A Look at our pilot program: ‘For’ to ‘With’

The Moving from “For” to “With” project (FTW) invites families in our community to participate in engagement opportunities that will encourage them to share their lived-experience to help design future programs and increase the capacity for the sector to provide dignified, experience-informed programming to address food insecurity in Calgary. In efforts to ensure an ethical exchange between BB4CK and project participants, monthly grocery cards are provided to participating families for sharing their input and lived experiences.

Since October 2022, BB4CK has been working with families in the city who participate in our programming to gather input, learn from their experiences, and implement changes to our program to best serve the kids’ needs in Calgary. As the prevalence of food insecurity continues to rise, we are excited to seek input from those who best understand their kids’ needs during these times.

This pilot program is serving a disproportionate ratio of racialized families, which emphasizes the importance of prioritizing a decolonized approach to engaging with families due to the historical marginalization that they may have experienced.

• The program consists of 50 families and 113 kids.
• 60% of families are single-parent households.
• The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is a classic stress assessment instrument. We use this scale to ask families about their feelings and thoughts to help us determine their stress levels relating to food. The assessment showed a significant shift in high-stress levels of families from March to April this year. There were 12% of high-stress individuals in March whereas the number came down to 8% in April, showing the impact of grocery cards.