“Food and water are life”

Delegates convened in Pier 3 to take part in an interactive panel session entitled, “What About Food Skills?”

Colleen Kiel from the Ministry of Health Promotion and Sport (MHPS), opened the session by framing food skills as outlined in the Ontario Public Health Standards, which requires Food Skills as part of Chronic Disease Prevention standards.

Kiel suggests that there are different meanings of food skills and that health units should consider defining food skills in a way that considers the needs of the local community and the health unit capacity. At a minimum the definition should include: food selection, healthy food preparation and food storage. A more fulsome definition would also include: knowledge, planning, conceptualizing food, mechanical techniques and food perception.

Next Ruth Sanderson an epidemiologist at OAHPP reviewed approaches to monitoring food skills.  Currently no standard measurement tool, commonly used indicator, or approach to systematically monitor the population’s food skills exist. She explored four assessment tools, two of which took place in Ontario. This work has approached the monitoring of food skills as a set of knowledge, behaviours and skills linked to the individual. Sanderson challenged the participants to consider food skills, as not solely related to the individual, but to also consider the environmental context.

Pat Vanderkooy from the Region of Waterloo Public Health gave the audience a glimpse into food skill competencies in the Waterloo Region. A few interesting findings from the Cross-sectional Waterloo Region Area Survey were:

• Women are more skilled in food preparation and food-related activities than men
• Adults in households with higher incomes are less likely to have “good” food skills than those with lower incomes
• Most households still take more than 30 minutes to cook their main meal, but not many meals are cooked from scratch.

To read more on Food Skills in Waterloo, click here.

Vanderkooy highlighted some of the key successes from the Waterloo peer program, which included: increased/better food skills, the adoption of healthier eating behaviours, illness/disease prevention, empowerment and community food security.

She noted that it is of the utmost importance to understand your audience. “We can talk about the Canada Food Guide forever,” said one participant, “but if they don’t see how this can be part of the meal or you don’t understand the social situation, you’ve lost a big part of the picture.” Without making the content relevant, food skills lose the traction they need to encourage long-term behavioural changes.

A lively discussion took place about the role of food skill competencies could play in the primary education curriculum. While we have yet to see our own celebrity chef champion the cause as Jaime Kennedy did, panellists agreed that linkages are needed across the spectrum of society. As Vanderkooy said, “Food is no longer the cause of a few passionate nutritionists and chefs. Food and water are life.”

Marian Yusuf

Marian Yusuf from Toronto Public Health had many successes to share with the group as well. She talked about the Toronto Food Strategy, which acknowledges that equitable food access requires a health-focused sustainable food system. “The strategy looks at the whole system from farm to food disposal. The overarching goal is health. The strategy is about social justice, food literacy for everyone, environmental protection, strengthening communities, supporting local, green equitable food access,” said Yusuf. The strategy was informed by Cultivating Food Connections: Toward a Healthy and Sustainable Food System for Toronto.

Elizabeth Smith from the Nutrition Resource Centre concluded the session by examining food skills in provincial programs. The Centre has been working on food skills for nearly 20 years with 15 sites in Ontario and 250 Community Food Advisor volunteers. Smith also talked about the ready to use Colour It Up program, which addresses barriers to healthy eating and has seen uptake in Toronto and other local municipalities.

Participants came away from the session with a lot of great examples of how food skills can become part of public health strategies that aim to prevent chronic disease ... a lot of food for thought.