are invited to sign the Food Charter and to describe the action steps they can commit to over the next year in the area of food security. (See Appendix 1 for the Manitoba Food Charter in English, French, and Cree).

The MFC employs staff, who report to a Board comprised of volunteers and employees of other organizations. The MFC also works with partners and other stakeholders concerned about achieving food security within the province to create food security synergies and build connections within rural, urban, and northern Manitoban communities.

During the period under review (from April 1st 2006 to the end of March 2007) the MFC has moved from what might be termed ‘start-up’ to ‘scale-up’. This process is described in the core of this report. The MFC set up an ambitious plan of action or ‘road-map’ for its activities in the 2006/2007 fiscal year. This workplan was set up using the ‘logic 1 Community food security is both a goal and a process. The position paper on community food security from Dietitians of Canada uses the definition: “Community food security exists when all community residents obtain a safe, personally acceptable, nutritious diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes healthy choices, community self-reliance and equal access for everyone.” Dietitians of Canada (2007) Community Food Security: Position of Dietitians of Canada. model’ which also details the evaluation framework. (See appendix 2 for a copy of the 2006/2007 Logic Model).

The aim of this evaluation is to capture evidence of how the MFC has addressed its longer-term vision, goal, and objectives as well as how it has achieved its shorter-term plans. The detail of the relationship between these two intertwined elements of the MFC’s work are set out in the Logic Model for 2006/2007

TABLE 1: 2006-2007 MANITOBA FOOD CHARTER PROJECT VISION, GOAL AND OBJECTIVES

Project Vision: A food-secure Manitoba as described in the Manitoba Food Charter

Project Goal: To increase food security and sustainability of the food systems in Manitoba by providing a common focus for action for food system stakeholders through the Manitoba Food Charter.

Project Objectives 1. To develop Manitoba Food Charter project capacity 2. To be rooted in community across sectors and regions 3. To advocate for policy change that will change the status quo 4. To provide public education 5. To create community capacity to address food security issues 6. To develop a sustainable mechanism for maintaining the food security dialogue in Manitoba

Source: MFC, 2007

4 1. 2005-2006 Evaluation

The 2005-2006 Evaluation of the Manitoba Food Charter contained 26 recommendations including conducting an external governance evaluation. Below is a summary of progress to March 31, 2007.

TABLE 2 2005-2006 EVALUATION RECOMMENDATION AND FOLLOW UP SUMMARY

2005-2006 Evaluation Recommendation 2006-2007 Status Documentation To Do Recommendation 1: Move to three co-chairs from two,  Met: Rural, Urban, and Northern co- Organizational structure Urban co-chair position and have Northern, Rural, and Urban (Winnipeg) Co- chair positions have been created. At diagram to be filled chairs. present there are two rural co chairs and one northern co chair Recommendation 2: Ensure that funding allows us to Met: Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Board policy document The organization should offer travel and accommodation for people not able to do provided $10,000 for travel costs to cover printing costs for this work on their employers travel budget and that cover primarily northern travel. The out of town participants meeting times are scheduled to allow their participation. MFC has board policy to allow for at who must print the This is especially important for rural and northern least 2 face to face board meetings/yr. documents they need for participants. Where possible MFC has added board meetings travel as a line item in proposals Recommendation 3: Make a concerted effort to also Met: The rural region has four Board List - attract a variety of rural participants to the steering representatives on the board that committee and future board. For example, mainstream represent conventional and organic farmer, organic farmer, retired farmer/gardener, market practices from family farm to family gardener, beef rancher, etc. who would make the time to garden scale. In addition the board has a give to this project. member who represents over 30 francophone communities Recommendation 4: Enter into a process of mission and Met: The board held a retreat to develop 2006 Board retreat Finalise the Personnel goal clarification, staff and board role differentiation and firmer mission, goals, and operating document Policy Manual reporting lines, and firmer committee/board structure guidelines. The board has developed and decision-making processes. bylaws and policy documents that Bylaws and Board outline goals. The organization has policy document monthly financial statements and staff reports Staff report template 2005-2006 Evaluation Recommendation 2006-2007 Status Documentation To Do Monthly financial report The board has adopted the Fort Garry template Women’s centre personnel policy manual and is in the process of adapting it for the MFC. Recommendation 5: Pursue incorporation as a non-profit Met: The organizations is now Incorporation Document Seek Charitable status agency. This will put us in a better position for fund incorporated as a Manitoba not for profit raising, and also provides more credibility than running funds through another agency. Recommendation 6: Develop clearer roles and In progress 2006 Workplan - manageable work plans to reduce duplication of services and burnout of staff and steering committee members. Workplans with estimated timelines have 2006 Logic model Develop the project workplan and evaluation framework been developed (Logic Model) at the beginning of the each year, so that there will be a clear path and progress can be measured Decisions not to undertake some tasks as the workplan is implement. due to lack of available staff and volunteer time were made

Funds were obtained to hire 5 contract staff to undertake paid work that was previously done by volunteers Recommendation 7: Use the working groups to draw in a The urban region has developed two Working group structure To do: involve more broad base of participation and new volunteers; again working groups including food access, diagram members across the trying to ensure representation from the three regional and policy and research province in these groups on each committee. working groups Additional Recommendation 8: Due to the facts that our steering Met: External evaluator contracted 2006 Governance - committee has lost members in the last year, and that lack Evaluation of governance and administrative structures and (see section 5.1) processes has been a challenge for us, and due to our move to incorporate and create a new board structure, it is recommended that an external evaluator be contracted to do a confidential evaluation of steering committee and staff, both current and past. This report should be completed as soon as possible and would strengthen and 2005-2006 Evaluation Recommendation 2006-2007 Status Documentation To Do inform our new governance policies and Terms of Reference. Recommendation 9: In future public consultations - - and visioning, if we are looking for vision we should ask Noted directly for vision, and if we are wanting to find out issues, we should ask for issues, but not to ask for issues and try to then turn the issues into a vision. Recommendation 10: Continue to build opportunities for On-going - - public dialogue as we seek to advance and develop partnerships for the Manitoba Food Charter across the Working groups, public events, AGM province. Recommendation 11: Continue to attempt dialogue with In progress - Need to engage youth, the groups that we have been unable to engage to date, aboriginal groups, new while not allowing their lack of participation to weaken  Have attempted to engage less Canadians and seniors our energies or confidence in advancing the Charter. involved groups including the There has been a stated hope by some of our detractors agricultural sector that if they just ignore us we will go away. The more this  We now have 2 Keystone Ag Charter gains momentum, the harder it will be to ignore. Producer members on our Board They need to be helped to the position that this vision is in  Mail out to Association of Manitoba the best interest of Manitoba as a whole and need to find Municipalities and Chiefs ways of it also being in their best interests personally or  Have a representation from Northern corporately in the long run. Chiefs on our board  Increased partnerships with Northern Healthy Foods Initiative Recommendation 12: In future consultations it would be Noted - - wise to decide on the general framework or structure for Evaluation tools are now designed with how data would be collated and analyzed before the end use in mind consultations begin, so that it data could be collated into the framework as it was entered. Recommendation 13: A similar suggestion, for the Noted - - framework of the Charter: If we had decided on the Charter framework before we consulted we could have asked questions specifically related to the sections of the charter. The questions on issues were directly reflected in 2005-2006 Evaluation Recommendation 2006-2007 Status Documentation To Do the section called Current Situation, however, it would have been wise to ask specific vision questions which could have been used directly in the vision/principles section. (Similar to Recommendation 8) Recommendation 14: Continue to promote dialogue with In progress - Continue to dialogue MAFRI and other departments, focusing on how their with the province and stated missions fit with the vision of the Charter. Focus on Held two meetings, one with the ministers towards linking with these similarities and showing how these Minister and deputy minister of signing the Manitoba mutual goals might be reflected in policy, programs, and Agriculture and have a designated Food Charter practice. MAFRI staff contact

In progress : Have submitted an interdepartmental proposal which has led to interdepartmental meetings to consider the proposal

Minister of Healthy Living has been designated our contact person with a designated senior staff contact, who sits as a non-voting Provincial Government Representative on our Board.

Recommendation 15: Reinforce an understanding of On-going - Continue to dialogue “partnership toward”. The Charter wording is a As we work with interested signatories with signatories and commitment to work in partnership, (not single- there is an increasing awareness of the assist them in handedly) toward the vision (don’t have to do it or be it number of partners that are coming to the developing their action all at once, but be moving steadily toward the vision). table steps Recommendation 16: Endeavor to have the provincial In progress - Continue to dialogue government as a whole, through the Premiers’ office, sign Have submitted an interdepartmental with the province and the Charter. This would mean that all the departments proposal which has led to ministers towards are being committed to do their piece of the whole. interdepartmental meetings to consider signing the Manitoba the proposal Food Charter

Minister of Healthy Living has been designated our contact person with a 2005-2006 Evaluation Recommendation 2006-2007 Status Documentation To Do designated senior staff contact.

