Canning program aims to bring food security to northern B.C.

A new canning program is taking advantage of empty community kitchens in northernB.C. and trying to reduce strain on the region's health authority in the process.

Empowering Family Health is a newprogram running in the North Cariboodistrict that aims to promote healthier lifestylesthrough activities like canning and gardeningin small rural communities.

It takes advantage of under-utilized community halls and transforms them into spaces wherecommunity members cangrow andpreserve their own food, free of charge.

The program, led byHeloise Dixon-Warren, is a collaboration betweengovernment health officials, non-profit organizationsand community organizers.

"It's about bringing people together," said Dixon-Warren. "Supporting them to learn about how to grow gardens, how to preserve food, how to process it, and actually put it on the table."

According to arecent reportreleasedfrom the University of Toronto, 16.4 per cent of all houses in Northern B.C. werefood insecure in 2012.Food security andfood preservation are at the heart of the Empowering Family Health program, which received $20,000 in funding from Northern Health.

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"Northern Health has actually identified and recognized that in order to reduce the costs on the core health services, we need to bring people together at the grassroots level and try to encourage them to be more active and to eat healthier food," said Dixon-Warren.

The first phase of the program has included securing canning equipment and giving it to the community halls in towns, includingBouchie Lakeand 10 Mile Lake. The team holds food preservation workshopsand even helps set up the gardens.

"A lot of serviceshave been centralized in the cities. A lot of our halls, our rural facilities are actually beingunder-utilized. We're trying to reverse that trend," she said.

"A lot of [community halls]have amazing commercial kitchens.".

Phase two of the program will be implemented in February2017. According to Dixon-Warren, it will aim to facilitate more workshops, and create more community-specific projects.

"If this creates a bit of momentum and it brings more people together, I think in the long run it's going to be hugely successful."

With files from CBC's Radio West