Volunteer Newsletter

Five women from Congo

and Burundi, recent arrivals

to Canada and visitors to

the Food Cupboard, cooked

up a luncheon of their tradi-

tional foods for 50 people

on June 20 (World Refugee

Day) at Epiphany Angli-

can Church. Our MP Mona

Fortier and MPP Nathalie Des

Rosiers joined in and shared

some of the photos below.

The meal included a pilau

(seasoned rice), cassava

leaves with groundnut, ugali

(cornmeal dumplings), deep

-fried plantains, bijumba

(sweet potato), mahole yams

(taro), manioc, African hard

chicken, and a cabbage/

carrot slaw. We finished it

off with a lovely fruit sal-

ad—a mix of tropical water-

melon and mango with

blueberries for a Canadian

touch. We plan to repeat

this with the Syrians and

also the Karen (ethnic Bur-

mese) community in the

future. The Syrian chef is

already bringing samples to

the office!

Although not intended as a

fund raiser, we did make

$260 from this event which

will be used to purchase

cornmeal! The women were

thrilled to share their cui-

sine and contribute to the

Food Cupboard at the same

time.

New Roots Kitchen—Congo/Burundi

Gloucester Emergency Food Cupboard

Volume 88, June/July 2017

Dates to Remember

July 24-28 Erin’s

Holidays

August 7: Closed

for Civic Holiday

September 4:

Closed for Labour

Day

September 21:

Growing our Com-

munity Launch at

the Just Food Farm

May Stats 2016/2017

Children: (0-17):1143/966

Households: 640/574

New To Us Households: 38

(7.8%)/ 35 (7.8%)

Households with Repeat

Visits: 24%/ 27%

Immigrant Households

(<5 yrs): 128 (28%)/ 121

(29%)

Total Visits: 2435/ 2127

June Stats 2016/2017

Children: (0-17):1030/839

Households: 596/526

New To Us Households: 65

(13%)/ 32 (7.8%)

Households with Repeat

Visits: 22%/27%

Immigrant Households

(<5 yrs): 128 (25%)/ 119

(28%)

Total Visits: 2260/1919

What’s Goin’ On

We have been awarded a $9,000 grant from the Mazon Foundation to support our purchases of healthy children’s snacks and fresh food from local farms (including the New Roots refugee farm to help support that program into its second year).

We have also received $10,000 from Project Clear Skies to replace the two old glass door refrigerators.

We received $3,500 from the Gloucester North Lions Club (up from $2,000 last year) - proceeds from their Magical Village.

Gloucester Community Concert Bank collected food donations for us during their Spring Concert on June 4th.

A nice big food drive came in from Annunciation of the Lord Par-ish, and Gloucester High School and LaVerendrye School , St. Gabriel and Greenbelt Church did end of season food drives for us also. We are still expecting one from TD, and getting regular drop offs from Epiphany, Rothwell and Orleans United Churches.

On June 20th the Ottawa Food Bank launched its new Health Smart Initiative at the GEFC. We now see more meat and milk as part of our allocation which is reducing our purchasing costs. Re-search has demonstrated that people who experience poverty also have increased health problems, so good food can help. You can see some of the media stories at these links:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-food-bank-earmarks-400k-for-healthier-options-1.4162497

https://www.ottawacommunitynews.com/news-story/7375067-new-healthier-choices-for-food-bank-users/

http://www.ottawafoodbank.ca/swapping-old-purchases-healthier-options/

A volunteer with the Ottawa Tool Library has started to build our vegetable wash station on the community garden side of the build-ing. This will enable us to wash and pack donations from local com-munity gardens and farms and is part of our Ottawa Community Foundation grant.

The Paint it Up! Mural by Jasmine Cres. youth was installed and unveiled July 10 in the evening by the artists and Councillors Tierney and Qadri. There was cake! It features a large Jasmine flower.

