Slow Cooked Dreams

om working in finance to a position as a family support worker in Cape Breton. In this new position it did not take long to see that poverty and food insecurity were common challenges for most of the clients I was seeing. Statistics I uncovered confirmed that these were wide-spread difficulties for families and individuals all across the Island. The “Child and Family Poverty Report” showed that the Cape Breton Regional Municipality has a poverty rate of 34.2% - higher than any other region in the province. As I continued my counselling work, I learned that for many individuals their struggles to provide good meals for their families stemmed from the high cost of food, lack of cooking skills, and a lack of budgeting knowledge. Most schools in Nova Scotia are now equipped with breakfast programs that try to ensure that all children begin their day with a nutritionally-balanced meal. My inspiration for this work grew from personal experience as well. My family dynamics changed drastically after the death of my partner. I became a single mother of three pre-teen children, endured a drastic cut in family income and became the sole manager of many hectic school, work and activity schedules. My ability to feed my family well during this adjustment phase was linked to three things: planning, budgeting, and my slow cooker. My combined personal and professional experiences around food and food insecurity lead me to investigate programs offered locally that would help families build these sorts of skills and confidences. My very first food workshop was the result of, well, poor search results. I wasn’t able to find a program that delivered the kinds of skills I and my clients needed in an environment that was warm, non-judgmental and welcoming of all skills levels and backgrounds. Part of this first workshop was self-funded and part was funded by community organizations likewise wanting to empower their clients in this way. In approaching these early partners, my pitch focused on creating a supportive food-based learning environment that also included discussions of healthy eating, healthy living, food preparation skills, budgeting, financial planning, and local food resources. The workshop would run over four weeks, with weekly 2-hour sessions, and each participants would leave with their own slow cooker so they could continue their learning (and cooking) at home. After 2 ½ years of hosting workshops all over Nova Scotia (for 150 participants) I took some time off. In 2017, my passion for this work was reignited through the growth of a local food security project. Coincidently I was also accepted into the Indigenous Women in Leadership program at the St. FX Coady Institute where faculty and fellow students supported the idea of a Facilitators/Train-the-trainer manual. Thanks to funding from United Way and partnership with New Dawn Enterprises, my dream to create a tangible product based on all I have learned has started to unfold. My dream now is to see this manual widely used by/in groups and organizations supporting those living in or near the poverty line.