What is the JustFood program?
Eating nutritious food is an essential part of living a healthy life. March is Nutrition Month and the theme is “Take the Fight out of Food”. There are so many reasons thinking about food can be stressful – cost, availability, time. The JustFood Box program offers both Fresh Produce and Staples Food boxes to residents throughout our region. The Fresh Produce Box offers a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. The Staples Box provides a combination of fresh produce and key grocery items such as rice, canned tomatoes or beans, and pasta.
The Fresh Produce box is delivered every second and fourth Wednesday of the month. The Staples Box is delivered every second Wednesday of the month. In addition to making sure the boxes are affordable, JustFood partners with local farmers to include fresh local produce, whenever possible.
How does it work?
JustFood Box participants place their orders a week ahead of time. Neighbourhood contacts take orders for residents in their area and act as a pick-up site. On the day of delivery, boxes are packed by staff and volunteers. Depending on the number of boxes ordered and the availability of volunteer drivers, neighbourhood and community contacts have the boxes for their customers dropped off at their site. Residents who order individually pick up their boxes from a central location. Currently, JustFood reaches close to 450 individuals and family members in Peterborough City and County and Curve Lake First Nation.
We want your feedback!
We want to make the Staples Box work even better for everyone and are hoping to do this by including more items that make up a “Basic Shelf” – key ingredients that will make it easier to prepare lots of tasty recipes. The “Basic Shelf” concept outlines that there are key items to have in a household pantry that are present in many recipes (e.g. corn starch, baking powder, tomato paste). By including these items in the Staples Boxes, participants could start building up a “Basic Shelf” through ordering the box. Each JustFood Box comes with a newsletter that includes recipes. These recipes often include basic ingredients. The basic shelf ingredients that are found in the JustFood Staples Box could be integrated into the newsletter recipes.
Do you think this would be a good idea? We want to get your feedback before implementing any changes. Follow the link below to help us make the box better for everyone! Even if you aren’t currently ordering the box currently, we welcome your input on what items would contribute to a box that meets your needs.
We appreciate you taking the time to fill out this survey. It should only take 5 minutes of your time.
Click here for JustFood Staples Box Survey
Learn more or get involved!
To learn more about the Just Food program and for information on how to order, click here.
If you are interested in helping with the Just Food Box program by becoming a Neighbourhood Contact click here, or if you are interested in volunteering with Nourish visit this link.
