Agriculture plays a vital role in our community, and is a driving factor in our local economy. It is important for our residents, including children, to understand the importance of farmers in our community.
 
In October 2019, students from a local grade 2/3 class were asked two questions: 

1. Where does food come from?

The students pulled items from their lunch, and brainstormed where they think each item may have came from. This allowed the students to think through all the processes it took to get the food to them. For example, they identified that pickles came from cucumbers, and those cucumbers were grown in the ground by farmers.
 

1. What do farmers do?

Together the class created a list of what a day in the life of a farmer might look like. They then added ‘but what ifs...’ to help students think of the challenges and struggles a farmer might face in their day. For example, they identified that the farmer must harvest their crop, and discussed the issues of bad weather, or machinery breakdown.
 
The students also created artwork of what a farmer looks like to them. Students included things like animals, machinery, barns, and trucks. These activities allowed students to develop a better understanding of the important role farmers, and the agricultural community has in our counties. 

Gateway has been nominated for the 2019 Downtown Goderich BIA Award!

It is a honor to be nominated among such amazing local organizations and we would like to thank those who continuously and tirelessly enhance the quality of health and the welfare of our community. We hope to continue to work alongside these organizations and improve the quality of life of our rural residents. 

 On Wednesday, October 2, Heather Mair spoke on Gateway's Grand Sparks Summer Day Camp at the CRRF 2019 Conference held in St. John's, Newfoundland. Her talk, entitled "Understanding Intergenerational Activity in Rural Ontario: The Case of the Grand Sparks Summer Day Camp", was well received and contained lots of fun photos taken by the summer camp kids.

Grand Sparks is a one-week day camp that provides grandparents the opportunity to enjoy interactive outdoor activities with their grandkids. It has been successfully run for a number of years now and we love putting smiles on both grandparents and grandkids alike. To learn more about our program click here: http://www.grandsparks.com/ 

The Active Aging Showcase was held in Hanover on October 1st, 2019. Several agencies and organizations, including Gateway, were present, providing information to active seniors in the Grey Bruce Counties. Tanya Shutes was the keynote speaker and her presentation on loneliness and social isolation among seniors was well received. We would like to thank the Age Friendly Committee for hosting the event and inviting us to attend.  ​

This fall our Chair of Rural Pharmacy, Dr. Feng Chang will be providing leadership to two co-op students; Elizabeth Ibrahim and Courtney Simpson. They will be helping on a few interesting projects that are being conducted in concert with the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy such as the "My Plan" project and an opioid deprescribing project. My Plan is a project that focuses on integrative health coaching for those affected by dementia that is lead our Chair of Rural Health Coaching, Sheila Scheuhlein. These students, along with Shayna Melady, are a welcome addition to our Gateway team.