City seeks Indigenous-led partners in food
The purchasing model developed by the City of Thunder Bay has built-in criteria that considers more than just price, assigning value to diversity, inclusion, social justice and sustainability.
Processor/ retailer partnership makes regional fish more available
Eat the Fish, East Coast Seafood A new partnership between seafood retailer East Coast Seafood and local fish processor Eat the Fish has made locally-caught fish more accessible to the region. Typically, local commercial fishermen have sold their product to...
Gaagige Zaagibigaa
a community-led initiative that is bringing Indigenous practitioners, funders and other stakeholders together to develop a food system planning and resourcing process that strengthens Indigenous food sovereignty and food security
What is the Indigenous Food Sovereignty Movement?
Indigenous food sovereignty is fundamentally achieved by upholding the sacred responsibility to nurture healthy, interdependent relationships with the land, plants and animals that provide people with food.
13 Moons Learning Resources
In 2020, a partnership between the Indigenous Food Circle, Thunder Bay District Health Unit and Lakehead University produced the Traditional Harvesting/ 13 Moons learning resources. The kit includes a poster, a video and an online interactive game, and is designed to help people begin to understand and reclaim seasonal, traditional practices around food.
What do the 2022 Forest and Freshwater Foods Indicators Tell Us?
The Thunder Bay Region is home to grasslands, meadows, numerous freshwater lakes and is surrounded by the Boreal forest which provides an abundance of wild game, fish, berries, mushrooms and much more. Forest and freshwater foods present a potential growth area that...
2022 Forest and Freshwater Foods References
Thunder Bay + Area Food Strategy. (2022). Community Food Security Database. Thunder Bay + Area Food Strategy. (2022). Community Food Security Database. Thunder Bay + Area Food Strategy. (2022). Community Food Security Database. Lakehead Region Conservation Authority....
Court Street Edible Food Forest
In 2014 Roots to Harvest and the City of Thunder Bay planted the city’s first urban food forest. Located at the parkette on Court Street, the food forest includes a range of fruit trees and berry bushes that, once fully grown, will become a place people can go to pick...
Local Food Act
On November 5, 2013, the Ontario Government passed the Local Food Act, which aims to foster local food economies in Ontario. Due to the advocacy efforts of Ontario Nature, the Ontario Government included forest and freshwater foods in the definition of local foods....
Ontario Nature
Over the past 2 years Ontario Nature has offered harvesting workshops to teach people how to sustainably harvest wild edibles. In 2014, Ontario Nature held 26 workshops in northwestern Ontario with a total of 576 participants. The following year, in 2015, they held 25...
What do the 2015 Forest and Freshwater Foods Indicators Tell Us?
There has been a huge surge of interest among people in the Thunder Bay area in learning about what foods are available in our region and how to harvest them sustainably. In part this has been driven by the efforts of organizations such as Ontario Nature, who have...Forest Foods That Are Commonly Harvested, Fished or Hunted
Beaked Hazel Bear Birch Blueberries Bunchberries Camomile Cattails Chokecherries Clover Daisy Dandelion Deer Fiddleheads Fireweed Goldenrod Grouse Highbush Cranberries Horseradish Horsetail Juniper Lake Cisco (also known as Lake Herring) Lake Salmon Lake Trout Lake...The Medicine Wheel
In First Nation cultures, the medicine wheel symbolizes the interconnection of all life, the various cycles of nature, and how life represents a circular journey. The four sacred medicines within this tradition are sweetgrass, tobacco, cedar, and sage. These medicines...
Personal, Commercial and Recreational Harvesting
Personal harvesting is any harvesting activity primarily intended to benefit individuals or households for sustenance. Personal harvesting can include economic activity provided it is limited to the household level (e.g., household food economy, food sharing, etc.)....
2015 Forest & Freshwater Foods References
Stolz, W., (2015). Ontario Nature. Personal Communication, November 7, 2015. Stolz, W., (2015). Ontario Nature. Personal Communication, November 7, 2015. Thunder Bay and Area Food Strategy. (2015). Community Food Security Database. Lakehead Region Conservation...