Food is a great connector, an unparalleled conversation starter, a source of connection, a means of bridging differences, and a fabulous way to bring people together.
At Nourish, we are fortunate to experience the social power of food every day. In our food skills workshops and community garden programs, we see friendships form as participants cook and grow food together. During community dinners, conversation sprouts across tables and across differences, providing a foundation to build new relationships between strangers. And, in our community advocacy programming, we see how food can provide the basis for meaningful and inclusive forms of civic engagement.
These are among the reasons we are so passionate about food, not only as a means to address food insecurity and hunger, but also as a way to build strong, resilient communities. In kitchens, gardens, and community centres across our region, we are motivated by a desire to create spaces where people feel that they belong.
Even though we are only two months in to 2017, we have already been busy building belonging through food. In January, we held a Basic Income Community Dinner and community consultation where we asked the Peterborough community what a basic income would mean to them. In February, we got an early start on the canning season when we hosted a two-part Broth-Making workshop where participants learned to make and can their own homemade vegetable stock. Last month, we also hosted Together We Eat, a community dinner designed to bring together First Nations, newcomers, and low-income members of our community to meet, eat, and interact. Finally, the Community Cultivators Training we launched in February will continue into March.
Over the next coming months, we will be serving up a delicious mix of hands-on cooking, safe canning, seed starting and garden planting workshops to help you get ready for spring. We also look forward to our next Nourish Food Series, which will feature an engaging talk on sustainable diets.
Check out our events page for upcoming events, workshops and other opportunities to eat, cook, grow, and advocate for good food together. We hope you will join us as we work together to learn new food skills, get to know our neighbours and community members, and continue our work building belonging through food!
