1. Creating a More Welcoming Environment
Food & Friends
Creating a More Welcoming Environment

2. Creating a More Welcoming Environment at Food & Friends Programs
Review survey completed at the April 2019 network meeting
Food & Friends Recommendations
This project came from the F&F Committee working plan for 2019.
We surveyed Program Coordinators last April to ask for their input on how we can create a more welcoming environment to all students (new comers, new enrollment)
Heather and Lisa Needham from Wellington Dufferin Guelph Public Health & Anu Saxena (program coordinator with “Our lady Lourdes Catholic School” of who also is a part of the F&F committee is part of the working group.
We will be reviewing the survey results from the April network meeting and discussing some of the recommendations we developed.

3. Survey Question #1
What does “Welcoming Environment” mean to F&F programs?
Inclusive
Friendly
No stigma
Welcoming
Safe place
Consistent
We asked in the survey “What does “Welcoming environment” mean to you? The main themes that emerged include:
Inclusive, friendly, no stigma, welcoming, safe place and consistent

4. Survey Question #2
How can we bring awareness about different food practices/items amongst the current student demographics?
Parents
Student ambassadors
Offer variety and new foods
Suggestion box
Cultural lens to menu planning
Student involvement
Student and parent feedback
Letters home to parents
Student buddy (ambassador) – Peer mentoring new students
Serve variety of items and introduce new foods
Suggestion box for menu ideas
Cultural considerations to apply to menu planning
Students have opportunities to get involved developing menus
Survey students and parents for menu ideas

5. Survey Question #3
How can we help the newcomer students become familiar with certain Canadian foods that are not common in their countries?
Food samples
Awareness and education
Label food items
Multicultural day
Share recipes
Theme days, weeks, or months
- Handout out food samples
- Offer education on different food items-example: veggie of the week (offer in different languages)
- Label food items when given out to students
- Multicultural day to introduce new foods from around the world
- Share recipes
- Theme days, weeks or months

6. Survey Question #4
How can we make meals both fun and educational experience for all students?
Blind food tasting
Student involvement
Help prep food
Share own cultural experiences
Help create menus
Fun Facts
Provide nutritional facts
Posters with the MCCSS guidelines and Canada Food Guide information
Heather
- Blind food tasting
- Provide opportunities for students to get involved in prepping food for program
- Give fun facts about the food being offered
- Students sharing their cultural preferences with others
- Students creating menus
- Provide nutritional food facts
- Posters with the MCCSS guidelines and Canada Food Guide information

7. #1 Create inclusivity within the programs
Recommendations
#1 Create inclusivity within the programs
Promote/advocate
Add a suggestion box
F & F presence at multicultural events in schools
Provide a friendly atmosphere
Create inclusivity within the programs
- Promote/advocate peer mentoring within the schools that will include introduce new students to the F&F program that their school. - Add a suggestion box to each program where students can write food or meal ideas (hopefully these will be more cultural food items)
- Opportunity during multicultural events to advocate for SNP
- Provide a friendly atmosphere at the program
- you could add fun food facts to cooler bags that go out to classrooms

8. Recommendations #2 Create posters- food from different cultures
Art contest
Survey program coordinator’s
Create posters- food from many different cultures
Reach out to an art class to have an art contest
-poster example breads from around the world or the different grains and what they are used in
- Posters of foods around the world
-Start the conversation of an art contest.
We would need to determine if this would fit within school curriculum & grade first by surveying program coordinator
- Is this a feasible task to ask schools/program coordinators to participate
- If so, we can promote on Coordinator Facebook page and newsletters

9. Recommendations #3 Monthly Food Themes Monthly promotion of a “food”
Promote “food highlights” through multiple mediums
Recipes and nutrition info
Share stories
Monthly Food Themes
- Pick a food item each month to promote during the month
- Highlight the food in the F&F newsletter, academic calendar & the new Coordinator Facebook page
- Add nutritional values to these foods and can include fun and easy recipes
- Encourage programs to share stories about introducing the food item to their students
- Great way to interact with coordinators on Facebook!
- Can include “Did you know” facts
- Would like to start in January by creating a calendar of food themes, we are hoping have a calendar ready for January 2020

10. Recommendations #4 Attend Multicultural Events @ schools
Invite CFGW sunshine members to attend on behalf of F&F
Promote cultural foods through various mediums
At events provide recipes or food samples
Multicultural schools
Invite CFGW sunshine members to attend on behalf of F&F
- Promote events on our newsletter & new F&F Facebook page
- Education about different cultural foods including recipes offered at our programs
Ask program coordinators to inform F&F team know when an event has been scheduled within the school,
- we can offer support in organizing volunteers to man a table during the event

11. Recommendations #5 Fun with new foods Fun with new foods
Blind food tasting
Involve students in menu planning
Integrate topics related to different cultural foods into student projects
Awareness and promotion
Fun with new foods
- Blind food taste event
- could be part of a network meeting or school cultural events or other school events
(something like the food taste we did at the volunteer appreciation event this past spring)
*be sure to check for food allergies*
- Students helping to create the menu for their F&F program
- This does happen already with a few programs but we would like to encourage other programs to follow suit
- Provide nutritional food facts to programs
- Students research foods from around the world- within school curriculum, ask for suggestions F&F committee
- Offer support to programs to help promote and bring awareness to the program
-by posting Pictures of seasonal foods on newsletter and Facebook page-
- Monthly Food Theme including recipes
- Offer fun food facts and recipes that can be found on Pinterest

12. Recommendations #6 Community Partners
F&F team to connect with WDG Public Health Department for resources.
Fun ways to promote healthy cultural foods in the school with healthy recipes
Connect with the Community Food Centre Canada-
cultural food training opportunities for program coordinators and F&F committee.
Community Partners
- reach out to our community partners like Public Health Department- Lisa Needham
- to help offer fun ways to promote healthy cultural foods in the school, healthy recipes
- Connect with the Community Food Centre Canada- possible cultural food training opportunities
- This might be a great session for a up and coming Network Meeting in the spring or fall of 2020

13. Questions
Lisa and Heather