Deleted: <!-- wp:paragraph --><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">The Medicine Hat area has a substantial history of working to reduce food insecurity and food waste. More than twenty years ago, several individuals raised funds to build a commercial-sized root cellar to store root crops donated by local farms until needed by the food bank. (When these charismatic people passed away, the program faded, and the site is now used, ironically, as a firing range for the police.) More recently, the Community Food Connections Association ( </span><a href="http://foodconnections.ca" data-mce-href="http://foodconnections.ca"><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">foodconnections.ca</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;"> ) has initiated a number of food security programs, with minor funding from Alberta Health.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">A number of food-related programs have evolved over the past few years. It seems that mid-sized cities (20-150,000 residents) have an easier time generating enthusiasm for community projects. These places have more resources and expertise than smaller towns, while still being small enough for effective networking and word-of-mouth communication. The following projects have been developed with virtually no government funding.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">Local success stories in south-eastern Alberta</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- Community Food Connections Society manages a group purchasing program for fresh produce, maintains a directory of local food producers and retailers, as well as an app to find fruit trees available for picking, and other food-related services.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- several small retail markets sell local produce, especially from Hutterite colonies</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- Medicine Hat Farmers Market is wildly popular, drawing several thousand customers each Saturday in the summer (pre-covid).</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- greenhouse operators manage many indoor acres (50 acres?) of tomato, pepper, cucumber and other vegetables</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- excess greenhouse production is donated to Prairie Gleaners, a charity which uses volunteers to prepare dehydrated meal packages for distribution to disaster areas around the world (Payments from the federal government and national charities are used to pay for natural gas.)</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- several large vegetable farms grow hundreds of acres of cabbage, onions, turnips and other vegetables.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- T.R.A.D. Worms Ltd. uses waste material from Prairie Gleaners to feed worms. The castings are mixed with water and sold to farmers wanting to rejuvenate the micro-biota in their soil.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- Half a dozen berry operations have sprung up around the city.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- City of Medicine Hat Landfill operates a composting program that accepts all yard waste (city-wide free pick-up), and adds shredded wood materials that are dropped off at the landfill site.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- Loop Resources picks up surplus or waste food from all major supermarkets in Medicine Hat. This company distributes edible food to charities and delivers the remaining material to local farmers who use it for pig feed.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- existing and planned cannabis greenhouses present an opportunity for resource recovery products such as hemp-crete.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- Just as Covid restrictions started and the college closed, several Medicine Hat College students initiated a food-sharing program. Near closing time, the college cafeteria staff assembled left-over food into single meal portions, and made them available for pick-up at low cost. </span></p><!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --><p><br data-mce-bogus="1"></p><!-- /wp:paragraph -->
| Added: <p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">The Medicine Hat area has a substantial history of working to reduce food insecurity and food waste. More than twenty years ago, several individuals raised funds to build a commercial-sized root cellar to store root crops donated by local farms until needed by the food bank. (When these charismatic people passed away, the program faded, and the site is now used, ironically, as a firing range for the police.) More recently, the Community Food Connections Association ( </span><a href="http://foodconnections.ca" data-mce-href="http://foodconnections.ca"><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">foodconnections.ca</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;"> ) has initiated a number of food security programs, with minor funding from Alberta Health.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">A number of food-related programs have evolved over the past few years. It seems that mid-sized cities (20-150,000 residents) have an easier time generating enthusiasm for community projects. These places have more resources and expertise than smaller towns, while still being small enough for effective networking and word-of-mouth communication. The following projects have been developed with virtually no government funding.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">Local success stories in south-eastern Alberta</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- Community Food Connections Society manages a group purchasing program for fresh produce, maintains a directory of local food producers and retailers, as well as an app to find fruit trees available for picking, and other food-related services.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- several small retail markets sell local produce, especially from Hutterite colonies</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- Medicine Hat Farmers Market is wildly popular, drawing several thousand customers each Saturday in the summer (pre-covid).</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- greenhouse operators manage many indoor acres (50 acres?) of tomato, pepper, cucumber and other vegetables</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- excess greenhouse production is donated to Prairie Gleaners, a charity which uses volunteers to prepare dehydrated meal packages for distribution to disaster areas around the world (Payments from the federal government and national charities are used to pay for natural gas.)</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- several large vegetable farms grow hundreds of acres of cabbage, onions, turnips and other vegetables.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- T.R.A.D. Worms Ltd. uses waste material from Prairie Gleaners to feed worms. The castings are mixed with water and sold to farmers wanting to rejuvenate the micro-biota in their soil.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- Half a dozen berry operations have sprung up around the city.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- City of Medicine Hat Landfill operates a composting program that accepts all yard waste (city-wide free pick-up), and adds shredded wood materials that are dropped off at the landfill site.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- Loop Resources picks up surplus or waste food from all major supermarkets in Medicine Hat. This company distributes edible food to charities and delivers the remaining material to local farmers who use it for pig feed.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- existing and planned cannabis greenhouses present an opportunity for resource recovery products such as hemp-crete.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400" data-mce-style="font-weight: 400;">- Just as Covid restrictions started and the college closed, several Medicine Hat College students initiated a food-sharing program. Near closing time, the college cafeteria staff assembled left-over food into single meal portions, and made them available for pick-up at low cost. </span></p></p>
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