Every Bite Affects the World Local Action Awards
The Indigenous Christian Fellowship Ceremonial Garden has received an Every Bite Affects the World Local Action Award. Presented by the Every Bite Project in partnership with Nature Regina, the award recognizes local actions to increase understanding and skills around food sovereignty, helping people discover connections between the food we eat, our own health, and the health of other living beings and the environment.
The Indigenous Christian Fellowship (ICF) mandate is to build an urban community serving spiritual and social needs. Bert Adema, ICF Executive Director, says the expansion of the ICF facility to include the Ceremonial Garden will create many opportunities for the various groups who meet at the ICF to enjoy the garden and learn about the native and edible plants that grow there. After much planning and work by dedicated volunteers and staff, the ICF held a community celebration in September 2023 to inaugurate the garden. A short film of the event can be viewed here:
The Every Bite Award includes a cash donation of $800 and opportunity to share their story as part of Nature Regina's social media video series. The series aims to highlight these great examples of local community actions and inspire others to action.
Plans for continued development of the garden in 2024 include: establishing an area of native grass lawn, expanding native perennial plantings, growing annual vegetables in garden boxes, and raising funds to create murals on the interior garden walls.
The ICF Ceremonial garden helps people connect to each other and the natural world. The garden will provide food for people and habitat for native birds and insects. The garden supports food sovereignty by encouraging learning about how to grow and harvest food. Community participants will learn and share knowledge of native plants and their gifts through tending the garden.
Nature Regina and the Every Bite Project are delighted to recognize everyone involved in the ICF Ceremonial Garden through this award.
More information about the ICF can be found here: https://icfregina.ca/home
The Every Bite Project is inspired by the book Every Bite Affects the World: an earth care cookbook for joyful, mindful eating, by Catherine Verrall and friends, published in 2014. The Every Bite Local Action Awards are funded through the proceeds of book sales and legacy donations made to the Every Bite Project in memory of Catherine Verrall.
Catherine Verrall (1929 – 2021) was well known in Regina's environmental activist community. The Local Actions Awards honour her life-long commitment to environmental and social justice and education, and continue the journey of growing awareness and action.