Recommendation 17: Cultivate sector or stakeholder In progress - Cultivate stronger, “Champions” as spokespersons and role models for their The urban working groups have engaged broader engagement in peers, let them do the talking on media and with their organizations and individuals at an initial Rural and Northern groups. level Manitoba while deepening involvement with urban stakeholders and individuals Recommendation 18: Expect some conflict, bad press,  In progress - Continue to build and rejection. We are doing this because Manitoban’s There have been significant strides in our partnerships perceive that some change is necessary to improve the relationship with more reluctant partners food system in Manitoba. This will threaten those who are and producer groups and government comfortable with status quo. We need to take it on the chin, smile and stick to the vision; which is hard to argue against. That said, we must do everything we can to be above reproach, credible, accountable and transparent. Recommendation 19: Continue to invite all stakeholders, In progress - - not just those engaged and on our “interested to be (see Recommendation 11) contacted list”, to our public events. Recommendation 20: Use Charter signings as opportunity In progress : Have held a northern - Hold Urban and Rural for celebration, media coverage, and public education and Signing ceremony with plans for an signing ceremonies role-modeling of what is being done in food security in urban ceremony in May 2007 Manitoba. Develop recognition and benefits for Need to develop signatories. additional recognition and benefits for signatories Recommendation 21: Regularly review website to ensure In progress : Revised website in - Finalize website and that it is current and to check use. Investigate other web- consultation with Bayline Regional continual updating server options and discuss with Bayline RRT who is Roundtable Inc. currently hosting the site through CIMnet. Recommendation 22: Move as quickly as possible to Met: Manitoba Food Charter - finalize the wording of the Charter, taking suggestions Charter was ratified in September 2006 English under advisement. This will be the judgement call of the French Drafting Committee with final version sent to Steering Cree 2005-2006 Evaluation Recommendation 2006-2007 Status Documentation To Do Committee for final ratification.

Recommendation 23: Officially decide our exact function Met: Board Retreat held in April 2006 2006-2007 organisation - relative to the food system, other stakeholders, and with organisational function revisited in goals and objectives potential signatories. Communicate this function as December 2006 clearly as possible in the People’s Summary, and 2007 Community Forum Signatory Guidelines, which will be the support papers for the Charter. Board retreat summary Recommendation 24: Develop support documents to Met: Developed a backgrounder for the Backgrounder Finalize peoples expand the public understanding of the Charter and the Manitoba Food Charter, and a draft of summary Charter process: plain language “peoples summary” Signatory forms . a People’s Summary in plain language to explain the Charter and our approach to developing partnerships toward food security; and . a Signatory Guidelines paper or template for agencies interested in becoming partners/signatories.

Recommendation 25: Fill vacant steering committee In progress Board List Fill 2 northern and one positions giving consideration to gender, stakeholder and Have filled Rural seats and need to fill 2 urban seat regional diversity. northern and one urban seat. There are Organizational structure three men on the 12 person board (see diagram Need greater gender and recommendation 1) cultural diversity on our committee Recommendation 26: Move as quickly as possible to Met: The organizations is now Incorporation Document Finalize the Personnel incorporate as a non-profit organization, with current incorporated as a Manitoba not for profit Policy Manual committee and newly elected members as an interim (see recommendations 4 & 5) Seek Charitable status board until the first Annual General Meeting. As a part of reworking the steering committee into a Board, job Funds were obtained to hire 5 contract descriptions and time commitments should be clarified, to staff to undertake work that was promote greater accountability, efficiency and to prevent previously done by volunteers and the volunteer burnout. coordinator. Governance Evaluation Study

In response to Recommendation 8 above, the MFC commissioned a governance evaluation from Dungannon Consulting Services, which was, completed June 16th 2006. This overview of governance activities provided a critical appraisal of the MFC’s Steering Committee’s work up until then. The report identified a number of areas for reform, but concluded that the Steering Committee had overseen the MFC in a manner appropriate and common beginning non-profit organizations. The report recommended that MFC consider the longer-term viability of the organization and how it would position itself in implementing the Food Charter. Four considerations were posed:

1. Time to Lead: The Steering Committee needs to evolve away from approaching the community with a blank slate, and demonstrate confidence in the mandate it has received. This means being more directive, defining the vision, articulating strategies and making recommendations to the community. It is important to remain accountable to the community, but to actively demonstrate leadership.

2. Time for Structure: The natural next step for the Manitoba Food Charter is to retrench and build structures and systems that will serve it going forward. A significant amount of the organization’s energy should be devoted to addressing the organizational development issues, policy, and procedures identified in this report, and at the retreat held earlier this year. This includes making a conscious effort to improve the effectiveness of the Steering Committee meeting processes

3. Time for Reflection: It is imperative that the Manitoba Food Charter pause, reflect on experience to date, and define its long term role and objectives. This includes solidifying the representation or engagement with missing constituencies, and defining a commonly held strategy for signatories and how to interact with government. It also implies defining the process to implement the Charter, and what strategic partnerships can best achieve that.

4. Time for Balance: Most importantly, the Manitoba Food Charter needs to take the time to thoughtfully and realistically align its goals with the available resources and staff/volunteer time. It is absolutely imperative that the Steering Committee not lurch ahead in an attempt to keep momentum, and convince itself it is too busy to plan. It is equally important to recognize that all of the organizational development work required cannot simply be lumped on top of all of the programming objectives one might wish to accomplish. An orderly and disciplined approach to planning and prioritization will result in a healthier and more sustainable organization, and better results over the long term.

Table 3 lists the board governance recommendations and summarizes activities to date: TABLE 3: 2006 BOARD GOVERNANCE EVALUATION RECOMMENDATIONS AND FOLLOW UP SUMMARY Recommendations 2006-2007 Status Documentation To Do Time to lead: the Steering Held a board retreat in May 2006 to develop  2006 Board Retreat document Committee, while remaining an organizational vision, goals, and  2006 Organizational vision, goals, Maintain connection with accountable to the community, organizational structure for the upcoming and board structure community should be more directive, defining year.  May 2006 Event report the visions, articulating strategies  February 2007 held an AGM and making recommendations to the Held a community AGM in Winnipeg in May community. 2006 with community feedback on the proposed vision, goals, and organizational structure. Time for structure: the MFC needs A significant amount of board and staff Bylaws and Board policy document  Board development to retrench and build structures and energy was devoted to Organizational Organizational structure diagram training around effective systems that will serve it going development in 2006-2007 Personnel Policy Manual and enjoyable meetings forward. In 2006-2007 the MFC incorporated, and Working group structure diagram  Develop a fundraising developed organizational capacity in bylaws, Staff report template plan board and organizational structure, personnel Monthly financial report template  Appoint a treasurer policy manuals. Processes around board meeting  Need to engage the minutes, finances and fundraising Financial governance including sub committee opening and MFC bank account,  Apply for Charitable hiring a MFC bookkeeper, status contracting an auditor, monthly financial reporting Developed a human resources subcommittee Developed a finances and fundraising sub committee Time for reflection: it is imperative  The MFC plans an annual board retreat for -  Need to schedule time for that the MFC pause, reflect on its reflection and strategic visioning at least quarterly reflection experience to date, and define its with executive long-term goals and objectives. Recommendations 2006-2007 Status Documentation To Do Time for balance: most importantly, In 2006-2007 the MFC developed Draft personnel policy manual  Complete the personnel the MFC needs to take time to organizational capacity in bylaws, board and Draft board policy manual policy manual thoughtfully and realistically align organizational structure, personnel policy its goals with the available resources manuals.  Ensure that proposals and staff/volunteer time. contain a sufficient balance The MFC has identified the need to priorize between funding for human work based on available funding and is resources, deliverables, adopting this approach with future project project administration, and activities evaluation with realistic staff and time expectations

 Be disciplined with goals and priorities  Have clear differentiation with board members between their role as board and volunteer with other activities 2. The Evaluation Process

The ‘start-up’ to ‘scale-up’ period of 2006/2007 has two distinct but interconnected areas of activity pertinent to the MFC meeting its evaluation objectives, these are:

1. Internal organizational capacity building, and 2. The way the MFC has engaged and responded to the need of its external community and stakeholders related to its internal changes.

TABLE 2. EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL FOCUS 2005- 2006 2006-2007 2007-2008 Completing and publicly Work with individuals and Continue to work with launching the Food Charter organizations towards signatories document becoming signatories of the Manitoba Food Charter Networking document. Partnership Building

Public education relating to community food security.

In from April to September, the Manitoba Food Charter’s main focus was the document itself: final drafting, eliciting feedback, making final amendments, and ratification. Following this the goal was to identify potential signatories and to work with individuals and organizations towards identifying action steps and becoming signatories to the Manitoba Food Charter.

By the end of the 06/07 fiscal year, the purpose of the MFC, internally at least, is clearly viewed more widely than getting signatories. The MFC Project by April 2007 can be described more accurately as a three-pronged project of:

1. Networking 2. Partnership Building, 3. Public education relating to community food security.

Signing the Manitoba Food Charter is now one part, albeit an important part, of this wider role of the MFC. In this respect, the MFC has evolved in its day-to-activity to become more closely aligned to its core Logic Model vision, goal and objectives than it was at the start of the 2006/2007 period.

This evaluation document sets out to capture the range and extent of the MFC activities that demonstrate how it has moved to meet its Logic Model evaluation objectives. This report also identifies challenges, opportunities and lessons learned from 2006-2007 to inform the MFC in future planning. The report contains background detail so as to enable readers to learn from and reflect on the experience of the MFC. The evaluation methods

The evaluator was given full access to documentation collected throughout the year by the MFC. These included:  Workplan/Logic model for 06-07  Press clippings  Meeting minutes  Signatory tracking sheets  Monthly staff reports  Public event tracking sheets  Quarterly reports to funders  Core documents  Presentation materials In addition interviews were conducted with staff members.

4. 2006-2007 Evaluation From ‘start-up’ to ‘scale-up’

The MFC had developed an evaluation framework for its Logic Model and this was used as the guide for this evaluation report. The Logic Model was also used to sort through the substantial amount of material and documentation the MFC has generated over the 12 month period from the sources listed above. Before getting to the detail of the evaluation a brief background to the MFC is provided to set the context for the evaluation.

