Healthy eating in a box
NORTH BAY – A food buying club has been started up at the North Bay Indian Friendship Centre. Executive Director Nancy Potvin was instrumental in getting this program running. Once a month staff and volunteers pack Good Food Boxes with fresh vegetables and fruit. Any Friendship Centre client can preorder and prepay $20 for a box at the beginning of each month. The Good Food Box full of fresh produce is ready for pick up at the Centre on the third week of the month.
“Because we purchase at wholesale prices, each box has a variety of foods for healthy eating,” says Melanie Chevrier, a Community Support Worker at the Centre. “We want to make it easy and fun for everyone to eat healthy.”
With all the different colours and types of produce in the boxes it encourages users to make a variety of healthy dishes. Seeing the foods in the boxes makes one think about how to use it. For example leafy green Romaine lettuce tossed with grated carrot and thin onion slices would make an easy summer salad. Onions, potatoes and carrots might become soup or stew. Included in the Good Food Box is a monthly newsletter with easy recipes on how to use the produce in delicious meals. It also has nutrition information, storage and cooking tips.
Eating healthy and being physically active are a great duo for helping to prevent the onset of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes. The Good Food Box newsletter provides information of interest to encourage both.
The startup funding for this local project came from the Diabetes Prevention Project funded by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. The project was coordinated by the Healthy Living staff at the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit. Along with the North Bay Indian Friendship Centre, there are now 4 additional sites offering a monthly Good Food Box service using a similar participation model. Henvey Inlet First Nation, Shawanaga First Nation, Wasauksing First Nation and Magnetawan First Nation all began a food box service this spring under this initiative.
It is important to note that Nipissing First Nation, Garden Village has been operating a very popular and successful Good Food Box for their members for at least ten years.