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Ginny Point – Treasurer

Ginny Point has a long standing interest in agriculture and healthy food. It started years ago when working at the Ecology Action Centre, with the agriculture committee. She was fascinated by the interconnections between sustainable agriculture, healthy people and a healthy planet. That led to wanting to learn more about the specifics of nutrition, so she enrolled in the School of Nutrition at Acadia University. After graduation, for many years Ginny worked at a dietitian, until her retirement in January 2018. For numerous years she managed the Food Services Department of Kings ...

Fixing food for the health of Nova Scotia

Fixing food for the health of Nova Scotia What are we eating? For too many of us, it isn’t Michael Pollan’s prescription: “eat food, not too much, mostly plants” We’re eating lots of processed foods – highly processed foods – with additives including preservatives, lots of sugar and salt and taste enhancements. These foods are easy to buy and prepare quickly to provide calories. They’re also easy to waste. Taste buds may accept these foods but our health doesn’t. What we eat can cause obesity and diabetes and heart disease and cancer and overall poor health. And that affects the way we live, ...

Considering Our Options

"Society broadly needs to change the circumstances for all members of our society to enable people to have options and live differently. In our small province we could actually achieve this." Dr. John Ross, Chronicle Herald April 1st, 2016 We have options, and not all of them require difficult choices. Many of us worry about challenges while perhaps overlooking local solutions. Dr. Ross describes the Social Determinants of Health which, among others, include income and income distribution; employment and job security; food security; social connections and safety network.  There are options that can have a positive effect on these determinants. We can choose an apple ...

Local Prosperity: FarmWorks is helping to grow local entrepreneurs and their businesses

The Centre for Local Prosperity brought a wide range of speakers and citizens together in Annapolis Royal and Cornwallis Park over four days in April 2015 to consider New Economics for Rural Canada. Conference Keynote speaker, economist Michael Shuman, has written that  Americans’ long-term savings in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, pension funds, and life insurance funds total about $30 trillion (America 330 M, Canada 33 M people). But not even 1 percent of these savings touch local small business—even though roughly half the jobs and the output in the private economy come from them. So, how can people increasingly concerned with ...

Why FarmWorks Matters

PRESS RELEASE - May 26, 2014 More than 25 jobs created within two years by entrepreneurs supported by FarmWorks FarmWorks Investment Co-operative Limited announced today that 18 Nova Scotian food-related businesses receiving loans in the 18 months between May 2012 and December 2013 have created 20 full time jobs and six part time jobs as a direct result of FarmWorks loans. More .... FarmWorks evaluation report May 2014

FarmWorks 2016 Impact Report Information

Impacts of Local Investment – Survey of FarmWorks Clients Economic and Social Impacts of FarmWorks Support for Food Related Businesses in Nova Scotia Anticipated figures for 2018 based on 104 (relative to 38) businesses that have received $3,800,000 (relative to $1,005,500): revenue $20,000,000 +, expenses $18,000,000 +, full or part-time jobs 475. “I think that entrepreneurs should boast about the support that we receive and where we receive it. Too often I see an article on a start-up entrepreneur and they do not mention the support that they received early on, and ...

Rosemary Murphy – Director

I was raised on the shores of St. George’s Bay, outside of Antigonish, NS, where I learned the joy and value of growing, cooking and eating fresh, vibrant food from my parents. My mother is an excellent cook and avid gardener, but also a painter who sees beauty and meaning in the natural world. My father, a photographer and film maker, loves hunting for field mushrooms and celebrating with picnics. Food has remained a strong and vital thread throughout my life. I worked in a plant nursery for several ...

FarmWorks points to investment fund results

Patricia Brooks Arenberg, The Chronicle Herald, June 16, 2014 http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/1215336-farmworks-points-to-investment-fund-results Excerpts: "...just some of the more than two dozen jobs FarmWorks loans have helped bring to Nova Scotia from May 2012 to December 2013." “Twenty full-time jobs and six part-time jobs were created as a direct result of the FarmWorks loans over and above the (21 full-time and 14 part-time) jobs held by the business owners themselves,” says a survey released Monday that was conducted on behalf of the co-operative. “We’re pretty happy with the results to have created that many jobs in that short period of time,” Linda Best, co-chair of FarmWorks, said ...

FarmWorks Receives National Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 14, 2014 FarmWorks honoured among Tides Top 10 awardees Tides Canada named FarmWorks Investment Co-operative Limited among its Tides Top 10 – a national annual award honouring some of Canada’s most innovative social change efforts that inspire people to take action, think in new ways and make the world a better place. We chose them for: Creating meaningful partnerships with investors and with loan recipients, businesses and other lenders – partnerships that contribute to the growth of food-related enterprises across Nova Scotia. “Our Tides Top 10 ...