Growing vegetables for healthy children and futures

There are many serious issues facing our communities that are years, if not decades, in the making. From poverty and homelessness to food insecurity and low food literacy, the list can feel endless.

There are also many community organizations working on the front lines to address these issues. Their work is inspiring, infectious and innovative. Yet, despite all the dedicated efforts of these front-line groups, most of these problems don’t seem to be improving and, in many cases, are getting worse.

It begs the question: “Why?”

Are organizations not doing their jobs well enough? Are they taking the wrong approaches? More money and resources are being spent each year attempting to address these issues, yet we’re not seeing results.

One theory is there is a lack of accessible and consistent funding streams for charities or community organizations working on long-term issues. Even though there are many systemic issues impacting our communities where evidence-based solutions exist, there are very limited funding options dedicated to long-term, collaborative and strategic implementation of these solutions.

Instead, organizations are forced to work in silos, reinventing their operations every few years and competing for one- to three-year startup grants to survive. This is not only inefficient but discourages collaboration between organizations and almost never allows for an honest, dedicated effort to fix the root problems.

There also seems to be a belief that if you receive funding to assist with building a new project, you should always be able to financially sustain it without further funding past the terms of the initial funding agreement. The reality is the solutions to many of the big issues our communities face are simply not profitable, which is why the need for the project to exist in the first place.

So, what do organizations do when the funding that helped get their projects off the ground runs out? They either abandon the projects or repackage them and present them as a “new project” and reapply for more new project funding.

I liken it to growing vegetables for people — you need good healthy soil, lots of sun, access to water (and a good irrigation system) and seeds — as well as the expertise to tend to and care for the plants as they grow and mature.

So if you apply for startup funding to amend your soil, purchase seeds, build an irrigation system and train your staff, you can get seeds in the ground and begin to grow those veggies that people so badly need.

But if you can only receive funding to care for your seeds for three weeks as opposed to the 12 to 14 weeks it takes to grow vegetables, you are only going to grow microgreens or sprouts. It doesn’t matter how many different types of seeds you plant, after three weeks, you will only ever get microgreens and people will never get the vegetables they need.

There are some incredible examples of innovative collaborations where funders and community groups have come together to start larger projects that take a longer-term and more systemic approach to difficult and complex issues.

Positive examples

Two examples in the food security landscape are Nourish in N.S. and the Northern Manitoba Food, Culture and Community Collaborative.

Both support local solutions-oriented projects through collaborations with government, community organizations, funders and individuals.

And they show positive, immediate impacts, and long-term progress in addressing systemic issues related to food insecurity and low-food literacy. But unfortunately, these examples represent the exception.

We need to work to make these kinds of projects become the standard, shifting the funding landscape away from its focus on short-term grants and funding contracts. This approach forces organizations to put their focus on ineffective areas, such as self-preservation and competitive, expensive, short-term fundraising strategies.

Instead, we need to incentivize collaborative solutions and encourage funders and organizations to build long-term relationships around evidence-based approaches to systemic community issues. This more sensible approach will allow front-line organizations to invest in best practices, honest evaluation and focus on managing projects over a long period of time. It is the only way we will ever be able to address the root causes of these complex issues.

Otherwise, we’re just committing to planting different seeds over and over — but never allowing them the time to grow into vegetables.

Andrew Fleet is an avid local food enthusiast. He is the co-founder and executive director of Growing Chefs! Ontario, a London-based charity with a mission to change the way people learn about and develop healthy relationships with food.