Telus Atlantic Canada Community Board supports Seed to Skillet program in Dartmouth North

Young people in Dartmouth North are taking healthy, fresh food from field to table thanks to a Telus Atlantic Canada Community Board grant. 

The $10,000 grant is being used by The Dartmouth North Community Food Centre to support its first Seed to Skillet program, which engages young people in opportunities to tend, harvest, prepare and share food directly from the food centre’s Community Farm.

“Seed to Skillet gives young people a chance to explore where our food really comes from and that experience opens all kinds of doors,” says Rob MacNeish, Community Farm Coordinator at the food centre.

Young people spend half of the Seed to Skillet program in the garden and the other half in the kitchen, building cooking skills, cooking their harvest and sharing meals together.

“Demystifying cooking at this age turns the kitchen into a place of fun and enjoyment, rather than a place of work or stress,” says Melissa Rankin, Food Skills Coordinator. “And there’s nothing like cooking with food you’ve pulled from the ground with your own hands.”

“Telus is proud to contribute to an organization that’s tackling food security at multiple levels and recognizes the power that food has to build new pathways to success,” said The Honourable Myra Freeman, Telus Atlantic Canada Community Board member during a visit to the centre. 

The Telus Atlantic Canada Community Board grant also made it possible for the food centre to partner with the MacPhee Centre for Creative Learning and the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Halifax to document the Seed to Skillet experience.

Filmmaker John Hillis, of TrueFaux Films, is working with the program participants to create six short films that will be entered into Nourish Nova Scotia Food & Film Challenge, being run in partnership with Devour. We’ll share the videos after the competition in early November.