The ‘start-up’ phase

The concept of the MFC grew from a meeting of concerned Manitobans meeting as part of the 2004 National Food Security Conference held in Winnipeg in October of that year. The Local Organizing Committee for the conference decided action was needed longer-term on food security issues within Manitoba. The original idea was to develop something that would impact food security in a broad reaching and lasting way within Manitoba.

At a follow-up meeting held in December 8th 2004 attended by 21 people it was decided that the best way to impact food security issues within the province was to develop a Food Charter for Manitoba. At the time this was groundbreaking and would be the first time a provincial-wide food charter had been considered within Canada (there were other Food Charters in Canada at the time, but these were municipally based, for example, Toronto Food Charter).

The idea of the Food Charter evolved further when in March 2005 a provincial food forum meeting attended by 44 people from across the province endorsed the concept of the Food Charter. A steering committee was set up and funding applications made to conduct public consultations throughout the province on what Manitobans thought about the food system and food security concerns of Manitobans. The first meeting of what became the MFC took place on April 21st 2005.

A total of 71 province-wide stakeholder and community consultations events took place between March 2005 and February 2006. 1700 Manitobans took part in the consultation process, either as a participant in a consultation meeting or through completing an individual survey questionnaire. After the consultations were completed a drafting sub-committee was formed to distil the findings (2,642 items gathered from the consultation process) and produce a single page, stand alone document reflecting the views of those involved in the consultation process.

A draft Manitoba Food Charter was made public on April 28th 2006 and a further consultation process on the Food Charter draft was held culminating in the Growing Roots Workshop held on May 10th 2006. The outcome of the workshop was a set of recommendations for the steps needed to implement the Food Charter across the province.

The “scale-up’ phase

Since the Food Charter launch in May 2006, the MFC has grown and developed while attracting signatories to the Food Charter and raising awareness and promoting public education on what the Charter is and on food security issues within Manitoba. The ability to deliver on these activities has been subject to funding and organizational changes within the MFC itself.

The most important ‘scale-up’ activities achieved by the MFC in 2006/2007 have been:

 New governance measures and Board recruitment  Staff hiring and ongoing management (from one staff member in April 2006 to six by end of 2006, then to four by end of April 2007)  Communications strategy developed and start of implementation  Move to new office location and setting up of administration and technology systems  Incorporation of MFC as a not-for-profit  Setting up three regional working groups for urban, rural and northern Manitoba  Organizing and co-partnering a range of events held throughout the province  Building a network of MFC signatories (31 organizations/community groups and 34 individuals as of March 2007)

5. Evaluation Summary of MFC Work Plan Outcomes

The following sections provide a descriptive and numerical summary (where available) of how the MFC has met its goals and objectives as set out in the 2006/2007 Logic Model (Appendix 2) In relation to activities (column 2 of the Logic Model) the MFC has worked to address all the activities that are set out over the 12 month period. The project staff has collected data and other information for us to evaluate the degree of success of MFC activities. (Column 5 and 6 of the Logic Model). As would be expected in any organization, some activities were far more successful than in others in meeting objectives.

Other parts of this document present more detailed appraisal of these different activities to give an insight into the quality and relevance of these different evaluation measurements. Objective 1: Develop the MFC capacity to advance food security through use of the Charter

The MFC successfully incorporated as a non-profit in December 2006 (By-Laws yet to be finalized) and as a result shifted from a Steering Committee to a Board. A new set of Board procedures and practices were put in place. There has been some development training for staff and Board members (including producing an orientation manual). Signatory guidelines have been developed including a Organization and Individual Signatory Application Forms asking signatories to set out the Action Steps they will undertake towards food security relevant to the signatories own activities. A working list of 96 potential signatory organizations and community groups has been developed and several hundred groups and individuals contacted to inform them about the Food Charter and inviting them to sign. By the end of March 2007, 31 organizations and 34 individuals had signed the Charter. Three urban working groups have been formed that have already met on the following topics: access to food, education and food security, and food policy. A further working group, sustainable agriculture, has been identified as important but has yet to get underway. The working groups are in the developmental stage and there is still some way to go towards defining roles and activities.

Objective 2: To be “rooted in community” and connected to the world. (This means: ongoing public dialogue; public ownership of the Charter document; mandate and direction are received from community.)

The MFC has worked with existing food security projects and other stakeholders and a number of successful partnerships formed (see signatories and events sections below for more detail). The MFC is developing its province-wide Food Security Network to share information, successes, good practices and develop partnerships. Substantial progress has been made in this area through developing a professional communications strategy and work plan and recruiting three regional liaison officers to develop activities at a local level in urban, rural and northern communities.

Manitoba Food Charter held very successful and well attended provincial Food Security public forums in March 2005 and May 2006. Both these events were held in Winnipeg. The Board determined that these Annual provincial meetings should become the venue for MFC Annual General Meetings and that these events would alternate annually between Winnipeg and either a Rural or Northern center. As the first two had been held in Winnipeg, MFC chose to link the first AGM with the Small Farms Conference being held in Boissevain, Manitoba. Unluckily the dates coincided with a blizzard, and extremely icy roads kept resulted in an attendance of around 35 brave souls.

The MFC has been active throughout the year in events at the community level and more generally. Here the MFC has played a number of roles, such as facilitating the meeting of local groups with an interest in food security, attending events organized by others, partnering with other organizations to enable an event to take place, or holding events in its own name.

Much work has been done to collate the contacts the MFC has into one database/list serve. By the end of April 2007 there were around 1,000 names in the database divided into 10 distinct categories or audiences to help the Charter target its communications more accurately. Work is ongoing to develop the database further and build it up.

One area of activity that has yet to fully develop is the regional networks (RNETs) for Northern, Rural and Urban Manitoba. In the urban region two successful meetings have been organized and held (in December 2006 and February 2007) bringing representatives from a lot of organizations and stakeholders interested in food security together. But it was identified by participants at these meetings that more structure is needed and out of these meeting the four working groups on food education, food access, sustainable local food production, and food policy and research were formed and the working groups are currently defining their roles and what areas of work they might undertake.

Forming networks in the Rural and Northern Regions is more challenging given the huge distances. In the North MFC partners with strong networks within the Bayline/Burntwood area around Thompson. The MFC Northern Liaison worker was able to get local food security committees established in both Flin Flon and The Pas. Both of these communities held Community forums and identified actions steps that they want to begin working on to enhance food security in their communities. In the rural area, MFC has worked with several existing networks, Harvest Moon Society, Small Farms Network and Réseau Communautaire. This work is still, for the most part, under development.

MFC and presented at four national conferences and the MFC has been mentioned in a number of nationally distributed documents and/or articles. The MFC has become a member of Food Secure Canada (FSC). MFC also works with Food Secure Saskatchewan.

Objective 3: Advocate for Policy change that will change the status quo:

Thirty-one organizations and community groups signed the Manitoba Food Charter in 2006/2007 together with 34 individuals who signed in a personal capacity. Other potential signatories have been approached and public signing events planned and/or are starting to take place. The status quo will change as organizations and individuals take action on the commitments they make in signing, and as the media covers these stories and passes ideas along to their audience/readers. Not everyone is amenable to the Charter, one organization said it would never sign the Food Charter, and another turned done the opportunity because they felt it was not relevant to their particular group. The onus is on the MFC to investigate what the perceived barriers were to these groups and to be able to educate and dialogue with groups, to help them see how everyone can have a role in increasing food security, whether in their organizations or in the food choices they make as consumers. Dialogue with government and policy makers has been established through meetings and presentations to relevant departments. In general their response has been cautious, but encouraging. Recommendation 14 from 05/06 encouraged us to “continue to promote dialogue with MAFRI and other departments, focusing on how their stated missions fit with the vision of the Charter. Focus on linking with these similarities and showing how these mutual goals might be reflected in policy, programs, and practice.” This is an ongoing process.

The MFC also sent a mail out on its activities to Manitoba Chiefs (63), the Northern Association of Community Councils (51), and the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (199). There were only three responses to the mail shot and the MFC was not in a position to allocate resources to follow-up on its mailing.

Objective 4: To Provide Public Education

A communications plan has been developed and implementation is ongoing. Regional activities have resulted in key people and organizations being contacted and events throughout the province have served to publicize and disseminate the Food Charter.

The plain language tools such as a people’s summary of the Food Charter is important but not completed although a draft has been developed. Other tools, such as display materials, brochures and leaflets have been developed and distributed. A communications consultant was engaged and a communications work plan developed which started to be implemented from early 2007. Media coverage and press clippings are attached as Appendix

The MFC has attended a number of key events and helped organize and facilitate others to raise awareness of food security issues within Manitoba. The events section below details this area of activity.

A database has been set up and more than 600 names added. The website content and design has been reviewed and the website is in the process of being updated to make it work better for its intended audiences and as a portal for food security activity in Manitoba.

Objective 5: Create community capacity to address food security issues

The regional working groups are under development in the rural and northern regions (with the northern region more advanced than the rural); in the urban region two meeting have been held bringing stakeholders together and a process is underway to bring more structure to activities through the establishment of working groups which are in the process of defining roles and what they will try to become involved in.

All regions have conducted community-based workshops, such as the SPIN workshop, the Ken Meter workshops, and the community food security assessment workshops in the northern region – each of these is explained more fully in the events section below. Objective 6: Develop a sustainable mechanism for maintaining the food security dialogue in Manitoba.

A sustainable mechanism for the MFC has not been achieved.

