HST306H1S - Health, Nutrition, and Food Security

Welcome to HST306 – Health, Nutrition, and Food Security

This course is designed for learners who are eager to engage in a collaborative and interactive classroom with knowledge exchange and critical analyses. We will partner with those in the community working on pressing challenges around food insecurity and there is tremendous potential for exchange, partnership, and growth. Course concepts will examine the fundamentals concepts of food insecurity in Canada and across the globe, with emphasis on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Students will engage in discussions situated around concepts of health, food waste, food scarcity, and food sovereignty that will allow them to authentically understand distinct population and country-specific experiences with food security and the health implications both upstream and downstream for underserved groups. The key focus of assignments include engagement, critical analyses, and working independently and collaboratively toward idea-generation to address prevention and resolution efforts around food security. Course content will also emphasize threats and opportunities for achieving zero hunger, food security, good health and well-being, and equity.

Students willing to engage in written and oral communication during classes, are encouraged to embark on this exciting learning opportunity. This course will emphasize working in groups during class discussions and in some assignments to support skill-development, peer-review, and personal and professional growth. These skills will be actively applied with the community partners who are engaged in this course with a commitment to collaborate with students so that the work produced in this course may be used to support the efforts to address food insecurity in the greater Toronto area.

This classroom is introspective - we look inward at what our role is and what we can do to make a difference in our own learning and in our place in the world. This classroom is sincere and authentic – we do the work for the primary goals to learn, to change ourselves, and the world around us. This classroom is a social justice classroom – we strive for equity in all aspects big and small for our learning and for the contributions we make outside of the classroom. Food justice is social justice and if you love the sound of that, then this class is for you!

Skills-based Outcomes

By the end of the course, you should be able to:

1. Critically evaluate literature about global experiences with food insecurity

2. Identify & evaluate (in written assessments) the variables impacting on food security and health outcomes

3. Practice teamwork and collaboration on project work towards a practical, tangible deliverable

4. Self-determine and self-evaluate how your effort, skills, contributions can be improved and enhanced

5. Work with external partners to help co-create and co-produce meaningful, measurable deliverables

Knowledge-based Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

1. Accurately describe key precursors to food insecurity and their impact on human health and disease

2. Create effective knowledge translation tools for communicating technical/academic knowledge about health, nutrition and food insecurity

3. Synthesize research evidence to illustrate the evidence demonstrating community and population level impact of food access and determinants of health

4. Critically evaluate self-generated work and peer-work to identify opportunities for improvement

5. Conduct an environmental scan of the interconnected, complex challenges that form wicked problems