Food Security Receives New Investment

Making healthier foods more readily available to more Nova Scotians is the aim of a $40,000 investment from Nova Scotia Health Promotion.

The funding will be used to support various food security initiatives around the province. Food security is a term used to describe the availability of nutritious, safe, economical foods for all Nova Scotians and it is a priority in the Healthy Eating Nova Scotia Strategy.

"Providing access to healthy, affordable food is an important issue to the overall health of our province," Health Promotion Minister Rodney MacDonald said today, Sept. 26. "It's not enough to tell people to eat their vegetables. Instead we have to look at why they are not eating them. This investment will help do that."

Funding will be used to hire a co-ordinator to support the work of the provincial Food Security Projects steering committee, facilitate the production of handbooks and resource materials for the public, and organize workshops that will bring interested groups together to develop tools on how food security can become a reality for everyone.

"The investment made by Nova Scotia Health Promotion in food security is important," said Patricia Williams, assistant professor of applied human nutrition at Mount Saint Vincent University. "When people from government and communities work together, great things happen at the community level."