Tag Archives: food insecurity

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CKMS News -2024-06-20- Pay-what-you-can food market working with community gardens for fresh produce

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CKMS News -2024-06-20- Pay-what-you-can community food market working with community gardens for fresh produce.

dan kellar

Kitchener, ON – An initiative from Community Healthcaring Kitchener Waterloo has resulted in the region’s first consistent pay-what-you-can food market. Stemming from the organization’s integrated strategy around supportive health care, the market is a part of the Community Health and Wellness program, which also includes a weekly breakfast club, cooking skill-shares, and other capacity and community building activities.

While the market has been stocking its shelves since January through donations and the Second Harvest food rescue app, as the growing season blooms, the project is teaming up with community gardens to bring in more fresh produce.  

Located in the organization’s office at 44 Frances St. in Kitchener, the market is open to everyone from 9-5 Monday through Thursday, and Friday 8-4.

This show features an interview with Megan Vander Hoek, a food program worker at Community Healthcaring Kitchener-Waterloo, discussing the pay-what-you-can food market and the organization’s efforts to support healthier communities through food.  

CKMS Community News, Newsroom, Shows

Stories of Hope: Community-Led Food Assistance Programs in Waterloo Region

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MP Holmes
Kitchener, ON

In the last three months of 2023, food assistance programs in the region marked almost a 50 percent increase in usage compared to the same period in 2022. In those last three months of 2023 alone, almost 15, 000 unique households accessed a food assistance program, a 43 percent increase over that period in 2022.

These numbers are from the Food Bank of Waterloo Region  and they highlight the surge in demand for food and the growing issue of food insecurity within our community.

However, amidst these challenges, there are stories of hope and compassion emerging through community-led initiatives that are making a difference in the lives of those in need.

These initiatives include the Tiny Home Takeout and Food Not Bombs, which are both operating on shoestring budgets with a crew of volunteers and demonstrate the power of grassroots movements in addressing basic human needs.

CKMS has more on this story

CKMS Community News, Newsroom

CKMS News -2024-03-31- The Free Weekly Distro fills a need and “shares the bounty”

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CKMS News -2024-03-31- The Free Weekly Distro fills a need and “shares the bounty”

by: dan kellar

Waterloo – As the cost of living crisis continues and the effects of high housing costs remain at the forefront of many discussions, record high food prices remain an important issue.

Since the fall of 2020, LSPIRG and Martin Luther University College have run a project out of the college, called “The Free Weekly Distro“, offering free food and basic home items to anyone who needs them. While the project’s webpage states The Distro started in response to “the serious level of food insecurity that was compounded due to COVID-19 unemployment and existing services being closed”, the mutual aid effort continues weekly as food costs have continued to rise.

This show features an Interview with Tavia Weber, the Distro Program Development and Partnerships Coordinator at Luther. Weber talks about the program’s origin, the effects of the high cost of living on students, and the massive growth in the program’s use.