Social
Justice
Advocate
Hi, I'm Leah
Between 2021 and 2024, I ran the Fresh Food Weekly food security program. This program delivered half-a-million dollars-worth of fresh food to +8,000 low-income residents throughout the City of Barrie and the Township of Innisfil. Since I couldn't afford a lawyer, I wrote my own governing documents and received charitable status in July 2022. Between July 2022 and March 2024, I personally raised +$195K in monetary donations. This works out to a little more than $10K raised each month for 19 consecutive months.
Healthy Cooking Workshops For Kids
At Fresh Food Weekly, we're all about building a positive relationship with food! We know that food literacy is the key to living a healthy lifestyle but we're also aware that food literacy involves more than just knowing how to read a recipe.
​
Children who develop food literacy are empowered to make informed decisions about their own nutritional choices, and that equips them for a lifelong journey of healthy eating. This is why it's so important for parents to start getting their children familiar and comfortable with eating and cooking healthy food while they're young.
Healthy Cooking Workshops
Our two-hour cooking workshops are for children between the ages of six and 13. Children are taught about the importance of a well-balanced diet and how certain foods affect the body in different ways. Each child also gets to make their own dinner and dessert, which they can proudly bring home to the family for to eat that night. All food, supplies and cookware are provided, and we'll also have volunteers available to help ensure everyone is getting the most value out of our workshops.
Our Workshop Teacher
Mary Dyck, RN
Mary Dyck has been a registered nurse for the past 39 years, spending the majority of her career as a paediatric nurse at Soldier’s Memorial Hospital in Orillia, Ont. Mary is recently retired, spending the last eight years as a certified Bariatric Educator in the Children’s Obesity Clinic at Soldier’s Memorial Hospital, teaching children and their families about eating healthy and developing healthy eating habits.
Mary is a passionate advocate for living a healthy lifestyle and is excited to use her wealth of knowledge to help kids gain valuable hands-on cooking skills with Fresh Food Weekly’s Healthy Cooking Workshops for Kids.
Healthy Choices
Healthy Living
Our healthy cooking workshops for kids provided children with the choice of three different beverages upon arrival.