Food as Medicine: Promoting culturally safer foods as part for resident-centered care for Indigenous people living in long-term care​

Indigenous food sovereignty is the right of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples to have access to, control over, and knowledge about their traditional and cultural foods, food systems, and practices. Picture yourself entering a long-term care (LTC) home. You are aging, frail, potentially experiencing an illness, and far from your community. After the first few meals are served, you notice that you do not recognize many of the foods being offered, and none provide you with the same comfort as the meals you typically ate at home. You are not being offered food that meets your cultural needs. Despite the LTC home being your new home, you do not feel at home because your cultural requirements are not being met. This scenario is the lived experience of many Indigenous Peoples living in LTC homes in Canada. Most of the literature on healthy aging in LTC homes focuses on the relationship between food and meeting nutritional requirements. There is a lack of research on the impacts of access or lack of access to traditional foods in LTC homes, especially for Indigenous Peoples.

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Project Grant.

Project Co-Lead: Sarah Funnell sarah.funnell@queensu.ca

Project Co-Lead: Krystal Kehoe MacLeod kmacleod@bruyere.org

Research Coordinator: Olivia Ballantyne oballantyne@bruyere.org

Coming soon.

Coming soon.