Like most non-profits , the MFC that has yet to develop a model for its longer-term sustainability that is not dependent on the vagaries of project by project funding. For example, by April 2007 it was clear that the funding for the new financial year (2007/2008) for the MFC would not continue at the same level as 2006/2007 driving the MFC into ‘survival’ mode with respect to its present level of operation. Diversifying its funding sources and obtaining charitable status are two methods the MFC could take to decrease organizational vulnerability

However, the MFC has showed a remarkable ability to adapt and to act through drawing up an emergency contingency plan through to September 2007 that will allow it to keep going and maintain its part of the food security dialogue in Manitoba. At the same time future funding opportunities are being sought.

Establishing the link between MFC Internal and External objectives and activities

As mentioned in earlier sections, the ‘start-up’ to ‘scale-up’ period of 2006/2007 has two distinct but interconnected areas of activity pertinent to the MFC meeting its evaluation objectives, these are:

1. Internal: Organisational restructuring and organizational capacity building, and 2. External: the way the MFC has engaged and responded to the need of its community and stakeholders related to its internal changes.

The following sections explore this ‘internal’ and ‘external’ activity in more detail to assess how specific activities have contributed to achieving the MFC’s Logic Model objectives, starting with ‘internal’ and organizational activities over the past 12 months:

6. Internal Activities

Governance After incorporation the Steering Committee became a Board consisting of 12 members, made up of four members from each region (urban, rural, and northern communities). Board members are pro-actively recruited as well as volunteers making themselves available for Board positions. Board members either undertake their roles on a 100 percent voluntary basis or are able to serve as part of their paid employment duties. During 2006/2007 not all Board positions were filled during the period. Table 4 lists the Board members and vacancies as of April 2007:

Table 4 Manitoba Food Charter Board Seat Summary as of April 2007 Name Agency Board Position Laurel Gardiner Bayline Regional Roundtable Northern Co-Chair Bailey Colon MKIO: Manitoba Keewatinook Ininew Okimowin Northern Representative Jessica Pailey Northern Association of Community Councils Northern Representative Vacant Vacant Vacant Northern Seat Jan McIntyre Farmer, Chair Advisory Committee Manitoba Farm and Rural Co-Chair Rural Stress Line Wanda Andres Organic Food Council of Manitoba Rural Co-Chair Diane Bazin Reséau Communautaire Rural Representative Glen Franklin Farmer Rural Representative Judy Barg Winnipeg Regional Health Authority Urban Representative Shirley Academic: M.Eng. Chemical Engineering Urban Representative Thompson Ph.D. Adult Education Vacant Vacant Vacant Urban Seat Vacant Vacant Vacant Urban Seat Pat Lachance Public Health Agency of Canada Ex officio Paul Fieldhouse Health and Healthy Living Ex officio

Written procedures for how the Board should operate were developed during 2006/2007 to improve Board performance. This includes making Board meeting more efficient and streamlined through adhering to stricter timelines for different agenda items, having a rotating Board chair, and, importantly, making sure consensual decisions are transparent and clear to all and recorded as such.

A further important area of reform has been to separate more clearly the decision-making processes by Board members from those made by staff members and to make more transparent Board responsibilities and roles from those of staff members and vice versa. Related to this last point, the management of staff in terms of who people report to and about what has been made clearer during the day-to-day operations of the MFC.

Funding

Additional funding during 2006/2007, especially funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada that became available from October 2006, enabled much of the ‘scale-up’ activity to take place. However, by April 2007 it was clear that the same level of funding that enabled the type of work the project undertook in the second half of the 2006/2007 period was not going to be in place.

In response, the MFC has been able to develop a contingency survival plan setting out core priorities for its operation through to end of September 2007 while the project seeks further funding opportunities. Table 2 lists the funders for the 2006-2007 period, the largest contribution being made by the Public Health Agency of Canada. In addition to the monetary funding, the MFC received approximately 3000 hours of in-kind contributions from volunteers and other organizations. Table 5 lists the source of funding and in-kind contributions for the period 2005/2006 some of which ran into the 2006/2007 year. TABLE 5: Funding and Partners (Cash and Inkind) contributed in 2006-2007 Source Date Purpose Cash Public Health Agency of Canada 2006- Develop the Manitoba Food Charter Canadian Diabetes Strategy 2007 Public Awareness Networking and Partnerships Public Health Agency of Canada 2006- Develop Regional Networks Population Health 2007 Public Awareness Networking and Partnerships Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern 2006- Communication and participation of Affairs 2007 Northern residents and rural board members in the MFC Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council 2007 Speakers Tour Heifer International 2007 Spin Farming Event The Organic Food Council of 2007 Spin Farming Event Manitoba In kind : Over 3000 volunteer hours in 2006-2007 4 Community volunteer board 06-07 Board members Public Health Agency of Canada 06-07 Board

Bayline Regional Roundtable 06-07 Board Event partner Réseau Communautaire 06-07 Board Event partner The Organic Food Council of 06-07 Board Manitoba, a chapter of Canadian Event partner Organic Growers Heifer International, Canadian 06-07 Board Prairies Event partner Winnipeg Regional Health Authority 06-07 Board

Northern Association of Community 06-07 Board Councils Event partner Amisk Centre, Leaf Rapids 06-07 Board

St Matthews Anglican Parish 06-07 Board Event partner Mennonite Central Committee 06-07 Event partner Harvest Moon Society 06-07 Event partner Turtle Mountain Development 06-07 Event partner Corporation Food for Good 06-07 Event partner Many other community groups 06-07 Event partners Community volunteers 06-07 Organizational Development  Dana Bao Public Events  Pat Elezar  Tammy Kendel  Carol Radway  Numerous others Practicum Students 2007 Technical support, communications,  Tara St Laurent, Red River CED event planning  Dale Harick, Red River CED

Staff recruitment and management

New funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada that became available from October 2006 allowed the MFC to move from one full-time staff member in April 2006 to hire five additional contract staff from October/November of 2006 to March 2007. By April 2007 four staff, the organizational coordinator, one community liaison, a communications coordinator and office manager remained.

The province was divided into three regions for the purposes of pursing MFC objectives: Urban’ region: comprising Winnipeg from inside the perimeter; Northern region: north of a line roughly drawn from the southern tip of Lake Winnipeg and to the top of Duck Mountain Provincial Park in the West and Nopiming Provincial Park in the East; Rural Region: covering the rest of the province, but mainly an area in the bottom southwest of the province.

Three of the contract staff were hired to act as regional liaisons. The job of the regional liaisons was to act as coordinators and facilitate workshops with communities and agencies and to develop action steps towards the vision of a just and sustainable food system as articulated in the Manitoba Food Charter, including obtaining signatories to the Charter. In this respect the work of the regional liaisons has been to build the food security network across the province, further public education and awareness, and to support the work where appropriate of other food security organizations: an example of this last point is the way the MFC has worked with 100 Mile Manitoba, a group promoting local food.

Staff structure 2006/2007:

Kreesta Doucette – Project Coordinator, April 2005 to present Kelly Janz, Office Manager from October 2006 to present Jennifer Heinrichs, Communications Coordinator – December 2006 to present Paul Chorney, Urban Regional Liaison, November 2006 to present Eric Busch, Rural Regional Liaison, November 2006-April 2007 (end of contract) Donnamay Morin, Northern Regional Liaison, November 2006-April 2007 (end of contract) The growth in staff has posed a number of new challenges for both the MFC and the Project Coordinator. Hiring staff has meant writing job descriptions, going through a recruitment process, developing staff orientation and training, and managing the different roles of staff both with regard to working together and in relation to the responsibilities of Board members.

Office administration and management

The office manager position has been essential for the ‘scale-up’ of MFC. In July 2006 the MFC experienced the upheaval of moving offices. Kelly Janz took up the position of Office Manager for the MFC in October 2006, initially working 15 hours per week, she was later able to extend this by a further 15 hours per week as a practicum as part of her University of Winnipeg studies. As well as undertaking administrative duties, and organizational and communication systems the office manager has worked with a computer technology company to set up an electronic network so all staff can access MFC materials and documents, both within the office and remotely. The Office Manager has played an important role in preparing background and briefing materials for Board members and organizing Board meetings.

Development of a communications strategy and work plan

To date MFC communications had been ad hoc in nature with a broad all encompassing message attempting to introduce a new concept of food security across the province. Part of the ad hoc nature of communication up until this point was a lack of staffing and resources with no strategic plan for communications. Jennifer Heinrichs was employed as a Communications Coordinator for the MFC for 30 hours per week to develop and implement a communications plan. The communications coordinator worked to develop a work plan that included a focused and consistent message and communications tools.

Key areas that have been addressed or are under further development from start of 2007 are:

Website

The website was in place before January 2007, but it has since been reviewed and is in the process of being reorganized and a website ‘plan’ has been produced. A new design (after six drafts) has been developed and the navigation will be a lot cleaner and simplified. The next step is to work on content.

Developing food security tools

The MFC has developed and produced display materials and other communications ‘tools’, such as a press kit, to support on the ground staff and volunteers. Further development work on communication tools has been identified as a priority by the MFC for the future. Media

The communications role has included providing media and public relations support for the MFC activities. For example, providing PR for the Ken Meter speaker’s tour (see below), the SPIN event and the Manitoba Food Charter Annual General Meeting. Appendix 4 lists media articles related to the Manitoba Food Charter from 2007-2004.

Campaigns/education

The Food Security Awards to be launched in May 2007 have been part of the communications coordinators role, which involved setting out the criteria for the awards, the process for choosing the awards and budget and event planning.

