Developing Food Standards through Knowledge Exchange:

SURVEY RESULTS

Prepared by: Jennifer Bewza (North End Food Security Network)

Funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada

March 29th, 2011

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 About The Food Standards Research Project

Twenty organizations in the North End community of Winnipeg, Manitoba graciously agreed to participate in a brief
interview regarding the development of food standards through knowledge exchange. A diverse number of
organizations/agencies participated in this study, including such organization types as the following:

 resident organizations
 community centers
 health and recreation organizations
 youth organizations
 employment agencies
 housing agencies
 safety organizations
 cultural and religious groups
 civic organizations
 day cares and nursery schools
 education centers

The information for this study was collected via interview-style surveying, and answers provided were compared to
determine similarities and differences. The amount of variety in the following data is directly proportional to the
immense diversity of responses recorded in the interviews. As such, answers were interpreted to form congruencies,
where similar responses were collated to single concepts for the sake of data analysis.

This report describes the data elements and data sets in the “Developing Food Standards through Knowledge
Exchange” survey results. This report also provides several unique perspectives provided by interviewees, where
appropriate and relevant to the data.

** Special thanks to all agencies/organizations and their representatives who took the time out of their busy
schedules to conduct the Food Standards Survey Interview with North End Food Security Network.

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Table of Contents

Food Provisioning

Question 1: Agencies Providing Food to Clients…………………………………………………………………... 5

Question 2: Estimated Annual Expenditures of Food-Related Programs ………………………………………… 6

Question 3: Reasons Indicated for Providing Food to Clients …………………………………………………….. 8

Question 4: Mode of Food Provisioning to Clients ………………………………………………........................... 10

Question 5: Number of Paid Staff and Volunteers Involved with Food-Related Activities on a Monthly Basis … 11

Question 6: Estimated Time (Hours) Devoted to Food-Related Activities……………………………………….. 13

Question 7: Drain on Staff Resources due to Food Provisioning…………………………………………………. 14

Question 8: Acceptance of Food Donations………………………………………………………………………. 15

Question 9: How Satisfied Agencies are with Food Donations…………………………………………………… 16

Question 10: Number of People Receiving Food per Month……………………………………………………… 18

Question 11: How Agencies Deliver Food to People……………………………………………………………… 20

Question 12: Age Group Percentage Breakdown for Food Provisioning…………………………………………. 21

Duplication and Redundancy

Question 13: Important Food Standards for Agencies to Work Toward, Together……………………………….....23

Nutritional Food Standards and Education

Question 14: Knowledge of Existing Food Standards in the North End………………………………………… 26

Question 15: Agency Nutritional Standards…………………………………………………………………..…….26

Question 16: Need for North End Organizations to Have Food Standards ……………………………………..….27

Question 17: Need for Food Donors to be Educated on Food Standards……………………………………..…….27

Question 18: Suggestions for Working Together to Purchase Food More Effectively ………………………….…28

Community Capacity Building

Question 19: Willingness to Participate in a High-Quality, Wholesale Food Ingredient Delivery System………..28

Question 20: Agency Willingness to Purchase Healthy Meal Services for Members………………………………29

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Question 21: Agencies Offering Health and Nutrition Programs to Clients………………………………………..30

Question 22: How Health and Nutrition Programs Could be Improved……………………………………………31

Question 23: Guidelines for Waste Reduction (i.e.: Recycling; Composting)………………………………………31

Open-Ended Questions

Question 24: Goals for North End Food Service Programs………………………………………………………….32

Question 25: Food Provisioning Frustrations ………………………………………………………………………33

Question 26: Top Priorities for Food Standards in the North End…………………………………………………..34

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 FOOD PROVISIONING

Question 1: Agencies Providing Food to Clients

Agencies that provide food: 15/20

Agencies that do not provide food: 3/20
Agencies that provide food unofficially: 2/20

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Question 2: Estimated Annual Expenditures of Food-Related Programs
(80% of agencies receive food donations, which supplement their annual food budget.)

