On April 16th the Where's the Food project team and Country Kitchen shared company and a delicious meal at the Fitzroy Harbour Community Centre. The meal featured maple syrup and showcased the great nutritional and culinary skills of Country Kitchen members. Some visitors from the Kanata Chinese Seniors Centre were present to learn how they could start a cooking group in their community centre! During lunch, the meeting focused on taking action on food issues - including 'How to Start A Community Garden', and the food services and resources that can be organized through the Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre (WOCRC). 

WOCRC can work with Fitzroy Harbour and area residents for better access to food through the Meals on Wheels program (hot and frozen meals), a shuttle service that could be organized for grocery shopping, as well as a number of other services and supports for seniors and people with disabilities. You can contact Maria Matthews or Cristina DiTomaso with the WOCRC at 613-591-3686 for more information.

To start a community garden, you would need at least 3 would-be gardeners that are willing to coordinate efforts. The Community Gardening Network can then help to secure the land, develop gardener agreements, apply for funding, and guide you through the steps of garden setup. You can contact Terri O'Neill, the Community Gardening Network coordinator, at 613-236-9300 x 308 for more information.

There's also a possibility of setting up a Good Food Box drop-off in the area in partnership with the Kanata Good Food Box drop off team. If you would like to coordinate this, contact the Kanata Good Food Box coordinator (note that you need a minimum of 10 households to participate).

The next Country Kitchen lunch will be held on Saturday, May 21st at St. Paul's United Church in Carp. For more information about Country Kitchen you can contact Gail Carroll at thecarrolls-at-xplornet-dot-com .

For more information about the Where's the Food project, you can contact Erin Krekoski at 613-236-9300 x 301.

Thanks to everybody who participated in the Where's the Food project starting last August. We hope that you learned as much about food in your community as we did - we also learned a lot about how to do a project like this in other communities in the Ottawa area - thank you!