Another area of education and public awareness has been the development of a MFC newsletter. This is planned to be published four times a year. The first issue (see Appendix 4) came out in January 2007 and the second at the end of April 2007.

Manitoba Food Security database

More than 600 contact names and their details have been brought together to make up the MFC database and list serve. These are broken down into 10 different audiences: staff member, Board member (past and present), Food Charter signatory, funders, volunteers, food security network contact, government contacts, food system stakeholders (such as producers, retailers, processors), personal/individual contacts, and others.

Other areas of activity

The MFC originally envisaged producing a people’s summary of the Charter, a clear language version of the MFC. However a key realization has been that the Charter document is a policy tool and not necessarily a strong stand alone public communications tool. Instead with the help of a local journalist the MFC has developed a backgrounder document for public education.

In an effort to connect with municipal leaders and chiefs the MFC created a mailout for over 300 municipalities, community councils and assembly chiefs inviting them to sign the MFC. The MFC lacked the resources to undertake a follow-up and subsequently there was no response to the mailout.

Since January 2007 the communications of the MFC have started on the path towards a developing tools and formalizing communication strategies . Key areas identified for the immediate future are to finish the ‘webplan’ and to use the website more effectively, continue to develop, build and use the database to target specific audiences, and to maintain publication of the newsletter.

Practicum Students and Volunteers The Manitoba Food Charter took on two one-month practicum students from the Red River College Community Economic Development Program in 2006-2007. Students were able to assist with technical support, communications, event planning, and administrative duties. The students provided assistance for the project but also required more supervision, structure, and preparation than paid staff with the added strain of orientation for a relatively short practicum placement. There are plans to host an additional two University of Winnipeg Menno Simons college practicum students for 2007-2008. The Manitoba Food Charter had one ongoing office volunteer that assisted in communications work and special events with another volunteer involved in special events. Two additional volunteers met with the MFC but ended up being too busy to fulfill their volunteer commitment. The MFC has developed volunteer application forms, practicum planning tools, and a list of available projects for new volunteers.

Findings and recommendations

Strong communications tools and strategic public events can be an effective way of communicating an organizational message to a large audience across Manitoba in a cost effective manner. It is recommended that the Charter continue to streamline its communications messages while using public events to generate media and publicity to effectively disseminate its message to Manitobans. Key communications lessons from 2006-2007 include identifying and targeting the right audience, work on shaping the right content and message for the audience, and when undertaking communications strategies ensure sufficient resources to do follow-ups.

While the project would like to involve students and provide volunteer opportunities care should be taken to not see volunteers and practicum students as a cost neutral benefit to the organization. The potential benefit from each individual volunteer and practicum students should be weighed against the resources required to facilitate an effective an enjoyable placement for both the organization and student/volunteer.

7. External Activities

Building the internal foundation and moving from a project to organizational mindset for the MFC has played an important role in how it is perceived and operates in its ‘external’ environment: both of these have proven critical to build credibility and trust to enable outside organizations and individuals to become Food Charter signatories. The range of signatories is a positive sign that the MFC has been able to move towards meeting its wider objectives. The sections below expand on two aspects of the MFC’s work – its signatories and public events. The MFC Signatories

The MFC ‘s key objective at the start of the 2006/2007 period was to finalize the Food Charter document and to then obtain Food Charter signatories. Considerable progress has been made with this respect, especially from October/November 2006 when regional liaison staff were hired.

By the end of February 2007, 31 organizations and community groups – almost a third of the potential target audience for signatories identified - had signed the Manitoba Food Charter. Signatories at as of March 2007 are:

 100 Mile Manitoba  Healthy Living Program – St  Art City Matthews  Beyond Factory Farming  Klinic Community Health Centre  Canadian  Mary-Jane’s Cooking School  Centre for Policy Alternatives  Ploughshares Community Farm  Manitoba Community Economic  Room To Grow Development Network  Rupertsland Diocese – Anglican  Community Ventures Worker Co-op Church  Dragonfly Scent-free Body Work  St. Norbert Arts Centre (SNAC) and Massage Therapy  Sherridon Community Council  Manitoba Organic Food Council  Southwest Women’s Institute  Manitoba Eco-Network  SPARC (Simplicity Practice and  Mennonite Central Committee Resource Centre) Manitoba  Tall Grass Prairie Bakery  Bayline Regional Roundtable, Inc.  St Matthew’s Anglican Church Thompson Zoo  United Church Women, Clearwater  Eatit.ca  Wolseley Family Place  Elmwood Community Resource  Fresh Options Organic Delivery Centre  Harvest Moon Society  Fort Whyte Alive

In addition 34 people have signed the MFC in an individual capacity.

Through the signatory process the MFC has created a unique resource through its signatories. More than any other activity, the involvement of the signatories with MFC, demonstrates a commitment towards the goals and objectives of the MFC as set out in the Manitoba Food Charter vision (Table 1 above, and Appendix 1) and the objectives listed in its Logic Model (Appendix 2).

In particular, the furtherance of food security in the province through the work of the MFC has been demonstrated by the MFC asking signatories to set out Action Steps they will commit to take over the next year to move towards the Manitoba Food Charter vision for food security. While a small minority of signatories did not specify any actions, the vast majority did, some in considerable detail. Appendix 4 lists a summary of the food security ‘Action Steps’ signatories stated they will undertake as listed on their signatory forms.

While many of these organizations may (or may not) have thought about undertaking these actions in the absence of the MFC, for many the dialogue generated by the MFC has been an added focus and possible incentive to advance food security through the use of the Food Charter. The signatories also provide a unique foundation from which the future work of the Charter can be built, including expanding the signatory base. A key challenge for the future of the MFC will be working with signatories over the long run and interacting with them on the Action Steps the MFC has asked them to commit to by becoming signatories.

Events and the MFC

Throughout 2006/2007 the MFC has been active in attending, presenting, organizing, facilitating or partnering with others in a wide range of events within Manitoba. Appendix 5 contains a list of the 28 events in which the MFC was involved in 2006/2007. In addition to events the MFC has held a large number of meetings with individuals or small groups to discuss the Food Charter and how to become a signatory or been able to represent food security issues at other meetings, for example, through those held with government departments or political representatives.

Northern Highlight: Flin Flon Food Security Forum

One of the powerful roles that the MFC has developed is acting as the catalyst to bring people together around food security issues. For example, DonnaMay Morin, the MFC Northern Regional Liaison and Heather Acres, a Flin Flon resident, arranged a workshop in Flin Flon that brought together 13 people to a workshop on community food security needs. Participants ‘mapped’ out the local food system identifying local producers, such as berry pickers, informal farmers’ markets, truck sales, and processors. Nine local producer activities were identified. Thirteen existing food security programs in the local community were also identified. Participants gave details of the food security activities they were engaged in. For example, the Lighthouse Program, operating through the Friendship Centre in Flin Flon, provided a Family Feast once a month. Participants then identified service gaps. For example, the workshop identified that the food bank could open more frequently during the week if it could get more volunteers. Participants then ranked what they regarded as the priority projects that would be viable within the local community. The top ranked score by workshop participants was to increase the volunteer base for the local food bank.

Exercises like this provide valuable food security insight for communities and help develop priorities and areas for practical actions. The MFC can develop further its leadership role through continuing to facilitate and develop this type of activity and to use exercises such as this to develop community-based food security policy options. Rural Highlight: The Ken Meter Speaking Tour

An interesting innovation for the MFC in raising awareness was organizing a speaker’s tour. Ken Meter - a long-time researcher on local food systems – was invited to speak at five venues in March 2007. Ken is president of Crossroads Resource Center in Minneapolis and serves as an economic and strategic adviser to the U.S.-based Aldo Leopold Center for Sustainable Development. The speaker tour was set up as an interactive workshop to describe how communities in North America have used local food economic analysis to develop solutions for local food markets, communities and capacity building. The workshops were held at five different venues and total attendees numbered 113. The venues and the number attending each workshop were:

Portage (7) Clearwater (25) Deloraine (34) Winnipeg (27) Riverton (20)

This event gave us much information and strategic messages to use in reaching rural farm communities and families. As well, it gave us something to offer a group that didn’t really think that the Food Charter had much to do with them.

Urban Highlight: The SPIN Farming workshop and open event

One of the event highlights of 2006/2007 was the SPIN Farming presentation and workshop held in March 2007. SPIN Farming is a producer technique developed by farmers Wally Satzewitch and Gail Vandersteen based in Saskatoon. Small Plot INtensive (SPIN) farming adapts traditional rural farm horticultural models to create an innovative back-yard urban farm model that produces profitable crop production using limited land space. From the event evaluation, participants of the workshop felt that SPIN founders Wally and Gail were credible and knowledgeable trainers. In addition the combination of a workshop and open event worked well as did the presentations from Manitoban initiatives which helped to complement the SPIN presentation.

MFC initiated the event and partnered with Heifer International, the Organic Food Council of Manitoba and the Canadian Organic Growers to bring together the SPIN workshop, attended by 39 invited participants, and a presentation by the SPIN founders which saw more than 170 people turn up. To support the SPIN presentation four shorter presentations were included on the agenda describing Winnipeg urban agricultural projects – these were the Wiens’ Shared Farm, Community Garden Preserves, Fort Whyte Farms and a talk on community gardens from Karen Lind, University of Manitoba, Faculty of the Environment.

An important insight for the MFC from initiating the event was that the partnerships and collaboration in hosting these events was a major factor in their success and that developing future collaborations should be a priority in planning similar ventures. 8. Evaluation Findings

Part of the purpose of this evaluation is to help the MFC reflect on its vision, goal and objectives and assess how they have been working towards these over the 12-month period April 2006 to March 2007.

