MHETA: Creating and Building Local Partnerships
Event is FULL - Currently not accepting registrations
MHETA - Manitoba Home Economics Teachers' Association
Conference Title: Connecting, Creating, and Building Local Partnerships
Location: Leila North School, 20 Allan Blye Drive, Winnipeg, MB
Time: 9:00 am - 3:30 pm
Registration Deadline: October 17, 2025 at 5:00 pm
- Program -
08:30 am - 09:00 am - Registration & Snacks
09:00 am - 09:45 am - Welcome & Make-n-Takes
10:00 am - 12:00 pm - A Sessions
12:00 pm - 01:00 pm - Lunch by Baraka Pita Bakery
01:00 pm - 03:00 pm - B Sessions
03:00 pm - 03:30 pm - Wrap-Up & Reflections
*** There will be local vendors set up for a mini market from 8:30 am - 1:00 pm ***
- Conference and Membership Fees -
MHETA Conference Fee ................................................ $99
MHETA Conference & Membership Fee ..................... $85
MHETA Student Conference & Membership Fee ...... $55
MHETA Retiree Conference & Membership Fee ....... $65
MHETA Membership Fee .............................................. $40
MHETA Student Membership Fee ............................... $20
MHETA Retiree Membership Fee ................................ $20
Cancellation Policy: Registration is non-refundable.
If you require any additional information about this conference, please contact Jeff Laurin by phone or text at (204) 229-0363 or by email at jjlaurin@shaw.ca for registration information.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sessions - 9:00 AM-10:00 AM
FULL - Welcome & Make-n-Takes
Our morning will start off with an opportunity to collaborate, connect and inspire one another. There will be local vendors set up for a mini market, time to visit with our presenters, and Make-n-Take tables with resources and activities available to help spark your creativity.
8:30 am - 9:00 am – Registration & Snacks
9:00 am - 9:45 am – Welcome & Make-n-Takes
8:30 am - 1:00 pm – Mini Market
Sessions - 10:00 AM-12:00 PM
FULL - A1: Ricotta Cheese Making Session
During this hands-on session with Dustin you will learn how to make small batch Ricotta.
Presenter: Dustin Peltier, Loaf and Honey
Loaf and Honey is owned and operated by Dustin Peltier. He has 21 years of experience in kitchens, being self-taught. Dustin created Loaf and Honey to chase his true passion, to connect people with food in a new way. Getting people to come back to the days when they knew where the food, they were eating was coming from.
Dustin spent a year being mentored by Brother Alberic a monk from the Monastery by Holland Manitoba, who has been making cheese since the 1940’s.
Suitable for: All Educators
Location: École Leila North School, 20 Allen Blye Drive, Winnipeg, MB
Participant Max: 25
FULL - A2: Mushroom Cultivation & Identification
In this session you will have the opportunity to connect with Tom Nagy.
Presenter: Tom Nagy, River City Fungi
Tom is a restoration ecologist with a passion for botany, sustainable agriculture, and mycology. Tom has experience working as a field botanist, environmental consultant and as a field and operations manager for a certified organic farm. In 2018, Tom began River City Mushrooms; a small-scale mycological interest project based in Winnipeg that focuses on cultivating an appreciation for edible and medicinal fungi as well as supplying the knowledge and tools necessary for a new generation of mushroom growing enthusiasts to flourish. Tom continues to advocate for a greater understanding of how we perceive, understand, and develop relationships with the natural world by writing informative articles and conducting engaging public programs discussing native plant communities, organic agriculture, mushroom cultivation, and wild foraging.
Suitable for: All Educators
Location: École Leila North School, 20 Allen Blye Drive, Winnipeg, MB
Participant Max: 25
FULL - A3: Natural Dyes
In this hands-on session you will have an opportunity to learn how to use natural dyes within your classrooms and create your own natural dye piece. Lourdes helps people awaken their creativity through hands-on, imaginative, and immersive natural dyeing experiences using botanicals grown at the farm.
Presenter: Lourdes, Masagana Flower Farm
Masagana is from my first language, Tagalog and it means “abundant”, “plentiful,” and “prosperous. A reflection and a reminder of my belief that there is abundance in and all around us.
