Acknowledgements
Many people and organizations contributed to the development of Thought About Food? A Workbook on Food Security & Influencing Policy. This workbook would not have been possible without the significant commitment, support, and guidance provided by Family Resource Centre/Projects (FRC/P) in Nova Scotia, funded by the Community Action Program for Children (CAPC) and Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program (CPNP).Many people gave their time, and shared their experience and insight to organize, coordinate and facilitate food costing, story sharing and community dialogues to help address the problem of food insecurity in communities throughout Nova Scotia, and it is these people who were the foundation for this project. The voices of people from FRC/Ps and members of the Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network (ACORN) are represented throughout this workbook and their contributions are deeply appreciated. The Nova Scotia Nutrition Council (NSNC) has led the way in addressing food insecurity in NS through a population health approach. The legacy of the hard work and commitment of NSNC members throughout the years has provided strong support and integrity to this work. I especially want to thank the current NSNC members and executive for their continued commitment.
The staff of the Atlantic Health Promotion Research Center (AHPRC) at Dalhousie University, especially Lynn Langille and Sandra Crowell, have provided substantive support and guidance in all stages of this work, including proposal writing and financial and organizational management and the infrastructure support provided by AHPRC and Dalhousie University was key to its success. Public Health Services, District Health Authorities 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9, the Nova Scotia Departments of Health/Office of Health Promotion and Community Services, and the Population and Public Health Branch Atlantic Region, Health Canada have been instrumental in providing both in-kind and financial supports. The Capital District Health Authority has supported this work through a secondment arrangement and financial support that allowed Kim Barro to coordinate Phase 1. This project has been fortunate to have top-notch students and project staff involved and their contributions have been extensive. I’d especially like to acknowledge and thank Meredith Kratzmann, research assistant for Phase 1 of the project, for her creativity in the research, design and writing of the first draft of this workbook. This project owes much of its success to Kim Barro, Project Coordinator for Phase 1, for her help in writing and facilitating us through the various pieces of the workbook , and especially for her passion for this work along the way. I would also like to thank Amy MacDonald who coordinated Phase 2—the pilot of the workbook, and who worked with Kim and the project team to develop the facilitator’s notes and make the revisions to bring us to the final product. Thanks also to Christine Johnson, Rita MacAulay, Nadia Stokvis, Denise Russell and Becca Green for their many contributions to the research and activities that provided a basis for this workbook.
Many people from the above mentioned groups have used and reviewed various drafts of this workbook including Debbie Reimer, Polly Ring, Angela Daye, Karen MacKinnon, Denise Russell, Mary Daly, Trudy Reid, and Sharon Nolan. I would particularly like to thank Kim Barro, Lynn Langille, Shelley Moran, Susan Roberts,Margie Coombes, and Alanna Chaelmick for their thorough reviews of the many drafts of the workbook, and Angie Dedrick and Doris Gillis for reviewing the final draft. Also, a special thanks to Janet Wallace, editor of the Canadian Organic Growers magazine who did a very fine edit and Jan Catano for her help in getting our ideas across in a simple but meaningful way and Réjean Ouellette for the French translation. Thanks also to Derek Sarty and Kerry Lynch for their graphic and website design, which helped transform this workbook into what we believe will be a useful and exciting resource for anyone who wants to address the issue of food insecurity in their community through policy. Finally, thanks to the individuals who participated in the National Pilot of this workbook. Their insights from using the workbook in communities has helped to improve the workbook’s utility and national relevance.
The Thought About Food? workbook was developed, written and pilot tested under the guidance of the Provincial Steering Committee (formerly NSNC Research Working Group) and the National Advisory Committee of the NSNC/AHPRC Food Security Projects. (See a list of committee members in Section 7.) I wish to express my deepest appreciation to all our partners in this National Food Security Project.
Patty Williams, PhD, PDtPrincipal Investigator
on behalf of the NSNC/AHPRC Food Security Projects