Feedback from the Regions:

One of the most important aspects of MFC’s work at a regional level has been the ability to document and assimilate feedback directly from communities and from people involved in different activities related to food security.

For example, in the Rural Region the key concerns expressed communities are:  rural depopulation and supporting local producers within the context of broader food security concerns.  Preservation of rural culture and lifestyle via local economic improvement and youth retention;  Preservation of food production as a livelihood through the increased viability of farms; and  Greater connection for rural communities through better communication with other parts of the province in urban centers and northern communities. Responding to these grassroots observations, the MFC food security activities in the rural region are being framed around issues relating to depopulation and about the connections between food producers and food consumers.

In the Urban Region issues of poverty, social exclusion and social justice are the framework in which much food security activity takes place and these issues have been a focus of MFC interaction as a result.

Northern Region issues of high food prices, access to nutritious food, and increasing local food self-sufficiency of both wild and raised food are the areas MFC works with and action steps northern signatories are moving toward.

Balancing the optimism generated through the work of the MFC and others concerned about community food security in Manitoba is the reality that progress towards local food security is often slow, difficult and poorly resourced work.

Building trust and credibility

The MFC has become much more professional in terms of its governance procedures and structures, and in building its organizational capacity, such as its communications strategy. This in turn has shown through it in its external operations. For example, the MFC has come across as credible and trustworthy for a wide range of organizations and community groups to sign the Food Charter in effect becoming partners in the MFC vision. The MFC has also been able to partner with much larger and longer established organizations to co- sponsor events. The MFC has started to knit together a food security network across the Province. All these activities can be seen as exerting food security leadership.

A continuing challenge, in the view of this evaluation, has been to find the time for reflection and the time for balance as outlined by in the governance review. Although progress has been made here, for example, by holding a professionally facilitated internal retreat in April 2007.

Areas that suggest further reflection for future work are:

 the MFC role with government and the policy process,  understanding which constituencies are missing from the MFC’s work and how to engage them, and,  which and how to form, longer-term strategic partnerships.

In term of balance, the challenge for the MFC remains how to weigh short-term needs, such as funding and resources, project-based work, with its longer-term vision, goal and objectives and achieve a sustainable future to maximize its impact on addressing the food security needs within Manitoba.

To reflect on these kind of issues further, a summary is provided outlining the MFC Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT). Based on topics covered in this evaluation, a SWOT analysis was applied to the MFC bearing in mind the fact that the MFC is still at an early stage of development and the evaluation is based on past performance. These are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the Manitoba Food Charter: Table 6: Manitoba Food Charter, SWOT Analysis STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES  Can partner effectively with larger and  Heavily dependent on the vagaries of specific more established organizations and agencies project funding which has the potential to divert  Proven ability to deliver what it says it will from core objectives and to undermine longer- set out to do while being sensitive to a diverse term sustainability through lack of resources range of stakeholders and communities  Confusion remains in the general public about  Has started to perform the role of an the Food Charter and its purpose “umbrella” for Manitoba’s community food  Difficult to juggle the demands of many security movement and organizations stakeholders and interests  Has provided leadership in this “umbrella”  Need to engage a number of stakeholders still role particularly through the professionalism of its under-represented in food security actions and communications role as broadly defined (that is, the work of MFC (for example, aboriginal and event planning, facilitating meetings, collecting francophone and immigrant communities) provincial food security documentation and  Has yet to fully engage with the policy-making insights, the website, newsletter, database/list process to affect decision-making regarding key serve, media work) issues in food security within the Province.  Able to bring diverse groups and people together (such as working groups, signatories, community based work in the regions)  Developed a solid organizational and governance foundation for growth.  Knitted together a province-wide dialogue and perspective while being inclusive and respectful of regional differences and issues.

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS  To develop more formally as the “umbrella”  Unable to continue work or takes on to much provincial food security ‘voice’ building on the work due to no funding and/or insufficient its signatory ‘members’ and its broadly defined resources communications role  Unable to implement effective strategy to  Skilled at working within food security maintain and develop relationship with Food communities to identify food security needs and Charter signatories beyond signing the Charter wants which can be used to further public past the first 12 months education, awareness and used to build policy  Loss of trust and independence in the face of strategy and dialogue possible competing interests  Can develop and test effective food security  Unable to maintain its ability to work at both tools that can be used at the community level by regional and provincial levels a wide range of stakeholders to help address food security issues (for example, tools for training and helping food security volunteers and for organizations that rely on a lot of volunteer involvement)  Diversifying funding sources and obtaining charitable status to increase financial sustainability  There is little existing baseline food security information 9. Towards the Future and Recommendations

The MFC is developing into a dynamic and credible force in promoting food security in Manitoba and Canada.

Through its relationship with Food Charter signatories and partners the MFC has the opportunity to become an ‘umbrella organization’ for food security in the province. There are some models for such an organization, perhaps one of the most longstanding ones being Sustain in the United Kingdom. Sustain is the alliance for better food and farming and advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, enrich society and culture and promote equity. Sustain represents around 100 national public interest organizations working at international, national, regional and local level and operates in collaboration with its membership.

Such a route suggests a next stage in the evolution of the Food Charter. This is from start- up, to scale-up, to the next stage: consolidation. This consolidation needs to be true to the origins of the Food Charter and be driven from its constituency as represented by signatories, communities and partners.

Part of the next stage approach might be to develop a ‘theory of change’ model as the core guiding strategy for the future work of the MFC. A ‘theory of change’ model explains how and why a project’s activities are expected to lead to desired changes. If this approach were taken it implies that the MFC would take a more proactive role in building its capacity to enable strategies, actions and propose solutions to inform or influence decision- making towards achieving its vision and goal for food security in Manitoba. This is not to abandon the work the MFC undertakes at present, and this will be on-going, but builds from this for longer-term change that meets the food security needs of Manitobans in rural, urban and northern communities in line with the Food Charter’s original vision, goal and objectives. Recommendations

The MFC might consider:

1. Developing a “theory of change” model to guide and benchmark future work.

2. Build a strong food security policy presence to influence political and policy- making processes and to complement and further grassroots activities.

3. Investigate and build relationships with other regional food security organizations – for example Sustain in the UK - to learn best practice models to apply in the context of Manitoba.

4. Explore the how and why of becoming the “umbrella” food security organization for Manitoba in consultation with signatories and partners.

5. Coordinate the efforts of the new Working Groups to support and build synergies around core objectives.

6. Develop a strategy within the work plan to build relationships with signatories and how to collectively integrate the Food Charter signatory base to the further food security work within Manitoba at both the regional and provincial levels.

7. Re-examine who are the MFC stakeholders, prioritize goals to include missing stakeholder groups and define more clearly what is expected of stakeholders and what they expect of MFC.

8. Identify who are the key partners and systematically build mutual dialogue and activities together.

9. Expand and prioritize the MFC’s community food assessment work (such as the ‘mapping’ workshops in the Northern region) to produce an annual “state of Manitoban food security” report to influence policy, decision-makes, and raise awareness and for food security education.

10. Identify common food security ‘tools’ that can be developed and tested and then used by food security stakeholder groups across Manitoba (for example, a ‘toolkit’ for recruiting and retaining volunteers).

11. Build the evaluation process as an on-going activity to include a mechanism to benchmark external inputs as well as internal reflection and record keeping. Appendix 1 Manitoba Food Charters and Signatory Forms

Manitoba Food Charter  English  French  Cree

Signatory Forms Individual and Organisational

 English  French  English  French Appendix 2: The 2006/2007 Logic Model and Evaluation Framework