GEFC attended two days of the annual Celebrate Summer event, which had record crowds and we will soon know how much it raised for the GEFC.

GEFC spent Canada Day with the Pineview Community Associa-tion at their Festival in the Park.

Erin will take holidays the week of July 24 to 28 (and other days throughout the summer). Thanks to all who are pitching in to do extra pickups etc. to enable this!

Gloucester Emergency Food Cupboard 2040 Arrowsmith Drive Ottawa ON K1J 8V9 Phone: 613 749-4728 E-mail: gefc@gefc.ca

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Food for Thought

Links to recent food-related articles

Our friends at the Parkdale Food Centre recently had an evaluation and it is interesting to see what they had to say. Like us, one of their challenges is the line-ups. http://parkdalefoodcentre.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/PFC-Evaluation-Report-May-25.pdf

More on basic income:

https://thewalrus.ca/the-poor-need-a-guaranteed-income-not-our-charity/

GEFC Volunteer Newsletter

Another AGM Recipe

Crab tartlets 2 Large eggs 1/2 cup (125ml) milk 1/2 cup (125ml Miracle whip salad dressing 2 tbsp (30ml) all purpose flour 2 cups (500ml) grated Swiss cheese 4 1/4 oz. (120g) can of crabmeat, drained and flaked 3 scallions (green onions), finely chopped @60 Frozen mini-tart shells (normally 18 per box), thawed

(thanks to Dianne Laflamme-Millette)

- Beat eggs in medium bowl until frothy. Add next three ingredients. Stir well. - Add next 3 ingredients. Stir well. - Place tart shells on ungreased baking sheet. Spoon cheese mixture into tart shells. Bake on bottom rack in 350 F (180 C) oven 35 minutes until cheese mixture is set. - Serve hot or room temperature. These also freeze well in their foil cups. Reheat thawed tartlets at 325 F (160 C) oven for 15 minutes, or 30-35 minutes if frozen.

New Roots @Just Food

The New Roots farmers are struggling a bit with all of the rain we are having, as are many other farmers in the region! We have had a lot of help preparing the GEFC plot. In June a group from Export Develop-ment Corporation spent one of their Community Investment Days building our raised beds (which are very helpful in this rain), and a week later a group from Aga Khan Foundation planted out the donated seedlings. On June 28 Aga Khan 150 Youth Volunteer Day brought 150 kids to the farm and some worked on our plot planting potatoes. We are already see-ing some produce (garlic scapes and spin-ach).

Part of the Aga Khan Growing our Com-munity Project included a design contest for a pavilion—the winner is announced here (Erin’s favorite) and the launch will be September 21 at the farm.

GEFC Volunteer Newsletter

Training will be provided.

If you are interested to help fill the

Cupboard, please sign up on their

website ottawa.hiddenharvest.ca.

Please indicate your willingness to

train as a Neighbourhood Leader,

and in the Additional Comments

box indicate that you would like to

participate in the GEFC initiative!

Spread the word—this is a great

opportunity to recruit new volun-

teers! This is part of our Ottawa

Community Foundation grant.

Health & Safety We are still looking for a volunteer

to be our Health and Safety rep.

Please contact Erin if you are in-

terested in taking this on.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

We have teamed up with Hidden Harvest!

We are joining forces to pick local food and

get it to those who need it the most.

Hidden Harvest is a social purpose initiative

created to provide the opportunity, education,

infrastructure and legal means for people to

access the edible fruit and nut trees around

them. By picking and sharing the fruit and

nuts of Ottawa, they make good use of local

food and inspire a food-tree friendly city.

They are currently seeking volunteers to be-

come Neighbourhood Leaders in the Glouces-

ter area, to organize harvests, and deliver the

harvest to the GEFC. As always, the volun-

teers will get a share of the bounty too! One

half of each harvest will be given to the

GEFC, one quarter will be given to the home

owner of the tree, and the remaining quarter

will be shared between the harvesters.