The NSTEP Blog

Ingredients for a Healthier Tomorrow

Greetings NSTEPpers!

Welcome to Nutrition Month! 2022’s theme is “Ingredients for a Healthier Tomorrow.” Let’s take a deeper look at some highlights of this year’s theme:

Food Literacy

Food literacy is all about learning and utilizing new food skills. Like the old saying goes, if we know better, we do better. The more food preparation tools we have in our metaphorical tool belt, the more confident and motivated we feel to explore and prepare our own food.

Food Security

it is estimated during COVID, 1 in 7 Canadians were experiencing food insecurity. Food insecurity means having limited access to food. Barriers that create these limitations may include living far away from grocery stores or financial constraints. Alternately, food security is having sufficient access to healthy food choices. Feelings that accompany food security encompass having enough food to eat when you are hungry, adequate means to get to a grocery store, and not feeling any pressure around buying food.

Food Sovereignty

Continuing on with the point on food security is food sovereignty. Sovereignty, in this case, is pertaining to having the power to make your own food decisions. If someone is experiencing food insecurity, they likely have altered food sovereignty, too. For example, if money is tight, someone may not be able to buy the food they want, instead having to purchase something else.

Sustainable Food Choices

As our world’s population keeps growing, the demand for food is increasing. To help slow the depletion of resources, we can choose to make different food decisions in our own life. Buying vegetables and fruit from local produce stands and baked goods from local bakeries not only supports local businesses, but also have less ecological footprints than shopping at big supermarkets. Even smaller choices like composting food scraps or using reusable kitchen cloths decreases the amount of waste we produce.

Action Items

That being said, how can we act on these initiatives?

The month of March is also the home to Earth Hour. On March 26 at 8:30pm your local time, you are invited to turn off your lights to raise awareness for climate change and nature loss. Whatever you’re willing to give – even if it’s 15 minutes – helps support the cause. Check out the Earth Hour website for more information and resources! 

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Discover the impact we’ve made together! Dive into our latest NSTEP Impact Report for 2022-2023.