Nutrition Blocs – addressing food insecurity needs in Ottawa

As part of our SE Profile series, CSED recently sat down with Abhijit Potdar, founder of Nutrition Blocs, to learn more about what they do, the people they serve, and the impact they hope to make.

What does your social enterprise do?
Nutrition Blocs designs, develops and delivers food programs that directly address food insecurity needs in our communities by increasing access to fresh, nutritious and culturally-appropriate meals to all Ottawans. We are primarily a business-to-business (B2B) initiative which provides customized food production, food sourcing and program design solutions that support the food requirements of local community service agencies and the people they serve.

When was the social enterprise started and where are you located?
We registered the non-profit in 2018 and invested 2 years in learning the current food systems and food security landscape, understanding the gaps in the system and developing ideas to address some of these gaps. We started active operations in October 2020 in the midst of the pandemic.

What was the inspiration behind your social enterprise?
My family moved to Canada in late 2017 and during our son’s school registration, we learnt about Canada being the only G-7 nation without a National School Meal program. Having worked in school nutrition programs in the US, the primary motivation behind Nutrition Blocs was to provide the building blocs to build Canada’s next generation….by providing healthy and nourishing meals to our kids. In that journey, we realized that many local community agencies lack sufficient resources and in-house capacity to meet the growing demand and provide their clients with fresh, nutritious and culturally-appropriate meals. Nutrition Blocs stepped in to provide them with a flexible and customized solution to meet that need.

Tell us about the people you serve? How do they typically find you?
Our motto is Collective Impact through Collaboration; we primarily serve community service agencies by helping them design and deliver customized food programs. Our first pilot was serving prepared meals at two schools in Manor Park and one Boys & Girls Club program. We have also partnered with two community houses to provide meals to low-income families, mostly immigrants. Recently we have created two programs for seniors; one providing veg meals through the Meals-on-Wheels network and the second program will deliver a weekly Ethnic Grocery box to ethnocultural seniors.

How has CSED helped you?
CSED has played a vital role in our journey, especially on the Food Transformation Project. CSED has been a partner, an adviser, a supporter, a friend, consultant, cheerleader and much more….and we are looking to share and celebrate our success together in the future.

What challenges do you face day to day?
There are inequities in our current food system, be it resources or services offered. A lack of clear city-wide food strategy has resulted in 100+ agencies competing for limited resources, duplication in services with limited impact, and have actually created food deserts in the nation’s capital. The biggest challenge we face is a lack of resources and infrastructure to support city-wide food programs. Another challenge is the cycle of dependency inherent in current charity-based food programs.

What are some of the lessons you and your team have learned along the way?
Some of our biggest takeaways from the past 8 months is a clear understanding of how various agencies operate, their motivations and limitations, the needs of their clients and the agency’s willingness to collaborate to respond to those needs. Another learning is that the pandemic has highlighted existing gaps and identified new challenges, and that agencies, small and big, the city and funding organizations have shown renewed commitment to address those challenges and tackle food insecurity.

What makes you most proud?
The work we are doing every day and the impact we are creating in collaboration with our partners. As a new immigrant to Canada, Ottawa has welcomed and embraced us with love and care, and we have embraced and reciprocated by sharing our love and care by serving the communities in Ottawa. The work we do makes a real impact in the communities and in the lives of families we serve. In a very short time, Nutrition Blocs has forged meaningful and sustainable partnerships, collaborations and friendships with many social service agencies and community leaders and champions.

What keeps you up at night?
The challenges ahead of us and the work to be done to overcome these challenges. What keeps me up at night is the eagerness for a new day to continue our work.

What is your vision moving forward?
Our vision is to play an important role in designing the larger food strategy for Ottawa and develop sustainable and equitable food programs that make food more accessible and affordable to every Ottawan. We are also working on building a Food Transformation Hub in the city, that will help prevent and divert food waste on a large scale and promote sustainable consumption of food. Another project close to heart is to help Ottawa lead the way in a comprehensive school meal program.