Average annual expenses across all surveyed agencies providing food to clients: $12,667.00

35% of agencies under $5,000

12% of agencies $5,000 - $11,999
17% of agencies $10,000 - $14,999
6% of agencies $15,000 - $19,999
6% of agencies $20,000 - $24,999
12% of agencies over $25,000
12% of agencies unknown

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Question 3: Reasons Indicated for Providing Food to Clients

 Hungry individuals
 Skills development (types of skills: culinary, pre-employment)
 Source of income
 Relationship-building/socialization aspect of eating together
 Encourage program participation
 Introduce to foods (healthy foods, non-processed foods, novel foods…)
 Homelessness or equipment restrictions (lack of equipment to prepare food at home)
 Food important for cognitive and physical health
 Healthy food not being provided at home (healthy food not available or affordable)
 Ritual/cultural aspect of food
 Community development
 Mandatory government regulation to provide food
 Hospitality/moral aspect of providing food
 Requested by the community to provide food

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Question 4: Mode of Food Provisioning to Clients

 Meals (on a regular basis)

 Snacks (on a regular basis)
 Food Bank (any food that is being provided for consumption away from the agency, i.e.: food bags,
leftovers, emergency kits)
 Other
o Special events – include outings, potlucks, holiday parties, special programming, meetings
o Individual donations – individuals or employees contribute out-of-pocket food donations to clients
o Catering services
o Soup kitchen

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Question 5: Number of Paid Staff and Volunteers Involved with Food-Related Activities on a Monthly Basis

Paid staff includes both full-time and part-time positions

Some agencies indicated that they tend to have more volunteers at certain times of the year (i.e.: over the holidays)

Total number of paid staff across all agencies: 109

Average number of paid staff per agency: 6

Total number of volunteers across all agencies: 72

Average number of volunteers per agency: 4

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Question 6: Estimated Time (Hours) Devoted to Food-Related Activities

NB: For times recorded as percentages, hours were calculated using the following formula:

(# of staff) x (20 hrs if PT, 40 hrs if FT or unknown) x (% reported)

Total number of hours across all agencies: 358.5 hours

Average number of hours per agency: 21.09 hours

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Question 7: Drain on Staff Resources due to Food Provisioning

Frequently cited examples of how food provisioning is draining:

 Could use help (i.e.: with nutrition and menu-planning; with preparing for big events) – in need of
proficient volunteers or cannot afford special staff (i.e.: chef)
 Takes away from time with clients
 Need more funding
 Takes up a lot of time (i.e.: to go shopping)
 Difficult to keep up with Health Inspector food standards
 Costs come from employee’s own pocket – a drain on personal resources

Frequently cited examples of how food provisioning is not draining:

 Enjoy doing it, see it as rewarding
 Used to doing it
 Recognize it as being important and worth-while
 It is part of the budget/have special staff for the purpose (i.e.: chef)

View as Draining: 10/17

Do Not View as Draining: 7/17

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Question 8: Acceptance of Food Donations

Most frequently, agencies report that they receive food donations from Winnipeg Harvest.
Some agencies report that they receive donations from grocery stores (Safeway, Sobeys, Superstore).
Some agencies report that they receive donations from meat suppliers.

Accept Food Donations: 14/17

Do Not Accept Food Donations: 3/17

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Question 9: How Satisfied Agencies are with Food Donations

Commonly cited reasons for dissatisfaction with food donations include:

 Do not know what to do with the donated food

o food is all of one type
o food is not useable in meal-plans
 Quality is poor or inconsistent (i.e.: poor nutritional quality; processed food, expired food)
 Cannot store fresh food on site (i.e.: can only use non-perishables)
 Cannot select own foods/do not get a say in what is donated
 Cannot give clients what they need/want (donations are the undesirable foods that no one wants)
 Quantity is too low
 Donations are too sporadic

Agencies Satisfied with Food Donations: 6/14

Agencies Not Satisfied with Food Donations: 5/14
Agencies Somewhat Satisfied with Food Donations: 3/14

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Question 10: Number of People Receiving Food per Month

Some agencies were not able to report the number of people receiving food monthly, as they have no way of
recording which individuals they are providing for, and quantify numbers based on meals served instead. These
individuals are labeled as “unsure,” and were not used in total or average calculations.

If data provided was a range (i.e.: 60-90 people), the higher number was used in data analysis.

Average number of people receiving food from agencies on a monthly basis: 72

Total number of people receiving food from all agencies on a monthly basis: 939

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Question 11: How Agencies Deliver Food to People

 Line ups (soup kitchen, food bank)

 Sit down meals (includes special event meals; may be restaurant-, buffet-, or family-style of service)
 During programs (includes special event programming, where food preparation is used as an activity)
 Vouchers
 Other
o Clients help themselves to provided snacks
o Take clients out for meals on scheduled special event outings
o Catering services provided
o Leftover food donated for families to take home
o Food eaten during crafts as an unintentional consequence of crafting with food
o Personal requests (begging)

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Question 12: Age Group Percentage Breakdown for Food Provisioning

Note that where percentage breakdown values spanned multiple age groups (i.e.: adults and seniors combined), the
value was split evenly across the groups to allow for data analysis.

