Thank you.
We are really honoured and privileged to be here today. Donna and I represent the Food for Thought program in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. We are a Canadian prenatal nutrition program project, and therefore we are gratefully funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. We are also jointly funded by the Saskatoon Health Region. We are here to really share the success story that Food for Thought is.
Food for Thought is a program that has been running for 16 years. Our target population is low-income pre- and post-natal women living in conditions of risk. Our aim is to guide them to achieve better health for themselves and their children. The conditions of risk include poverty, adolescence, women who use alcohol, drugs, and tobacco, women living with mental health issues, women living with violence, aboriginal women, recent immigrants to our country, and women living in isolation with limited access to services.
Our program is guided by an overarching value of respect. We emphasize respect for others by creating a friendly, non-threatening environment in which Food for Thought participants meet other individuals with similar issues and they can freely discuss concerns. We use a strength-based approach that recognizes that each woman is the expert on how to bring about changes in her own life. Participants are encouraged to work toward small changes that are realistic within the context of their everyday lives. We also strive to facilitate empowerment, which we define as helping our participants to discover the power that they possess within themselves.