Food for Thought: An Independent Living Approach to Eating and Nutrition

In March 2007, the Public Health Agency of Canada approved funding for Independent Living Canada’s “Food for Thought” project. The initiative aimed to educate Canadians with disabilities about sound nutrition; create accessible tools and resources on healthy eating and nutrition; and use food to connect people, encourage physical activity and reduce isolation.

The project began with a Participatory Action Research (PAR) study. Eight Independent Living Centres across the country (Halifax, Nova Scotia; Shippagan, New Brunswick; Montréal, Quebec; Alfred, Kingston and Niagara, Ontario; Calgary, Alberta; and Duncan, British Columbia) served as pilot sites for the program. Consumers at the Centres engaged in PAR through focus groups to determine the extent of their knowledge about good nutrition, identify barriers to healthy eating and suggest ways to eliminate those barriers.

The research indicated that cost was the biggest barrier to making healthier choices, followed closely by a shortage or absence of accessible transportation. Additional barriers cited included confusing and inaccessible labelling of foods, geographical limitations, and pain and/or fatigue associated with a disability. It was also noted that due to factors such as inaccessible transportation or reliance on others to purchase and/or prepare food, consumers were often not in a position to make any choices, healthy or otherwise, regarding their food intake.

Centres used the results of the research to develop a series of workshops, seminars and activities that would begin to address the barriers and needs cited by consumers. Activities varied widely across the country and were most often designed to address more than one need or to achieve multiple goals related to sound nutrition. Some of the highlights include:

• Workshops by health and nutrition professionals
• Grocery store and market tours
• Picnics and pot-luck meals, often with a theme (e.g., eating locally)
• Cooking in groups and sharing meals together
• Sessions to learn about existing community resources and to develop additional resources for use by consumers, including cookbooks and meal plan charts
• Community gardening and information sessions about growing one’s own produce at home
• Food and wine tasting events
• Single-topic workshops to address consumers’ needs around budgeting, interpreting food labels, integrating the recommendations of Canada’s Food Guide, safely handling and storing food, and others.

The interactive nature of the workshops meant that consumers took an active role in directing the learning process. Each of the activities provided consumers with an opportunity to develop their skills; learn about or create accessible resources to use and share; or engage with community members and familiarize themselves with what their community had to offer. They were designed to encourage consumers to socialize and meet new people, thus reducing isolation among consumers, which many had cited as an enormous barrier to healthy eating.

Once the series of planned activities were over, consumers met to participate in a second round of focus groups. These groups served as an opportunity for participants to provide general feedback about the programs, identify areas of strength and weakness, and consider which steps need to be taken (and by whom) to continue to make a positive impact on the nutritional well-being of persons with disabilities. Consumers indicated that there were still a number of things that each of them could do to make their diets healthier, but they also pointed out that there is a tremendous amount that others can and should do to support them in this endeavour. The final phase of the Food for Thought program – the Community Outreach stage – was designed to directly address this need that consumers have highlighted.

IL Canada has compiled the results of the research and feedback, as well as the tools and materials developed by the Centres and program participants, into a Community Action ToolKit. This resource is targeted at groups and organizations that work with, or provide services to, persons with disabilities and is intended to teach them what role they can play in supporting sound nutrition. In the next month, the original eight pilot centres will each host a workshop with those people or groups in their local communities that are positioned to have an impact on the dietary choices of persons with disabilities. The workshops will highlight the barriers to good nutrition that persons with disabilities face and will show participants how to use the ToolKit and other resources to support healthier choices. Once we have received feedback from this final phase of the project, the Community Action ToolKits will be printed and distributed to organizations and services across the country that have considerable contact with persons with disabilities.

Both the English and French versions of the ToolKit will be available on the Tools page of IL Canada’s website by the end of March 2010: http://www.ilcanada.ca/article/tools--resources-435.asp.