CULTURAL DIVERSITY ON THE TABLE

From NEWS CANADA

Part of the enjoyment of eating is choosing healthy foods that reflect your preferences.

Culture and food traditions play a role in shaping these preferences, including what you eat and how you prepare your food. Incorporating cultural diversity can expand your food skills.

Eating foods you enjoy with others fosters connections and builds communities. Celebrate special occasions and holidays with cultural food traditions or attend a community event featuring cultural food. Host your own potluck where everyone brings a traditional dish or recipe from their family background.

These are great opportunities to learn about different foods from around the world and pass along traditions and cultural awareness.

While celebrations are on hold in these days of social distancing, when life returns to normal, remember that sharing food traditions across generations and with friends is a great way to keep cultural roots alive.

Until then, celebrate South Asian Heritage Month on a personal scale with recipes from your food culture that you don’t use often to expand your cultural repertoire. Making and preserving family recipes is also a way to learn about other cultures.

Canada’s food guide snapshot is available in 31 languages.

More info at canada.ca/foodguide.

FREE ROUTINE DENTAL CARE FOR LOW-INCOME SENIORS

Each year in Ontario, preventable dental issues like gum disease, infections and chronic pain lead to more than 60,000 emergency department visits by patients, of which a significant portion are seniors.

Many low-income seniors face challenges accessing regular dental care because they cannot afford it, impacting their overall well-being.

The Ontario Seniors Dental Care Program (OSDCP) will provide free routine dental care for eligible low-income seniors across the province. This is expected to reduce the number of dental-related emergency department visits, helping to end hallway health care.

Ontarians aged 65 and over with an income of $19,300 or less, or couples with a combined annual income of $32,300 or less, who do not have dental benefits, will qualify for the Ontario Seniors Dental Care Program.

A new user-friendly web portal (ontario.ca/SeniorsDental) was launched to help seniors apply online.

It is estimated that 100,000 low-income seniors will benefit annually from this program once fully implemented.

The new dental care program will be available through public health units.

ONE BILLION RISING PROVIDES CARE PACKAGES

For the seventh consecutive year, Sikhs across Canada, in partnership with the World Sikh Organization of Canada, took part in the One Billion Rising movement by preparing over 2300 care packages for women and children in shelters in 11 Canadian cities: Surrey, Vancouver, Kamloops, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, Guelph, London, Ottawa and Montreal.

Personal care items, edibles and handmade cards prepared by Sikh children accompanied the packages.

One Billion Rising began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that one in three women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime.

This initiative was launched by the WSO in 2013 in Vancouver and has subsequently grown to cities across Canada.

WSO president Tejinder Singh said, “Our volunteers who organize this event work tirelessly with the support of the community and it’s all worth it when we hear about the amazing response from those who receive the packages in shelters. Once again, this year we have been promoting WSO’s Sikh Family Helpline as an active resource for women and families facing violence.”

The World Sikh Organization of Canada (WSO) is a non-profit organization with a mandate to promote and protect the interests of Canadian Sikhs, as well as to promote and advocate for the protection of human rights for all individuals.

More info at www.worldsikh.org.