Food Insecurities

 Hello Friends, and Happy Friday!


I am excited about this Sunday, when we will have the opportunity to hear from Brittany Vine. Brittany played an integral part in opening Calgary’s first pay-what-you-can grocery store.


Food Insecurity, food security and sustainability have been a passion of mine for a long time. 

I grew up in a lower-middle-class household, and money was always tight. Although my parents tried their best, sometimes we had to use emergency food support. But for the most part, my mother spent the entire summer securing food for the winter in our one-acre garden. She would spend endless hours planting, harvesting, freezing, and canning food so we could get through the winter. 

Before the age of 6, I understood where most of our food came from and the difference between fresh food and food bank food. 


In 2002, right after grad school, we moved to a small town in northern Alberta. Our rental house had a massive garden, and I spent that first summer planting, harvesting, freezing, and canning, following in my mother’s footsteps. 


After moving back to Calgary in 2004, I quickly became involved in the community gardening movement. I rented a plot at the former University of Calgary community garden, and my passion led me to secure a grant and start the Valley Ridge Community Garden.


Today, my backyard is full of planter boxes, and although I don’t have the space I once did, I still try to secure food for the winter by freezing and canning. 


When the book 100 Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating came out in 2005, Neil and I quickly got on the train of eating local and had fun spending the summer securing local food. Our curiosity and enthusiasm were renewed in 2007 when Barbara Kingsolver published her book Animal, Vegetable Miracle, and we became passionate about making cheese and bread with local ingredients. 

When Kaie was 9, we joined a local fruit coop that secured fruit from as close to Calgary as possible, and we quickly learned to like apricots and rhubarb and rejoiced when the berries, cherries and peaches became available. 


Over the years, we have learned a lot about gardening, weathered hail storms, and survived frost. We have also learned that eating locally in a province that gets 8-9 months of frost is not easy. Local food indeed tastes better, but it’s not inexpensive!


I hope you will join me this Sunday as we learn more about food insecurity, food security and food sustainability, and you will join us for the challenging but fun 100-mile potluck.


Blessings

Rev. Kim

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