MFC Evaluation Framework for Logic Model Goal Statement: To use the Manitoba Food Charter to identify and promote concrete actions toward food security and sustainability of the food systems in Manitoba Objective 1: Develop the Manitoba Food Charter Project capacity to advance the Food Security through use of the Charter Activities Outputs/ Outcomes Indicators/ 2006-2007 Deliverables Impacts Measures Results 1) Develop Interim Interim Board/Steering MFC was able to fill all rural Board/Steering Committee. committee vacancies are Orientation Manual board positions. One northern MFC Incorporates as a board position and two urban 2) Incorporate the MFC filled in accordance with structure and process set non-profit group. Steering Committee positions still need to be filled. 3) Develop workplan and out by Steering Committee minutes. Primary reason for these losses evaluation framework. and endorsed by community was amount of work required TOR & Bylaws for the Board and changing 4) Conduct board development on May 10 Incorporation Documents role responsibilities within training for staff and steering Terms of Reference and salaried work. committee members. Incorporation bylaws are Workplan with ratified by Steering Deliverables Checked off Orientation Manual was Committee. Workplan is doable and reported on. completed and orientation Workplan and evaluation with existing personnel session held for new board in framework based on the and budget. Signatory Guidelines June 2006 and new staff in 5) Develop Charter signatory logic model is developed Document December 2006 criteria: and approved by Steering a) Develop a facilitation Committee Committee membership Incorporated December 2006 and meeting minutes Terms of Reference ready for process to identify concrete Develop a Manitoba Food Board ratification. stakeholder action steps to Charter Signatory Steering committee/Board increase food security Guidelines document for minutes are accurately potential signatories to b) strategy to support, follow maintained in a consistent review. up, and monitor format. Objectives form the implementation of action Subcommittees are formed basis for the staff reports. steps & effective c) Develop strategy to Signatory Application form recognize charter signatories developed, guidelines still not completed. Staff or Board work with signatories in developing their action steps. 6) Develop Food Charter Project sub-committees to implement Human Resources, objectives, eg. food policy sub- Incorporation and Terms of committee. Reference, Finance & Fundraising, and Evaluation Committees struck and minutes taken. Goal Statement: To use the Manitoba Food Charter to identify and promote concrete actions toward food security and sustainability of the food systems in Manitoba Objective 2: To be “rooted in community” and connected to the world. (This means: ongoing public dialogue; public ownership of the Charter document; mandate and direction are received from community.) Activities Outputs/ Outcomes Indicators/ 2006-2007 Deliverables Impacts Measures Results 1) work with existing food security Expand our current list of food # of partners and Bayline and Food Charter staff have projects and other stakeholders. security stakeholders as we Linkages and agencies listed on taken more training to improve the 2) Develop a province-wide Food become aware of them. partnerships website look of the website. Security Network to share toward Charter Communication position for 4 months information, successes, good Continue to use website to list goals # of programs and improved content and links to other practices and develop food security partners and strengthen and projects highlighted programs and resources, more work partnerships. highlight good practices and sustain food on website needed in 07-08. a) Through special events successes. security in Partnered at 28 events, see Appendix b) Develop a food security list Plan Annual Conference for Manitoba 5 special events 5 Held several major events: serve/ website page February to take into Ken Meter speakers circuit series in c) Annual conference or consideration winter road and Over 600members Rural Manitoba, workshop to be held in February farm cropping seasons. on database SPIN Farming sessions in urban. 3) Develop regional networks Conference will attract at least World Food Day march in (RNets) for Northern, Rural and 50 people. 50 participants at Thompson Urban Manitoba which will: A priority for action this year annual conference NorMan Food Forums in The Pas a) Connect communities and will be to develop then support and Flin Flon. agencies to address food security regional working groups to feed Summary of Northern Signing Ceremony & issues in their region in to the Charter Steering participant Feast b) Connect rural, urban, and Committee, but also to address RNETs evaluations from Min. Oscar Lathlin (MB ANA) flew northern communities local issues. established, Conference through a blizzard to join the event. 4) Connect with national and Regional Working groups will be RNETs begin to Attendance (35) at February AGM international food security efforts: established: work together # members in each largely impacted by icestorm and a) Document and share the . Northern working group to address RNET. distance from Winnipeg. Partnering experiences of the Manitoba with 10 members. regional issues. with the Small Farms Conference was Food Charter at national . Rural working group Issues being a good opportunity for MFC to conferences. with 10 members, addressed by each dialogue with farmers on their issues b) Participate in Food Secure . Urban working group RNET. of concern. Canada with 20 members Over 600 contacts in MFC list serve. i) Membership FSC Membership Issues being addressed by RNETS are ii) Links on website Join Food Secure Canada as numerous. However Grow Local, Buy iii) Assist in the organizational member. # Materials Local, Eat Local was selected as a key development of national Present on Food Charter Panel distributed to FSC theme uniting all the regions for 07- policies and participate at National 08. iv) Raise ag and food issues Conference. # of national 6 MFC Board & Staff attended FSC v) Stay informed of On Food Security Canada’s List meetings and conference in Vancouver, presented international Serve and send out relevant conferences poster session, and spoke at Charters agreements regarding material to our contacts. addressed on MFC session. Final wrap comment from food security and right Ontario—that the Manitoba Food to food. Charter was the best Food Charter process they had seen & should be endorsed Goal Statement: To use the Manitoba Food Charter to identify and promote concrete actions toward food security and sustainability of the food systems in Manitoba Objective 3: Advocate for Policy change that will change the status quo: a. Engage citizens in policy development and change at the federal, provincial, First Nations, municipal, agency, corporate and family household level. b. Act as a provincial voice for food security through ongoing communication with food system stakeholders c. Use the food security network to raise profile of food security issues. Activities Outputs/ Outcomes Indicators/ 2006-2007 Deliverables Impacts Measures Results 1) Identify, document, and priorise Maintain a service log to track RNET’s assist in Major progress made in stakeholder groups at the agency contacts with the identifying stake- identifying and linking with community, organizational, and stakeholder groups. holder groups stakeholder groups in urban and departmental level. northern regions. More effort 2) Using the Manitoba Food Charter signatory guidelines Record of must be made with aboriginal Charter Signatory Guidelines, are distributed to 30 potential Signatory Action # of Signatories groups, immigrant groups, engage stakeholders in dialogue partners, of these 20 invite MFC Step farmers, and food retailers. of action commitments they could to a discussion or planning commitments, A variety of interesting action make on becoming a signatory. meeting, of these 15 proceed Anecdotal # of Participants steps have been committed by 3) Hold signing events at the to formal commitments and evidence of Event notices, stakeholders, see Appendix 4 Manitoba Legislature or other signing. change in policy, Evaluations, and highly visible venues. A Food Charter Signing and programs, or Report 31 organizations & 34 individuals 4) Engage provincial departments Food Security Awards practice have signed the MB Food Charter. whose mandates impact food Ceremony is held at the Signatory Guidelines Food Charter signing was held in security: Legislature. & Thompson in March, is planned a) Encourage inter-departmental Hold meetings with individual Event Tracking Sheet for at the Forks in May and for strategic planning relative to food departments and one inter- Northern Region on World Food security to increase results of departmental meeting Event Tracking Sheet Day in October. MFC also offered departmental programs while attracting departments whose Participants’ signatories to choose a venue maximizing effectiveness of tax mandate and policy impact ? Evaluation that would be meaningful or have dollars. food security. Interdepartmental more media value for them, eg. b) Engage and provide education Committee on Northern Assoc. of Community to departmental staff, policy Food Security Councils in August at their AGM. advisors, etc. as well as ministerial Established by MB and department heads as Gov’t. Minutes of meetings MFC Provincial Board rep. has requested. coordinated interdepartmental c) Assist the government to Anecdotal representatives to meet to develop an internal mechanism to evidence of policy, consider the proposal guide food-security related program, and legislation based on the Manitoba legislative change Charters mailed to all Manitoba Food Charter, (ie a conceptual that may be Mayors and Chiefs. (Total= 313) lens or screen) related to the Little response. However there 5) Provide opportunities for Food Charter. # of charters has since been queries from the partnership between various distributed to mayors of Binsgarth, Gillam, and levels of government, the non- Leadership in MB Thompson. Thompson & Gillam profit and corporate sectors to will be signing. MFC still needs to capitalize on each agencies’ send to the MPs and MLAs. capacities. 6) Send the charter to all chiefs, MPs MLAs, municipal and provincial leaders to use in developing platforms Goal Statement: To use the Manitoba Food Charter to identify and promote concrete actions toward food security and sustainability of the food systems in Manitoba Objective 4: To Provide Public Education a. Create awareness and promote understanding of food security issues through the use of the Manitoba Food Charter (From the personal to the organizational level) Activities Outputs/ Outcomes Indicators/ 2006-2007 Deliverables Impacts Measures Results 1) Publicize and disseminate the 100 charter posters are Increeased calls for # of calls for Peoples summaries were Charter. produced information because information developed but not printed for 2) Develop plain language tools: 1000 Peoples Summaries people have seen dissemination as the charter a) Posters for farmers are produced and posters or brochures. itself is not an effective markets and coffee shops. distributed general public education tool. b) Develop a people’s 1000 “10 things you can do to summary of the charter. improve food security” pocket 3) Use the media and other Regular periodic # items in media file. cards, targeting individual communication tools to exposure keeps responses, were produced and communicate with Media log of contacts, awareness fresh. many distributed at many stakeholders and public. clippings etc is maintained. Communication plan different venues over the year. a) Develop a communications Communication consultant was plan Communications plan is # hits hired & b) Hire a communications produced. # records/reports Communication plan was consultant Website use increases, added to website produced. c) Develop ad campaigns to Records of events reported increase in Service Log Event tracking form was engage, educate and interest maintained. rural and northern use. produced. 4) To use opportunities for Record of events was community celebration to raise Database expanded. maintained and some event awareness of food security tracking forms were filled in. issues Website continued to be there needs to be additional 5) Develop a Manitoba Food improved, numbers of hits documented so that there is Security database monitored. more information about a) Database could include Event Tracking Sheet impacts not just dates and food banks, community numbers of participants. projects, sources for local food Partner Inventory form For 07-08 need to focus on etc. to link: developing a base-line and i) people to food Website assessment otherwise it will be security resources CIMtools difficult to demonstrate ii)food providers to change. consumers 6) Continue to strengthen the ‘Hits” in 06-07 not recorded. Manitoba Food Charter Need to have mechanism to Website. track in 07-08 Need to work on website in 07- 08 already noted. Staff took CIM tools training on web-design and data entry. Goal Statement: To use the Manitoba Food Charter to identify and promote concrete actions toward food security and sustainability of the food systems in Manitoba Objective 5: Create community capacity to address food security issues. Activities Outputs/ Outcomes Indicators/ 2006-2007 Deliverables Impacts Measures Results 1) Develop regional working Conduct 10 stakeholder and RNETs established, # of members in each Bayline/Burntwood network in groups in northern, rural, and community-based RNETs begin to work RNET. Northern Manitoba is strong urban Manitoba workshops together to address and older than the Charter. regional issues. Issues being addressed New networks established a) Conduct stakeholder and by each RNET. through community forums in community-based workshops to Event Tracking Sheet Flin Flon & The Pas. identify regional issues and for RNET activities Bayline, NACC and 4 Arrows action steps using popular Health Authority all have education and mutual learning identified community food techniques. champions that would form b) Identify and support great community contacts for community food security the Food Charter, these links champions need to be made. c) Select Annual food security Urban Liaison has established awards recipients from their a strong new urban group that regions has developed separate working groups to address food access, food policy & research, sustainable local food production, and food education. Rural region is working with pre-existing networks such as: Harvest Moon, Small Farms Manitoba and Réseau Communautaire. Northern Food security awards were held at the signing ceremony in Thompson in March. Goal Statement: To use the Manitoba Food Charter to identify and promote concrete actions toward food security and sustainability of the food systems in Manitoba Objective 6: Develop a sustainable mechanism for maintaining the food security dialogue in Manitoba Activities Outputs/ Outcomes Indicators/ 2006-2007 Deliverables Impacts Measures Results 1.Continue to discuss the funding Recommendations are in Larger focus creates Depends on actions ☼MFC is a non-profit issue in Steering Committee place by end of this fiscal larger mandate, ongoing outlined in plan. corporation and does not have meetings and with partners. year. role and more potential the mandate or products to partners/members for generate sales revenues. Thus organization sustainability means stable 2. Develop a Finance and funding partners. This is Fundraising Committee to difficult to achieve with funders oversee and advise on Funding who want to fund “seed issues. projects”. ☼MFC had a steep learning curve in financial management this year, ably mentored by Bayline Regional Roundtable and our contract book-keeper as confirmed by our audit. 3. Investigate changing corporate ☼MFC was in serious funding name something different than trouble at the end of the fiscal the Manitoba Food Charter to year, as there was a provincial avoid confusion with the election and threat of federal. document. We made a survival budget and had to lay off all but two staff. ☼Public Health Agency of Canada and the MFC both want to see more provincial funding in place. The province is being very cautious as they don’t really know what funding us might imply about support of the document itself. MFC is confident it will get to a place of trust with the province as they come to appreciate our ability to build momentum and shared responsibility (public & corporate) toward food security. ☼MFC is aware that the name Manitoba Food Charter, causes confusion as to whether we are talking about the organization or the document. MFC will be Appendix 3: Summary of MFC Key Project Activities 2006/2007

