By Bill Bradley
There are many more people going hungry in Greater Sudbury than people realize, said Doreen Ojala, volunteer manager for the Foodshed Project, said at Laurentian University’s West Residence on April 11.
“There are 46 agencies in Sudbury who distribute food to the poor,” she said at a fundraiser for her organization. The Foodshed Project’s Grow A Row effort encourages local gardeners to share their surplus produce with local food banks. Ojala cited local figures indicating that 14,000 people directly and indirectly benefit from the charity of Sudburians through these agencies, including children.
Laurentian University medical students organized the event, said Jessica Chan, a second-year Northern Ontario School of Medicine student.
“We have raised $1,100 for the Foodshed Project,” said Chan, originally from Sudbury, and Funmbi Babalola, a first-year student from Parry Sound, to the 60 people in attendance. Her group, Northern Ontario School of Medicine Global Health, is comprised of medical students. The fundraiser was their first for charity.
The event, called the Rich Man Poor Man Dinner, was to highlight local and international food security issues. One guest per table received a rich man's chicken parmesan or vegetarian alternative dinner. The rest were served a vegetable curry with rice to indicate that income disparity here in Greater Sudbury or elsewhere affects peoples' dinner menus.
Laurentian University biology professor Charles Ramcharan and Sudbury and District Health Unit nutritionist Tammy Cheguis drew the poor man’s dinner choice, but still chowed down on their rice and bean supper. Ironically, Ojala drew the rich person’s fare.
Ojala gave a presentation on the work of her organization she founded locally in 2003. With the help of an Ontario Trillium Foundation grant over the past two years, she organized gardeners to share the fruits of their labours with the most vulnerable through fresh produce donations to their nearest food bank or social service agency. Her video featured Elgin Street Mission staff and management who were grateful for the donations.
“Grow A Row lets people know there is a problem out there — food is becoming more important (as an issue),” she said. “We have poverty in Sudbury.”
She asked how children can grow up properly if they are facing a shortage of food at home. Four in 10 food bank users were children or youth, she said, quoting from provincial sources.
The Social Planning Council of Sudbury (SPC), in their Social Profile of Greater Sudbury, based on 2006 census data, indicated the following Sudburians lived in poverty:
-one in three female single parents
-one in four seniors living alone and/with non-relatives
-one in five children under the age of six
A second speaker, Laurentian University biology professor Kabwe Nkongolo, spoke on LU’s development projects in various countries in Africa where crop breeding has led to increased yields in corn and grain crops. Jeff Stewart entertained all with a demonstration of drumming.
For more information, visit www.foodshedproject.ca.
Bill Bradley is a local writer and active on many community boards and committees. Visit www.northernpecan.ca.