For the most part, children are defined as 0-12 years of age, youth are defined as 13-18 years of age, adults are
defined as 19-64 years of age, and seniors are defined as 65+ years of age.

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 DUPLICATION AND REDUNDANCY

Question 13: Important Food Standards for Agencies to Work Toward, Together

The following section summarizes thoughts shared by agencies regarding the proposed food standards, and whether
or not they will work, including possible barriers and benefits for their implementation.

PURCHASING FOOD
 May be useful for special events/banquets to reduce some of the stress
 Partnerships with other agencies may make resource combination easier
 May be an added hassle or get too complicated
 Don’t usually purchase food, and depend on donations for food
 Depends on what food is purchased and if it saves the agency money

GARDENING
 Gardens seem to get left untended and grow unruly

TRANSPORT SHUTTLE
 Too busy right now with current programming
 Already have own transportation for agency
 Unsure about whether there would be enough interest

FOOD STORAGE
 Must remain on site at all times for their clients’ needs
 Agencies have policies in place regarding food storage
 Not practical
 Need to have food first before worrying about where to store it

PROGRAM STAFFING
 Especially good if individual is a community member and is culturally-sensitive
 Important if it reduces program costs
 Food is such a major part of the programming that it would not be possible to share staff
 Already have a chef/skilled individual
 Important for getting funding (often a qualified individual is required to justify fund requests)
 Teaches clients new things (i.e.: gardening skills)

FOOD SAFETY
 Need to have food first before worrying about food safety
 Not the biggest priority/not beneficial right now

FUNDING/FUNDRAISING
 Interested in funding opportunities, but not fundraising (puts too much pressure on families, especially low-
income families; tends to get too complicated)
 Not allowed to fundraise/get funding with other agencies
 Fundraising/funding could be fun and good for community capacity building

MENU DEVELOPMENT
 Have own menus already developed
 May be difficult to meet allergy considerations
 Good idea for getting new ideas and new information (i.e.: recipe shares)

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To determine the relative importance of each standard, responses were assigned a number of points depending on
the rating: 3 points for “Very Important;” 2 points for “Somewhat Important;” and 1 point for “Not Important.”

According to the responses, the most important standards to work towards together are:
1. Food Safety
2. Program Staffing
3. Menu Development
4. Funding

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 NUTRITIONAL FOOD STANDARDS AND EDUCATION

Question 14: Knowledge of Existing Food Standards in the North End

The general impression towards existing food standards in the North End include the following:
 Tend to be gearing toward healthy, judging from recent meetings
 Not sure which standards are being followed – there needs to be more awareness about food standards
 Current food standards in the North End are not documented

Question 15: Agency Nutritional Standards

According to the majority of agencies without nutritional standards, they would like to have them, and are hoping to
aim towards developing standards. Agencies do not always have formal written standards, but do have informal
standards (for the most part) to aim for healthy among the employees. This is clearly naming a desire to have a
higher incidence of formal standards for healthier food.

For agencies that do have standards, both the regular and Aboriginal versions of Canada’s Food Guide and the
Handy Portion Size tool have been cited as useful.

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Question 16: Need for North End Organizations to Have Food Standards

Comments regarding the need for food standards in North End organizations include:
 Could set an example for families to help educate them and prevent health issues
 Something realistic to strive towards
 Must avoid putting pressure on people, as it may create a bigger bridge than be helpful

ALL agencies interviewed believe that there is a need for North End Organizations to have food standards.

Question 17: Need for Food Donors to be Educated on Food Standards

Comments regarding the need for food donors to be educated on food standards include:
 Need more emphasis on the direction the standards are moving in vs. rules
 Want donors to donate healthy, non-expired, nutritious food items
 Difficult to get donations of what is wanted because donations are based mainly on what is available
 Items currently being donated are not good
 Need to set up a different donor system altogether (i.e.: form partnerships with farmers, grocery stores)
 Donors need to know the needs of the community, and an
understanding of how people choose foods (foods need to be affordable, available, and healthy)
 Grocery stores need to be made aware that it is hard for customers
to get there, especially if they have kids; they walk there, they need support for their kids, and it is hard to
lug the grocery bags back (Taxi cabs become a big mode of transportation - the distance of grocery stores
from homes is a big part of that)

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Question 18: Suggestions for Working Together to Purchase Food More Effectively

Suggestions and barriers for working together with other neighborhood organizations/agencies to purchase food
more effectively include the following:

