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For someone settling into a new country, even the most ordinary parts of daily life can suddenly feel unfamiliar. Where do you go for help? How do you navigate a new health care or school system? How do you find work? Even a trip to the grocery store can be different when the foods, routines, and choices around you have changed.
For decades, Mennonite Community Services (MCS) in Aylmer has been helping newcomers find their footing, connecting people with information, resources and, perhaps most importantly, community.
That work takes many forms. MCS offers newcomer and settlement services, employment services, the Aylmer Thrift Store, and De Brigj 105.9 FM, an ethnic radio station that provides programming and information for the community. Its Family Education and Support Project of Aylmer (FESPA) provides education in life skills and nutrition for women, along with school-readiness programming for young children. FESPA celebrated 30 years of programming in 2024.
It is through FESPA that MCS is adding another layer of support with help from a Kindred Charitable Fund grant: exploring the connection between nutrition and mental wellness.
For MCS Executive Director Anna Bergen, nutrition offers an accessible starting point for conversations that can sometimes be difficult. “Nutrition is a much safer conversation,” Anna explains.
Many of the women participating in FESPA are newcomers, including pregnant women and mothers with young children. Along with the demands of pregnancy and parenting, they may be experiencing homesickness, isolation, stress, and the challenges of adjusting to life in Canada.
The project offers workshops that explore how what we eat can affect our energy and overall mental wellness, while also helping participants better understand and put language around some of the feelings they may be experiencing.
The goal isn't to diagnose or treat mental illness. Instead, MCS wants to increase awareness, provide practical tools, and help participants recognize when they may benefit from additional support. When deeper needs emerge, MCS is also making sure participants know where they can turn for further help.
Anna explains that families arriving from Mennonite colonies in Mexico may be accustomed to life on small, relatively self-sustaining farms, where food is often prepared from scratch and family and neighbours are close by. Arriving in Canada can mean adjusting not only to a different community and way of life, but also to a very different food environment. Convenient packaged and processed foods are readily available, which can be appealing when a family is busy adjusting to work, school, and life in a new country.
MCS is helping women step back and think about those choices: What am I eating? Could it be contributing to why I feel tired? What foods will help sustain me and my children? What familiar skills around cooking and whole foods can I continue to use here? These are small questions, but the answers can become lasting skills. “If we can address those, then it's also a tool, it's a skill that they develop and will carry on with them,” Anna says. “It's not just a one-time thing - it has a long impact.”
The first workshops have already received a positive response, with most of the project’s programming planned for this fall. Sessions are offered primarily in Low German, with language adapted to the participants in each group. MCS also hopes to offer a session open to couples, families, and other community members, creating an opportunity to talk more broadly about mental wellness and the different kinds of stress people may experience. And the learning won't stop at the classroom door.
MCS is adapting some of the workshop content into short segments for De Brigj 105.9 FM, primarily in Low German. That will allow practical tips and information to reach people who may never attend a workshop. The organization is also exploring whether some of the material could eventually be shared in a longer podcast format.
It's a natural extension of an organization that has long understood that effective community support starts by meeting people where they are, in a language they understand, through a format they can access, and with practical information that reflects their everyday lives.
Through its Charitable Fund grant, Kindred is pleased to support Mennonite Community Services as it creates space for conversations about food, mental wellness, and the everyday choices that can help newcomers and their families feel healthier, more connected, and more at home in their community.