Since June 2007, the Manitoba Climate Change Action Fund (MCCAF) has supported Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs’ Northern Healthy Foods Initiative (NHFI). Funding in the amount of $75,000.00 annually for a three-year period beginning in 2007 was approved to support the development of a broad range of food self-sufficiency projects in remote communities to effectively decrease dependence on air and land freight shipments of food, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Projects benefiting from this support include:
þ Northern Greenhouses: construct Northern-appropriate greenhouses and implement their use in remote communities, particularly those that have the highest energy saving possibilities.
þ Composting: conduct vermicompost workshops to increase awareness of the benefits of a greener environment while also producing organic fertilizer for growing healthier food.
þ Energy Efficient Freezer Program: purchase and deliver energy efficient freezers to remote communities for storage of preserved food, including vegetables grown in local gardens and berries and meat or fish harvested from traditional sources.
Launched in 2005, the NHFI exists to increase nutritional options and support informed healthy food choices for Northern Manitobans. The NHFI assists communities in developing capacity to increase local food production, increasing the availability of nutritional foods, implementing strategies to lower the costs for healthy foods, increasing awareness of healthy eating, leveraging funding for projects and creating food-based economic development opportunities. In addition to the MCCAF, the NHFI works in partnership with the Bayline Regional Roundtable, the Four Arrows Regional Health Authority, the Northern Association of Community Councils and other organizations such as the Manitoba Food Charter and Frontier School Division, to promote the production and availability of healthy, affordable food in Northern and remote Manitoba communities. The Initiative supports healthy alternatives to the high costs of commercial foods in remote communities as well as actions in a growing number of Northern communities which promote traditional harvesting, gardening and food self-sufficiency. Over 400 vegetable gardens have been planted in communities in Northern Manitoba since 2005 and some residents are raising their own animals as well as using freezers to preserve locally harvested wildlife and natural foods.
Other significant ways the NHFI helps Northern communities include:
þ increasing food self-sufficiency;
þ providing seed, fertilizer and other key supplies;
þ providing nutrition education that integrates traditional and modern gardening and food preparation techniques;
þ helping families rediscover healthy local food sources;
þ promoting traditional harvesting and preservation of wild foods;
þ reducing the importation of high-cost, low-nutrition foods;
þ encouraging the local economy of harvesters;
þ improving environmental awareness; and
þ providing information and assistance that may help communities reduce and prevent chronic disease through healthier diets in the long term.