 Partner with farmer (i.e.: to produce food for agencies) or schools to glean expertise (i.e.: culinary arts
schools, home-economics programs, U of M, U of W)

 Food and health education/professional workshops (i.e.: teach how to shop more effectively)

 Share information (i.e.: recipes using specific ingredients; freezing/canning/storage techniques; sales &
food availability)

 Have one agency act as a liaison for the others without favoritism (i.e.: NECRC, Winnipeg Harvest)/
Centralize food purchasing to community kitchen (i.e.: agency with space and resources to do food
purchasing for all agencies)

 Improve communication on food standards (i.e.: at agency level, at grocery store level, at distributor level)

 Open a local restaurant for employment, education, food choice, food access, and affordability

 Involve community members

 Grocery-store play a bigger role in improving the food-scape (i.e.: more grocery stores in neighborhood;
take more responsibility for encouraging healthy food choices; establish a grocery-operated shuttle system)

 Not possible due to instability in funding - need more funding

 Not possible to work together (i.e.: programs are too specialized; stuck in “stovepipe” mentality)

COMMUNITY CAPACITY BUILDING

Question 19: Willingness to Participate in a High-Quality, Wholesale Food Ingredient Delivery System

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Reasons for wanting to participate in food distribution programs include the following:

 More convenient (save time, money)

 Reduce reliance on delivery companies/Winnipeg Harvest
 Help purchase healthier foods
 Could help reduce food waste by buying food in regular-sized portions and sharing with other agencies
 Opportunity for education (i.e.: on new foods)
 Could help support local community businesses

Barriers to participating in a food distribution program include the following:

 Not close to organization's mandate

 Would need additional funding/available funding to participate
 May not be possible to get a group savings; better for agencies to just handle food on their own
 Have specific deals or grants with other stores (i.e.: Safeway, Riedigers)
 Not sure that the food would be useable/appropriate
 Too difficult to coordinate
 Too few staff available

Question 20: Agency Willingness to Purchase Healthy Meal Services for Members

For the most part, agencies are willing to purchase healthy meal services, but several concerns were expressed as
well. General opinions on the topic of purchasing healthy meal services for members include the following:

 Would like services to come from within the North End community
 May be more feasible economically
 Must be healthy and affordable
 Could alleviate stress on staff
 More important to make own food (education; creates home-like feel and appreciation)
 Existing services (i.e.: Food For Thought) tend to be quite expensive
 Have no need for purchasing meal services (i.e.: have chef; have kitchen)
 Would take up too much energy
 Challenging for some agencies to identify “members”

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Question 21: Agencies Offering Health and Nutrition Programs to Clients

Frequently cited health and nutrition programming descriptions include the following:

 Direct clients to other organizations for health and nutrition advice

 Hold workshops, seminars, and group discussions
 Pre- and Post-Natal education
 Learn through experience (i.e.: through play; through preparation of meals)
 Talk about food & health while eating together
 Use Canada’s Food Guide
 Use needs-based counseling
 Teach gardening and growing lifestyle
 Themed-classroom learning on health, exercise, and nutrition
 Display health and nutrition information in high-traffic areas
 Collaborate with other agencies for health and nutrition programming

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Question 22: How Health and Nutrition Programs Could be Improved

Agencies cite the following as areas in health and nutrition programming where improvement could occur:

 Would like to have more expert speakers / educational workshops (i.e.: cooks, dietitians, elders)
 Bring people in from the community to educate the community; because these teachers are from the
community they will bring in clientele
 Would like expert help with menu-planning, purchasing, cooking nutritiously (i.e.: cooks, dietitians)
 Would like a more adequate kitchen space / learning space
 Need more funding
 Would like to become more active in gardening and farming (i.e.: grow a garden; visit a farm; prepare/cook
gardened & farmed foods)
 Would like to share ideas with other agencies (i.e.: recipes, program ideas)
 Establish and follow standards in programming, food donations
 Get community involved (difficult to get adults involved, need to find a way to motivate them; focus on
kids who love to participate; form partnerships with schools in the neighborhood)
 Need more staff training
 Do not have the time & energy to do health and nutrition programming
 Need to focus more on making food available, affordable, and accessible

Question 23: Guidelines for Waste Reduction (i.e.: Recycling; Composting)

Barriers to Recycling: Barriers to Composting:

 Limited space
 Pick-up requires out-of-pocket funding
 Not important to agency at the moment
 People do not know how to recycle properly
 Need to take recycling home
 Limited space
 Difficult to do in the winter
 Attracts wildlife (rats and cats)
 Not important to agency at the moment
 Does not always get looked after properly

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 OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS

