NUTRITION FOR YOU, RECIPE FOR HEALTH
The ‘Nutrition for You’ initiative is a series of FREE seminars designed to help the public make healthy food choices for every phase of life – youth, family, adult and senior. As a result of the collaboration between the Community (through local recreation departments); Education (The University of Victoria); and Business (Thrifty Foods), a total of 147 free professionally designed and delivered nutrition seminars, 30 Young Chef on the Run Programs and 28 grocery store tours will be offered in 23 communities from Campbell River to Victoria, over to Saltspring Island and the lower mainland. The value of this initiative is over a quarter of a million dollars and yet this initiative has no financial outlay for the communities involved.
The following is a list of communities involved with this initiative:
The Municipality of Delta
City of Campbell River
City of Nanaimo
The Corporation of the District of Saanich
Cowichan Valley Regional District
The Corporation of the District of Oak Bay
The Corporation of the Township of Esquimalt
Sooke & Electoral Area (representing Juan de Fuca and electoral area of Sooke)
West Shore Parks & Recreation Society (representing View Royal, Langford, Colwood, Metchosin and the Highlands)
City of Victoria
Peninsula Recreation Commission (representing North Saanich, Central Saanich and Sidney)
The Regional District of Nanaimo
Saltspring Island Society
The District of Comox Valley
City of Coquitlam
YMCA-YWCA of Greater Victoria
City of Port Moody
Nutrition for You Initiative, Recipe for Health Initiative
BACKGROUND:
The Greater Victoria region took a unique approach to the Active Communities opportunity. Instead of duplicating services, the Parks and Recreation Departments (representing all municipalities in the Greater Victoria region) developed a committee to work on joint initiatives. Through this collaborative effort, a number of successful initiatives have been launched in the region, one of which is the Nutrition for You initiative. The following have representation on the Greater Victoria Active Communities Committee:
City of Victoria
Township of Esquimalt
Municipality of Oak Bay
Municipality of Saanich
Peninsula Recreation Commission (representing North Saanich, Central Saanich and Sidney)
Westshore Parks and Recreation (representing View Royal, Langford, Colwood, Metchosin and the Highlands)
Sea Parc Recreation (representing Juan de Fuca and electoral area of Sooke)
YM-YWCA of Greater Victoria
Vancouver Island Health Authority – Prevention Services
NUTRITION FOR YOU INITIATIVE
In 2007, the Greater Victoria Active Communities Committee submitted an application to the UBCM funded CHPF for a grant to support a free nutrition program to be delivered in the Greater Victoria region.
In the meantime, in case the above grant application was not successful, committee members approached potential corporate sponsors. Thrifty Foods was interested in sponsoring this initiative if all communities where Thrifty Foods stores are located would participate in the initiative and sign off on the contract. The communities listed on the overview page have now all signed off on the contract and are part of the Nutrition for You initiative.
In 2007, the Greater Victoria region received a $35,000 UBCM CHPF grant to provide free nutrition programs to the community. At this point the Greater Victoria committee approached Thrifty Foods to request that the sponsorship dollars for this area be used to hire a nutrition company who would design, schedule and deliver the various nutrition sessions for all communities involved in the initiative. The goal was to develop and deliver professional programs for all communities. Hence, Springwell Nutritionist Inc. was contracted to design, schedule and deliver the various nutrition sessions.
In addition, Thrifty Foods agreed to fund a coop student from University of Victoria to evaluate the nutrition initiative.
NUTRITION SESSIONS at COMMUNITY CENTRES
In May and June 2008 the first nutrition sessions were piloted in the Greater Victoria region, Nanaimo and Coquitlam. All sessions had full registration and were well received by participants. Thrifty Food stores hosted 9 store tours with another 19 scheduled for the fall of 2008.
In the summer of 2008 eight Young Chef on the Run Programs are being offered in the Greater Victoria region as well as other communities where Thrifty Food stores are located.
In the fall of 2008 another 70 nutrition seminars have been scheduled in communities where Thrifty Food Stores are located. Another 68 seminars will be offered in the winter of 2009.
In the fall of 2008 the Young Chef on the Run Program will be offered through community centres and in some cases be incorporated into afterschool care programs.
This is a clear example of how collaboration between local communities and other agencies can strength the ability to attract corporate sponsorship to provide funding to support program delivery. This not only saves public funds and helps educate the public about important issues but also helps profile local governments in their communities.
The concept of offering free nutrition programs to the public, the UBCM’s generous funding of $35,000 for this project, and the attraction of corporate sponsorship has leveraged this project into an initiative valued at over quarter of a million dollars and involving 23 different communities.