Open Space facilitators from Sweden ignite conversation!
Whenever it starts is the right time. The Seed Community Food Hub Committee of the Poverty Task Force has sparked a movement in our community that starts now!
Bringing together backyard chicken farmers, entrepreneurs, agricultural students, food justice and anti-poverty activists, community food centre folks from other regions, representatives from Guelph’s neighbourhood groups, emergency food providers, and restauranteurs, the one-day Open Space event on January 29 was full of vibrant and lively discussion. Designed to ignite leadership and community participation, the event was the first step in moving the vision for The Seed forward and creating an action plan.
Starting off the day with a motivating talk from Steve Stacey of The Local Community Food Centre in Stratford, Ontario, we heard about their model of addressing food insecurity and building community that served as inspiration for the day’s action planning. He spoke of how The Local’s model “also includes social justice activism and advocacy programs that are taking aim at the root causes of food insecurity – poverty, and specifically wage policies and social assistance programs that do not provide people with enough to feed themselves an adequate diet – so that we can start to turn the corner on the social and economic conditions that lead to people eating unhealthy food.” So, what will The Seed look like? What does The Seed have the potential to be in our community?
The facilitators kicked off the action planning with the question “What would you ask to make The Seed a reality in our community?”. The room was buzzing with energy – the questions posed ranged from “How will we ensure that those in poverty are engaged, key players at The Seed?” to “What ways can youth be involved?” to “How do we create a viable business plan?” to “How do we make links to local producers/farmers?” to “What will we do to build upon existing strengths in the system to improve access to healthy, affordable food?” and, when it gets down to a Food Hub model, “Location?, Location?, Location?”. These questions sparked animated discussions whereby participants who posed the question facilitated the groups in discussion. People could choose to stay with one question or they were free to roam the room and delve into more than one area of interest.
With over 100 people in attendance, it was inspiring to see so many people excited about where we can go together as a community to make The Seed a reality. The Seed Community Food Hub Committee will be working diligently over the next couple of weeks to compile all the great work people did during this workshop, so stay tuned for updates! Brendan Johnson, member of The Seed and Executive Director of the Guelph Neighbourhood Support Coalition summed up the day perfectly when he proclaimed “Inspired!”. We, at the PTF, are excited to be supporting the work of The Seed as they move forward in turning this vision into a reality.
For more information, please visit our website at https://www.gwpoverty.ca/ to see how you can get involved.