Question 24: Goals for North End Food Service Programs

The following goals have been indicated by interviewees as being important for the improvement of North End food
service programs:

 Make programs individual-specific

 More recipe-sharing, food-sharing, and idea-sharing about food products and what to do with them

 Improve access, affordability, and availability (re: quality & freshness) of food

 Local gathering place or food co-op within walking distance to provide employment, training, education
(local shop)

 Opportunities to purchase healthy food at night in the neighborhood

 Have experts (i.e.: chefs; dietitians; elders) teach community members in a culturally-sensitive way

 Introduce community members to new, good foods, and encourage their use in the home (i.e.: for health
prevention)

 Ensure that families (especially children) get proper nutrition outside the home through food programming,
even on the weekends

 Need more funding

 Reduce and eliminate hunger and poverty

 Teach and educate individuals on how to know, grow, harvest, and prepare food for themselves, especially
adults (i.e.: less reliance on food banks, and more self-sustaining practices such as gardening, learning how
to shop better, and learning how to prepare food)

 Expand urban gardens by forming working relationships with farmers and learning how to grow own food

 Increase access to healthy foods through educating stores and small businesses

 Educate the community on childhood obesity and increase health awareness

 Food delivery options to homes and permanent grocery shuttle services

 More grocery store initiatives to help customers shop, read labels, and make healthier choices (i.e.: grocery
store ready-to-go recipe meal bags)

 More partnering with grocery stores to organize wholesale pricing options for group buys of food

 More support for single parent families, especially in the evenings and on weekends

 More community building (i.e.: host a nice big BBQ gathering or similar community event for the
community to enjoy)

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Question 25: Food Provisioning Frustrations

The following list describes frustrations experienced by agencies in the North End with regards to food
provisioning:

 Lack of equal access for quality whole/healthy food purchasing (i.e.: shops, grocery stores, big box stores,
supermarket) – shuttle system is a good idea

 Need a healthy local restaurant, local gathering place, or food co-op within walking distance to provide
employment, training, education, and serve as headquarters for bulk purchasing of healthy foods

 Would like to develop more catering services

 Difficult to get reliable, educated staff and/or volunteers

 Difficult to get funding, and if funding is available, it tends to run out too quickly

 Not possible to go shopping in the evenings

 Healthy food options are too expensive

 Difficult to entice parents to participate in cooking (kids are more interested)

 People are hungry and need to be fed (i.e.: not eating breakfast; not able to concentrate and perform as well;
more behavioral issues)

 Government should subsidize corner stores so that the pricing can be fair

 Need to educate people on how to use healthy foods; right now, these foods are foreign to them

 Lack of education - people do not know the skills they need to meal-plan, prepare/cook healthy food, and
lead a healthy lifestyle - people do not appreciate the food they receive and need more education on health
benefits of eating nutritiously (i.e.: people sell food from food baskets to support addictions)

 Lack of availability of healthy foods/a variety of foods (unequal food distribution)

 Lack of access to good quality, healthy foods

 Grocery stores need to update the food-scape to make healthy foods front and centre

 Need more support for single parent families (worn out and don't cook)

 Agencies need to become less reliant on food donations, and improve food budget through adequate
funding/outsourcing of food

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Question 26: Top Priorities for Food Standards in the North End

The following priorities have been identified by interviewees as being extremely important topics for the
development of food standards in the North End:

 Wider variety of fresh, healthy food

 Access, availability, and distribution of healthy food (i.e.: more stores/retailers to buy food
from/neighborhood grocery store within walking distance)

 Need for a local gathering place/restaurant for jobs, education, and community building

 Establish food-share systems (i.e.: recipe share, extra food share)

 Need more opportunities for food-related skill-building (i.e.: bring in more experts, hold more workshops)

 Need to document nutritional and food quality standards

 More opportunities for growing foods (i.e.: gardens, chickens)

 Affordability (i.e.: government subsidies to local stores; more equal pricing, more funding)

 More community education on health and nutrition

 Better access to housing (takes away from food budget)

 Improved transportation options for food shopping (i.e.: shuttles; especially in the evenings)

 Reduce food waste and redistribute it to the hungry

 Better distribution of social assistance (i.e.: welfare and child tax benefits) to improve food purchasing

 Restaurants, convenience, and grocery stores ought to offer healthier meals and food options

 More support for single parents / families with children / hungry individuals

 More community input/tailoring of information to the community

The top three priorities for food standards in the North End, as identified by the most agencies interviewed are:

1. Access, availability, and distribution of healthy food

2. Affordability
3. Skill-Building Opportunities

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