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It has been 12 weeks since the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. 12 weeks of improvisation and crisis response. 12 weeks of uncertainty and grief. 12 weeks to dream about what comes next and what could be better. Among the plans reworked or postponed due to the coronavirus is the delayed launch of Nourish’s Anchor Leadership program, which we’ll aim to relaunch as early as Fall 2020. Until then and in solidarity with health care, we have turned our attention to the pandemic response.
Through conversations with frontline Innovators, partners and stakeholders across the food and health system, we’ve adapted our strategy across three phases: 1) the initial response to COVID-19; 2) the subsequent phase of recovery & rebuilding, and 3) the ongoing, long-term reimagining of more just and resilient food and health care systems.
Response: In the short-term, we are responding to the strong connection between COVID-19 and food insecurity to launch a Food Rx: COVID-19 Patient Food Security Fund, which will provide support for health care organizations to meet the needs of people for whom the pandemic has created or is exacerbating food insecurity.
Recovery & Rebuild: In the medium-term, we continue to steward pathways for co-solving for patient and planetary health by addressing the social and ecological determinants of health with our Anchor Collaboratives program. We’re engaging with policy windows opening as a result of COVID-19, working for strong social policy to address food insecurity, ensuring fair work for essential workers in both food and health systems, and building more resilient institutional value chains that build capacity in regional food systems.
Reimagine: For the longer-term, we’ve submitted a 2050 vision to imagine a more resilient, equitable and sustainable Canadian Food and Health care system as part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Food System Vision Prize. This vision will be our north star as we navigate transition pathways towards making it a reality with our programming in the next five years -- - Anchor Collaboratives, policy convening and strategic communications.
The coronavirus highlights the critical urgency to build resilience in our systems, and cues us to co-solve for the pandemic and the triple crisis we find ourselves in now: a health crisis, an environmental crisis, and an economic crisis. For now it’s one step at a time, eyes scanning all three time horizons. As we often say in our Innovator community, quoting Deng Xiaoping: “We cross the river by feeling for stones.”
Enjoy the newsletter, stay well, and see you in the river,
The Nourish Team
Launch of “Food Rx: COVID-19 Patient Food Security Fund”
Nourish is coordinating the Food Rx: COVID-19 Patient Food Security Fund to catalyze health care anchor leadership and collaboration to address food insecurity created, or exacerbated by, COVID-19. Hospitals, health authorities, long-term care facilities, Indigenous health services, and Community Health Centres are invited to apply with projects that demonstrate a collaborative response to address food insecurity in their community. Apply here.
Nourish submitted our 2050 Vision as one of 79 Semi-Finalists in Rockefeller Foundation’s Food System Vision Prize
Nourish’s vision was selected as one of the 79 Semi-Finalists globally (from 1319 Visions submitted) to move ahead to refine our 30-year vision. After many sleepless nights and visioning workshops with partners and stakeholders across the food and health system, we're excited to share our ambitious 2050 vision titled "Nourish 2050: Regenerative Food and Health Systems that Reconnect People with Land, Culture, and Each Other".
Post-Covid Future Scenarios for the Canadian Health-Food System
So what does the post-COVID future look like ahead of us — in 1 month, in 6 months, a year? Nourish’s latest article explores four possible futures for the Canadian health care and food systems post-COVID-19, and examines the implications for short-term strategies and long-term vision of Nourish moving forward. Read here.
In the News: Food, Health Equity and Transformation after COVID-19
We’ve been scanning for new signals and opportunities within the post-COVID-19 landscape for food and health care systems. Here are some of the articles that stood out to us:
Getting back to nature during a pandemic: Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CBC Radio)
COVID-19 will force feds to reconsider health-care funding, Trudeau says (Toronto Star)
The case for putting seniors' care under the Canada Health Act (Globe)
Screening for COVID-19 should also include questions about food insecurity (CBC)
COVID-19 hits poorer Montreal boroughs hardest, data reveals (CTV)
Canada’s lack of race-based COVID-19 data hurting Black Canadians: experts (Global News)
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