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A Seed Was Planted”¦ What a Difference a Year Makes!

June 29, 2014

By act

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By Sheilagh McGlynn, justgeneration.ca Facilitator

Please join us here all week as we have guest bloggers share their experience of the “Sharing Bread” Food Security course at the Sorrento Centre in British Columbia.

Almost one full year ago, while at the Anglican and Lutheran Joint Assembly in Ottawa, a seed was planted. Devon Goldie (a Youth Council member and Summer Staff at Sorrento’s working farm) came up to me with an idea. “With PWRDF launching it’s Food Security Campaign this year, what if PWRDF came to Sorrento next summer and led a course for the Summer Program?” With this one question a dream was planted.

Road trip with Cuban Partners Ernesto Gonzales and Bishop Griselda Delgado to Sorrento Centre for "Sharing Bread" Food Security Learning exchange!
Road trip with Cuban Partners Ernesto Gonzales and Bishop Griselda Delgado to Sorrento Centre for “Sharing Bread” Food Security Learning exchange!

Conversations were had, funding was secured, a course outline was thought up. The idea of a Learning Exchange started to take form. We wanted Canadian Anglicans to engage in food issues in both the local and global contexts. We connected with our Cuban Partners (The Episcopal Church in Cuba and the Cuban Council of Churches). We invited two of their experts working in the area of Food Security to learn with us and share with us their experiences of food in the context of Cuba.

We invited participants from across the country to join us. This week will be experienced by people from each Ecclesiastical Province in Canada. We have young adults participating and parts of the week will be fully intergenerational with the Children’s Program at Sorrento joining in. We will also have a regional representative from the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and Canadian farmers participating in the week.

We will be learning together about local and global food systems as well as getting a chance to “dig deeper” – I mean dig deeper into the issues of Food Security, but also to get our hands dirty by digging in the dirt! We will have a chance to work at the Sorrento Centre farm (which produces food for the Centre and is a Community Shared Agriculture site for people who live in the area).

I currently am sitting on a plane with Bishop Griselda Delgado and Ernesto Gonzales (our Partners from Cuba) thinking about what it took to get here…

The seed was planted a year ago… But there was a lot of work that went into tilling the soil, finding participants, pulling together the program, acquiring visas… But now I sit on the edge of seeing this seed grow into fruition. It is very exciting!

We encourage you to experience this journey with us. Every day this week we will be posting blogs from some of our participants. Please check back here to read their experiences of what we are learning together.

Also, come September, there will be a modified version of this week’s course available for download so that all Anglican’s in Canada can reflect on this vital issue of Food Security. If you haven’t already, we encourage you to look at the fredsays.ca website.

As our Primate (Fred) says… It all starts with food! I can’t wait to see what happens with this seed that was planted. Together we are growing a really great thing…!

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