Improving access to healthy local and traditional foods within First Nations communities in Canada

Introduction: Ongoing impacts of colonization and Indian residential schools have contributed to the higher prevalence of food insecurity and chronic disease within First Nations communities in Canada relative to the general population. However, Indigenous communities are increasingly reclaiming local and traditional foods and food skills to improve food security and advance food sovereignty and holistic health. Learning Circles: Local Healthy Food to School (LC:LHF2S) used Learning Circles (LC), a community capacity-building model, to bring together diverse stakeholders (including Indigenous knowledge keepers, community members, hunters, gatherers, farmers, food producers, teachers, school administrators, students and parents) to participate in an iterative cycle of planning, prioritizing, implementing and assessing actions to support their local school community food system. Building on initial experience in Haida Gwaii, BC, the model was also evaluated across three First Nations school communities in the provinces of BC, Saskatchewan and Manitoba that varied in context, including governance, geography, size and food systems. An LC facilitator was hired in each community to oversee and support food activities and evaluation. Objectives: The objectives of the evaluation across 2016-2019 were to 1) document local food system actions, 2) examine the LC model of food system capacity building as scaled up across diverse contexts, and 3) document perceptions of annual cross-community project team gatherings as an integrated knowledge mobilization approach. Methods: This community-based participatory action research used Indigenous and Western methods to gather and thematically analyze data from documents (community reports, tracking sheets), conversational interviews (n=52) and open-ended responses on two student surveys (n=171). The process of scale-up was guided by Foster-Fishman and Watson's ABLe Change Framework (2012). Results: Food systems action was evident in each context and included development of local and traditional food pantries, school gardens, school nutrition programs and land-based learning from Indigenous knowledge keepers. Initiatives ranged from "quick wins", like a healthy community feast to raise funds for school food projects, to improving infrastructure to support local and traditional food access. Across communities, the LC facilitated a process to: 1) identify and build on strengths to increase capacity to reclaim traditional and loc