Food program for families, farmers is at risk

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This article was published 18/05/2022 (1325 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

West Winnipeg

A program that helped supply families with fresh food and local food producers with income for the last two years is teetering on the edge of oblivion.

The Manitoba Community Food Currency Program is an initiative of Direct Farms Manitoba, an organization dedicated to supporting farms and farmers’ markets.

In 2020 and 2021, the program has handed out coupons to families that act as currency at any of the five farmers’ markets partnered with Direct Farms Manitoba.

After its pilot year, the program grew by more than 60 per cent, thanks to funding from the Manitoba Building Sustainable Communities Program and the Winnipeg Foundation.

“Last year, we distributed $69,000 worth of community food currency, and we had a 98.5 per cent redemption rate,” said Kristie Beynon, Direct Farm Manitoba’s executive director.

That stocked the pantries of 242 households, a number that represents only a fraction of interested families, Beynon said.

With the “overwhelmingly positive” response from both participants and farmers’ markets, the organization was hoping to expand the program to include 700 households this year.

In order to fund the expansion, the program would need “direct provincial investment,” Beynon said.

Beynon pointed to similar programs in British Columbia and Nova Scotia, which enjoy provincial support. In B.C., that support rings in at $2 million per year, and in Nova Scotia, the population of which numbers nearer to Manitoba’s, it runs the province $400,000 each year.

But Direct Farm Manitoba’s program hasn’t yet garnered that sort of funding from Manitoba, Beynon said.

The department of Agriculture and Resource Development has been “very supportive of the program as far as program development goes,” Beynon said.

“But as far as being able to manage the bulk of the funds which cover the food that people purchase, we haven’t been able to get any funding this year.”

The organization has reached out to both the department of health, headed by Minister Audrey Gordon, and the department of families, headed by Minister Rochelle Squires, but have not yet received support.

“We’re feeling pretty sad about it actually, after the great response last year,” Beynon said.

Marilyn Firth, executive director of the St. Norbert Farmers’ Market, a participant in last year’s program, said she hopes the program can find the funding to continue.

It not only fed people in need, it provided a boost to the market in multiple ways, she said.

“We really see it as such a beautiful, well-rounded project, because it supports in three ways,” Firth said. “It supports the producer at the market, and that means those monies are going directly to our Manitoba producers, because at our market, everyone’s a local producer.”

That was a much needed boon for farmers struggling through not only a pandemic but also last year’s severe drought, Firth said.

Besides that, it helped expose the market to people who may never have spent money there before, she said. At a non-profit co-operative such as St. Norbert Farmers’ market, that means one thing: money in the pockets of producers.

“That’s why we’d love to see this program continue,” Firth said.

Beynon said the sooner funding comes in, the better for participants and producers; but if the province hasn’t offered funding by mid-June, the program will be shut down.