Full Bellies, Hungry Minds
“I want you to try this,” says Fatima da Silva, lopping a generous chunk off a cinnamon-scented pureed squash and apple loaf.
Da Silva, the 54-year-old chef at Vinoteca at Vigneti Zanatta Winery in Cowichan Valley, learned how to cook Portuguese, South Asian and African-influenced dishes at her mother’s side in their Mozambique home. Friends and family were always dropping in, so feeding people comes naturally to her. As one of the founders of Nourish Cowichan Society, she now helps feed hundreds of hungry children at nine elementary schools in the region.
With a tired smile after a day she describes as the typical Monday “gong show” of prepping, cooking and distributing waffles, grilled turkey-cheese-tomato breakfast sandwiches, applesauce and fruit salad, Da Silva is finally able to sit down to chat over a cup of tea in the new Nourish Cowichan kitchen.
Three Went to Battle
She recalls how back in 2017, community nurse and public health educator Anita Carroll and fellow community activist Dina Holbrook asked her to join them to address issues of poverty and hunger among school children in the Cowichan Valley school district.
“The three of us went to battle,” da Silva says, launching the volunteer-run, donor-funded program. Today, an estimated 800 kids receive breakfast through Nourish; Da Silva wants to up that to 1,000 by the start of school this September. And earlier this year, a $12,500 Community Wellness Grant from Island Health helped the society provide fresh, prepared and packaged food to two daycares, one on Penelakut Island and another in Duncan, along with the Cowichan Maternity Clinic.
"Nourish Cowichan is an amazing partner, providing breakfast for so many of our young children in our school community,” says Candace Spilsbury, chair of Cowichan Valley School District Board of Education. “With their support, we can ensure each and every student in our district will start the day with full bellies and hungry minds.”
Nourish Cowichan launched with just one school in February 2017, where an average of 80 to 100 kids were coming to school without breakfast. It was a shocking number, one that da Silva, Carroll and Holbrook (who has since stepped back from the project) could hardly get their heads around. The day after the meals were dropped off, a teacher emailed that this was the first time an entire day passed without a child falling asleep in the classroom or complaining they were starving.
“We cry a lot on this job; there are a lot of tears,” da Silva says.
Teachers determine which kids need food, with an emphasis on dignity and privacy. If children who aren’t in the Nourish Cowichan program forget their lunch or are just hungry, they are fed without question. Says da Silva: “That takes the stigma away.”
Previously, the breakfasts were made at Vinoteca, in the tiny kitchen space da Silva rents at the vineyard. While demand grew, the space didn’t. Her new kitchen–formerly a junk-filled metalwork shop at the back of École Mount Prevost in Duncan–was reborn last March as a place to help feed even more people.
The new space is just as she envisioned: a commercial kitchen that feels like home. It’s an open-plan, multi-purpose space that resembles a trendy, urban condo. It only looks expensive, though. Da Silva is a cheap and chic whiz who mined every website and sale she could for treasures, proud that what looks truly high end, really isn’t. It all came from the hard work of volunteers and the generosity of both donors and local businesses who provided discounts and donated labour.
Da Silva has an aversion to recipes and she packs as much nutrition as she can into her food—flaxseed, pureed squash and apples go into loaves, muffins and waffles. There are extra vegetables in the tomato-meat pasta sauce for the maternity clinic. The kids complained they didn’t like green onions on their breakfast sandwiches, so she whizzes them into mayonnaise.
She’s good at limiting sugar, finding deals on bulk fresh food and pantry staples, and getting around picky eaters. And don’t even think about going on vacation to Mexico without bringing her bottles of real vanilla extract. The kids love the taste.
Da Silva is anxious to raise more money and continue growing the Nourish Cowichan Society: “This year is so important for us to rebuild our finances. The construction is done. Now we have to fill the pantries again so that when September comes, we are ready to feed 150 more children.”
For more on Nourish Cowichan Society and upcoming fundraisers, visit nourishcowichan.ca or on Facebook at facebook.com/nourishcowichansociety.