 Launched the draft Manitoba Food Charter at the Rural Forum, April 2006  Contacted 71 potential organizational signatories and over 500 individual signatories  Requested signatories via mail out from Manitoba Chiefs (63), Northern Association of Community Councils (51), Association of Manitoba Municipalities (199)  Met with the Province of Manitoba’s Minister of Health and Healthy Living (Food Charter contact department) to discuss becoming a signatory  Met with the Deputy Minister Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Initiatives to discuss the food charter  Presented to 30 Councilors, Mayors, and Reeves at the Association of Manitoba Municipalities  Developed the potential for four community working groups; Food Education, Food Access, Sustainable Local production, Food Policy and Research  Formed food security networks in The Pas and Winnipeg.  Partnered and facilitated the development of initiatives including the 100 Mile Manitoba Diet.  Worked to help facilitate a province wide food security network including creating a province wide food security list serve  Developed a draft plain language backgrounder to the Manitoba Food Charter  Translated some key communications documents into French  Hosted Growing Roots, a one day province-wide food security event, May 2006, 90 attendees  Partnered with Turtle Mountain Development Corporation to host Supporting our Rural Communities, the Food Charter Annual General Meeting  Held a World Food Day event in Thompson with project partners  Presented, attended or displayed at over 10 community events  Participated in two AAFC Next Generation General Agricultural Policy hearings  Partnered with other organizations to deliver four community speakers series on Local Food Systems and Community Economic Development  Partnered with other organizations to hold the Urban SPIN Farming workshop and open meeting with 39 and 170 attendees respectively  Developed and co-presented a Charter workshop at the National Food Security Assembly  Developed Food Security awards criteria for 2007-2008  Logged more than 3000 volunteer hours  Developed organizational capacity through staff recruitment, improved governance structures, developing procedures manuals, developing administrative and technology systems  Evaluation subcommittee developed terms of reference for recruiting an evaluator  Held Food Charter signing ceremonies with Northern signatories. Appendix 4: 2006-2007 MFC Signatory Action Steps

 Explore developing social economy and food research project  Integrate Food Charter issues into another part of [organization] work  Promoting charter in day to day work  Purchasing supplies from local sources  Promoting the Charter’s vision and the Charter itself  Promoting more environmentally friendly farming methods to replace farming methods that will adversely impact future food security  Getting young people to choose farming so that retiring farmers will be replaced  Promoting the consumption of locally produced food to support local farmers and to minimize long distance transport of food that will become more of a problem as we get beyond peak oil  Include an emphasis on local foods in other work areas  Support and publicize local food security issues through ‘green’ map of Winnipeg  Promote gardening and small livestock production to increase local food self- sufficiency  Promote program to make home freezers available to families to increase families’ ability to store food and capitalize on home grown, wild and bulk purchased food  Promote a program of bringing nutritious food boxes to families in communities with no local food stores  Work with local stores and communities to encourage them to be more competitive in their pricing  Involve community elementary schools  Work with young mums to teach them how to prepare healthy and economical meals and snacks for their families  Raise concerns about food insecurity issues in area with appropriate officials  Recruit 100+ Manitobans to eat within a 100 miles from September 1st to December 9th  Expand awareness of the Food Charter among faith-based organizations  Committed to a food secure Canada  Advocate for nutritional food choices in schools  Phasing out of junk foods and beverages through outreach activities  Advocate for environmentally sound practices related to food production, processing and homemaking  Advocate for ethically responsible grocery stores where whole foods are promoted and poor quality foods are minimized  Acquire facilities, resources and deliver programming related to food  Community kitchen project  Community gardening in summer months  Increase self-sufficiency  Have regular talks and workshops on food technologies for local food production enabling  Link rural with urban agriculture workers/families  Maintain community gardens  Work with school staff and students  Utilize training opportunities  Develop and present more workshops  Offering workshops  As individuals working towards greater self-reliance and sustainable food consumption  Build resource of local food sources  Working to develop earth-friendly packaging  Food costing exercise  Following a local living mandate  Made in Manitoba stickers displayed on local food  Website that will pull all local food together in one place  Sourcing for farmers who can supply larger amounts of local organics  Educating farmers about storage and preparation of food for retail sales  A made in Manitoba food featured monthly  Organic dinner and screening of Seeds of Change  Make small stores in the community more accountable  Providing training on eating nutritiously on a budget  Taking action to develop Canadian policy on food labeling  Education  Initiating project to provide local/organic food to daycares  Continue to replace out-of-province purchases with locally produced alternatives and pursue new local product development  Educating – courses and workshops  Local food production  Youth involvement  Direct marketing  Economic development in rural areas  Secure future funding to continue our existing community food security activities  An education campaign within [the organization] around the importance of purchasing nutritious foods  The creation of a list of locally run food related businesses or social enterprises that staff would be encouraged to purchase goods and services from for the [organization] events  Research fair trade products which could be incorporated into the [organization] current food/beverage purchases  Continues to have [organization staff] work with local organizations on food insecurity and nutrition issues Appendix 5: Events Participated in by the MFC (the figure in brackets referring to number of people present at each event)

1. Presentation to Public Health Agency of Canada on Manitoba food security (15) 2. Presentation on the MFC at meeting of Association of Manitoba Municipalities (150) 3. MFC Annual General Meeting held in Boissevain (30+ poor weather restricted attendance) 4. Attended Canadian Association of Food Studies, York University, Toronto, MFC story presented as part of conference proceedings (June 1-2, 2006) 5. Attended CED annual gathering in 2006 and presented work on MFC in a workshop (20), 350 people attended conference, 6. World Food Day march in Thompson led by MFC banner and culminating in Food Charter being read on steps of City Hall (40+) 7. Northern Tuberculosis Conference presentation on food security and charter (80) 8. Display at LITE Pancake Breakfast, Winnipeg attended by 800 9. Display at Earthshare Benefits Concert attended by 80 10. SPIN workshop (35) and SPIN meeting/event (175) 11. Red River College, Winnipeg, presentation on food security/food charter to class in CED/CD program (16) 12. Family Centre of Winnipeg, presentation about MFC, 100 Mile Manitoba and local food (20) 13. Spence Neighbourhood Association, presentation on MFC and signing the Charter (14) 14. West Broadway Groups, meeting to explore collaboration in food security among West Broadway organizations in Winnipeg (8) 15. Meeting with University of Winnipeg to explore university signing MFC (5) 16. Vincent Massey School Environment Committee, an ‘action planning’ meeting to identify food security activities at the school (8) 17. Food Security Network meeting to share information and explore potential network activities (36) 18. University of Manitoba, Natural Resource Institute, food security presentation with graduate students (9) 19. 100 Mile Manitoba, planning meeting for 100 mile diet in Manitoba (10) 20. Unitarian Universal Church, Winnipeg, presentation about MFC and becoming signatories (50) 21. Canadian Mennonite University, a MFC display to raise awareness about CFS (50) 22. SNAC event, presentation of MFC and food security (40) 23. Display at Brandon Keystone Centre, conversations with 10 attendees 24. MFC attended the Canadian Environmental Grant Makers Network meeting (40) 25. Winnipeg Harvest World Hunger Day, MFC presentation as part of this event (30- 40) 26. MFC/Bayline Roundtable event “Northerners feeding Northerners” (75) 27. First Nations Diabetes Conference, MFC display 28. Northerners Feeding Northerners dinner and awards ceremony hosted by MFC Appendix 6: MFC Media Clips 2007 Media Clips 2006 Media Clips 2005 Media Clips Appendix 7: First Issue of The MFC Newsletter Appendix 8: MFC Background Document

2007  English  French

2006  English  French