MINI VIRTUAL CONFERENCE SERIES  

Part 3: Nutrition in Diverse Populations

Date: Friday, March 26, 2021  
 

Chairs: Noreen Willows, PhD (University of Alberta) and Malek Batal, PhD (Université de Montréal)

The barriers to making diets more nutritious are many and often they are systemic in nature, going beyond an individuals’ ability to make the healthiest choice in food purchasing and preparation. Food insecurity - for example the inability to access an affordable, nutritious and culturally appropriate diet - is one such barrier. Food insecurity is prevalent in Indigenous communities and among newcomer and refugee families. For Indigenous peoples, food insecurity is the result of past and present colonial policies and practices that constrain healthy food choices, diminish food sovereignty, and degrade ecosystems such that they can no longer support Indigenous hunting, fishing, trapping or agricultural traditions to the extent that they once could. For migrant groups, accessibility to cultural and religious foods may be problematic, and exacerbated by limited economic resources.

In this mini-conference, two strengths-based nutrition interventions in Indigenous communities will be described that focus on assets, resilience and protective factors among community members. With strengths-based interventions, Indigenous communities drive the process of intervention development, implementation and evaluation, rather than being passively guided by nutrition “professionals”. The experience of food insecurity among two migrant groups, Syrian refugees in Quebec and South Asians in Alberta, will be described and will highlight the relationship among food security and income, as well as the relevance of the cultural food environment. A panel discussion at the end will include food security practitioners working with vulnerable populations will discuss lessons learned and what more needs to be done.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the characteristics of strength-based nutrition interventions and realize the implications of this approach for nutrition intervention development, implementation and evaluation.
• Acquire knowledge on how a First Nations-led food sovereignty initiative improved diet quality for its members.
• Discuss how an intervention to foster healthy lifestyle behaviors and relationship among Indigenous youth was informed by Indigenous worldviews and practices and how it honoured community-based participatory research principles.
• Understand the advantages of supporting communities to develop or adapt health interventions to meet their own needs that are meaningful, culturally acceptable, effective, and sustainable.
• Understand issues of food insecurity among vulnerable groups in Canada.
• Discuss what cultural food security means for different groups and in different contexts.

Draft program - Subject to change

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