Holly and Joe welcome Keisha Joseph, a food systems coordinator at Indwell, a nonprofit providing supportive housing across Ontario. With her background in nutrition and dietetics, Keisha shares insights into food security, food literacy, and community building. She explains how Indwell helps residents transition from homelessness to stable housing while addressing food insecurity through meal programs, cooking classes, and grocery shopping support. Keisha discusses how food deserts, rising prices, and inadequate social benefits contribute to systemic food insecurity. She advocates for a practical approach to nutrition, emphasizing the importance of regular meals over strict dietary rules. The conversation explores urban planning's role in food accessibility, the potential of indoor farming, and how stable housing creates a foundation for food security. Keisha's passion for community nutrition and empowering others shines through as she describes her fulfilling work at Indwell.

• Indwell's Website: https://indwell.ca/
• Indwell's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indwell.ca
• The Middlesex London Food Policy Council: https://mlfpc.ca

• Follow GrowAbility at https://gapod.me/links
• Sign up for our Fresh & Nutritious Newsletter at https://gapod.me/newsletter

Keisha Joseph is a food systems coordinator at Indwell, a nonprofit organization providing supportive housing across Ontario. With a Bachelor's degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from Brescia University College, she found her calling in community nutrition rather than clinical practice.

At Indwell, Keisha works to improve food security and literacy among residents who have experienced homelessness or face housing instability. She started as a Food Program Facilitator, teaching cooking skills, grocery shopping, and food literacy while coordinating meal programs. Now in a coordination role, she oversees food programs throughout London's Indwell communities.

As a member of the Middlesex London Food Policy Council, Keisha advocates for systemic changes to address food insecurity. She takes a practical approach to nutrition education, emphasizing regular meals and basic food groups over strict dietary rules. Her passion lies in empowering individuals to regain agency over their food choices while building stronger, more food-secure communities.

GrowAbility is hosted by Joe Gansevles and Holly Pugsley.

Special thanks to this week's guest, Keisha Joseph.

Our show is produced by Adam Caplan, Joe Gansevles, and Holly Pugsley.

Production support from Oliver Gansevles, Evan Gansevles, Scott Hohn, Kevin Labont, Paul Rogers, Dorentina Uka, and Alan Williamson.

Holly Pugsley of Just Keep Growing art directed this episode and made sure the plants looked great.

Audience strategy by Dorentina Uka and Tess Alcock.

Our theme music is Wandering William by Adrian Walther and can be found on Soundstripe.

Adam Caplan, that's me, is web.isod.es Executive Producer, and Sammy Orlowski is our Senior Creator.

Thanks to TechAlliance of Southwestern Ontario, including Farida Abdelnabi and Sarah Edmondson, for letting us shoot at their beautiful offices.

Special thanks to Leigh Ann Gansevles for the support and yummy food, Hubert Orlowski for helping our podcast sound great, and Gabor Sass for making some great introductions.

GrowAbility is a web.isod.es production and is produced with the support and participation of the team at The PATCH and Hutton House.