London Community Resource Centre

652 Elizabeth Street

London, Ontario

N5Y 6L3

(519) 432-1801

lcrc@lcrc.on.ca

Bringing together individuals, organizations and

          resource to foster community action

Don’t delay, tell us your story today. We’d love to hear from you. Send submissions to 

lcrc@lcrc.on.ca

Thank you,

LCRC staff.

'YUM': LCRC key partner to Salvation Army HOMES Program

Submitted by Saira Obrai, HOMES Program Coordinator, Housing Support Services, The Salvation Army, Centre of Hope

Partnering with the London Community Resource Centre has been a very valuable and postiive experience

for our agency, and the clients we serve. I coordinate an eight-week life-skills program which is called

the HOMES Program; The Housing Outreach for Maintenance, Education and Sustainability, as part of

Housing Support Services at the Salvation Army Centre of Hope.

The program was initiated by the Centre of Hope three years ago to address housing sustainability, and

it focuses on providing at-risk groups with tools to find and sustain housing and provides resources to do

this. The Centre of Hope partners with other London agencies, such as the London Community Resource

Centre, to provide each session, and LCRC was also a part of the initial advisory group for the program,

so have been a key partner since its start.

The LCRC focuses on one important part of the program which is food sustainability. By partnering with

the Community Food Advisor Program, to host a Healthy Eating on a Budget workshop, participants of

the program learn essential skills which allow them to stretch tight food budgets, and utilize the

community resources (ie. community kitchens/gardens) available to their advantage. We offer the

program to many different groups such as young moms, clients living in the Centre of Hope shelter, First

Nations' groups and clients residing in low-income housing, and with each group, the HOMES Program and

LCRC work together collaboratively to ensure the Healthy Eating on a Budget workshops are tailored to

meet each group's unique needs and interests.

Through an interactive workshop, participants learn about and discuss meal planning, making meals with

staples, saving money on groceries, following Canada's Food Guide on a budget, making quick and easy

family meals and receive take-home kits. The Community Food Advisors make the workshops fun by doing

food tasting and demonstrations, giveaways and draws and most importantly with their enthusiasm and

passion for food! The session always gets great reviews from participants; and has become a definite

crowd favourite. Written comments from past workshops include:

"I really know how to choose my food now.";

"This was my favourite session because I need to know about healthy eating for me and my

children.";

"The most helpful information was the fun recipes I can try.";

"This was a very good experience, very encouraging.";

"Overall this was the most helpful and informative session. It really does help."

However, I think one comment in particular made by a participant from the last session run at the Safe Haven drop-in seemed to sum it up best:

"Yum!"

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