Ginoogaming First Nation

About this Nation

Ginoogaming First Nation (GFN) is located on the northeast shore of Long Lake, 1 km south of the municipality of Long Lake with access from highway 11. GFN occupies an area of 7,000 hectares. The GFN people have been living along Long Lake since time immoral and were first recorded by the Hudson’s Bay company in 1840. GFN has a registered membership of 816people, with 173 members living in the community.

Food Sovereignty Visions

PROJECT 2b

• Christmas Good Food Box: Due to the success of the previous year’s Christmas Good Food Box, the community decided to try to provide a local Christmas Good Food Box sourced from stores located in the local communities (Longlac/Geraldton). This second year proved to generate more interest in exploring how this could be an option for community members. The Understanding Our Project team will be coordinating a meeting with the community early in 2020 to begin generation of a plan that will support this project in expanding.

PROJECT 2a

• Christmas Good Food Box: The community has been exploring the idea of joining the Thunder Bay Good Food Box for many years and has not had the momentum to do so until the Understanding Our Food Systems project and the allocated direct community support. Due to the timing of the project and the project team connection to connecting partners the community choose to purchase Christmas Good Box Boxes for each family in the community, sourcing locally in the region for some of the contents of the boxes. The response rate for the Christmas Good Food Boxes was welcoming but met with apprehension for members and the health centre as he overall logistics for getting the good boxes to the community is difficult. More collaboration and conversation needed to happen with Thunder Bay Good Food Box, project team and other connecting partners.
• Community Raised Garden Bed Project: In the summer of 2019 Roots to Harvest partnered with the community to build six raised garden beds for community members who volunteered to host one. Roots to Harvest staff helped to build and plant all of the garden beds, the community had some success in this initiative but it was later realized that water access posed as an issue. The community is interested in an outdoor water spout with tubes to help alleviate this issue in the 2020 summer.