Lombardy youth win AgriFood Challenge for food sustainability efforts
A small 4-H club in Lombardy recently gained national recognition after winning a Canada-wide challenge focused on food security and sustainable agriculture.
4-H, the over a century old non-profit youth development organization, is challenging youth across Canada to support sustainable agriculture and food security in their communities through the AgriFood Challenge. Lombardy’s Cooking 4-H Club was one of the 13 winners across Canada.
The AgriFood Challenge is in its second year of inviting 4-H members of all ages to participate individually, in small groups, or as a full club. The Lombardy Cooking 4-H Club won for their ginger spice share, an initiative that came about during their Spice of Life project.
A national review process selected the winners through evaluating community impact, member involvement, creativity, and learning.
“This is a testament to the skills and talents of 4-H’ers. When given the chance to be innovative, they can solve difficult problems” said Christina Franc, CEO of 4-H Canada.
“The projects submitted to the competition show how youth leadership, community service, and agricultural knowledge can come together to make a real impact.”
The Lombardy Cooking 4-H Club teaches cooking skills as well as leadership and life skills. The club is in its third year and has 14 members, who they participate in different projects throughout the year. In the Spice of Life project, they learned about cooking with spices, where spices come from, and other uses beyond the recipes they made.
Club Leader John Drummond wrote to Lanarkist to explain their winning initiative the Ginger Spice Share: “We discovered this delicious ginger cookie recipe that had just the perfect blend of spices, and decided it was too good not to share. We made spice packets (a blend of 4 spices), attached the recipe, and handed them out at different events, including Lombardy Fair.
“The AgriFood Challenge is all about getting people in touch with their food, and making from scratch rather than depending on grocery stores for the final product. It makes food sustainable and makes us realize that we can cook our own food at home, and not always have to order out, or buy prepackaged, processed food that we don’t know what’s in it.”
Each winning individual or group received a $500 cash prize to support their continued community impact. Drummond explained that they’ll use the prize money to fund cooking supplies for their future projects. They’re currently engaging in a pizza project where they make a pizza from scratch at each meeting.
Drummond went on to explain how their club has supported the Lombardy community: “We’ve taken our cooking skills to other events to showcase what we’ve learned. For the last couple of years, we’ve catered the Lombardy Fair Volunteer Appreciation Dinner, serving 150 people. We’ve also made dessert for the Leeds 4-H Fundraising Dinner. These events are fun, busy and very rewarding.”
The club’s future projects will include Creative Baking, in which they’ll learn about breads, cookies, and cakes. In the fall, they’ll be doing the Potato Project, learning about cooking with potatoes to make easy and healthy dishes.
Drummond expressed that they’re always looking for new members. Youth aged nine to 21 are welcome.
The AgriFood Challenge was delivered by 4-H Canada in partnership with Syngenta Canada.
“These young people are showing us what’s possible when we invest in youth-led innovation,” said Christina Stroud, Head of Corporate Affairs, Syngenta Canada.
“Their hands-on approach to engaging in food security and sustainability reflects the kind of creative thinking that makes our future feel promising. Syngenta is committed to supporting the next generation of problem-solvers who will shape the future of Canadian agriculture.”
For more information on 4-H Canada and Lombardy’s Cooking 4-H club, visit the Leeds 4-H Association website here.