Suitable for: All Educators
Location: École Leila North School, 20 Allen Blye Drive, Winnipeg, MB
Participant Max: 25
FULL - A4: Cross Stitch
In this session, we hope that you will enjoy, connect, and creating a cross-stitch project with Kristen.
Presenter: Kristen, That's What She Threads
Suitable for: All Educators
Location: École Leila North School, 20 Allen Blye Drive, Winnipeg, MB
Participant Max: 25
FULL - A5: Filipino Food Ways
Learn and connect with Mae through a hands-on cooking class.
Presenter: Mae Santos
Mae is a MSc RD Registered Dietitian. She believes in an all foods can fit approach and creates easy, nutritious meals. @maesantos_rd
Suitable for: All Educators
Location: École Leila North School, 20 Allen Blye Drive, Winnipeg, MB
Participant Max: 25
Sessions - 12:00 PM-1:00 PM
FULL - Lunch
Our lunch is catered from Baraka Bakery, a local Lebanese restaurant. Guests will get a platter with their choice of chicken, lamb, or falafel. Platters come with a pita, rice, Greek salad, tabouli, hummus, and garlic & hot sauces.
Please ensure that any dietary restrictions are indicated in MyProfile.
Sessions - 1:00 PM-3:00 PM
FULL - B1: Supporting School Feeding Programs & Sustainable Local Food for School Programs
The growth of school nutrition programming presents a significant opportunity for our local food system and schools. In this session, we will outline some of the challenges and opportunities facing the local food system. We will share our experience as an intermediary working with local food producers, as well as our early experience working with school nutrition programs. We will focus on the opportunity for mutually beneficial relationships between the local food system and schools, and stepping stones for different school nutrition programs to build these relationships.
Presenters: The Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba; Laura Pelser & Peter Hill, Fireweed Food Co-op
The Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba is a charitable organization dedicated to helping school children learn, grow, and succeed by supporting school meal and snack programs. We are unique because we are based in Manitoba – and all the funds we raise stay in this province, reaching children in all regions of Manitoba.
Fireweed Food Co-op is a nonprofit co-op for producers and supporters of Manitoba-grown sustainably produced food. As a co-operative for both food producers and consumers, we are dedicated to creating a larger, more stable market for locally and sustainably produced food in the region, and to make food more accessible to more individuals, families, and community as whole. They envision a regional food system that is collaborative and prioritizes not only regenerative and sustainable ecological practices but fair labour practices, as well as one that is dedicated to increasing the accessibility of food.
Suitable for: All Educators
Location: École Leila North School, 20 Allen Blye Drive, Winnipeg, MB
Participant Max: 25
FULL - B2: Tea Blends
THE STORY OF MOSSY BIRCH HOMESTEAD - Nurture with Nature
Herbalism is about Nature & connection to the land.
Erica has been on a lifetime journey of discovery + to teach those around her how to be more self-sufficient while responsibly utilizing what we have on the land. Her parents guided her as a young child about what the land provides to us; plant edibility and medicine, harvesting of meat, trapping and more. She is a student of Herbalism + Indigenous Medicines and enjoys learning more about the beautiful native plants around us and their gifts. She especially loves sitting down and creating custom salves, skincare and teas for you while also discussing how to reconnect and reconcile with the land.
Erica is passionate about teaching + learning. Her goal is to bring us all back to nature; to nurture ourselves and our souls- to create a path of reconciliation with the land. Erica picks plants and herbs to wildcraft her line of custom skincare and wellness products. She gardens, hunt + harvests. She lives what she teaches.
Find her on Facebook, TikTok, Youtube, Instagram all under the handle @Mossy Birch Homestead.
Presenter: Erica, Mossy Birch Homestead
Suitable for: All Educators
Location: École Leila North School, 20 Allen Blye Drive, Winnipeg, MB
Participant Max: 25
FULL - B3: Vermicomposting
Learning alongside one another as you dive into the wonderful world of vermicomposting for both home and in the classroom space. This session will include a hands-on approach.
Suitable for: All Educators
Location: École Leila North School, 20 Allen Blye Drive, Winnipeg, MB
Participant Max: 25
FULL - B4: Jaya's Preserves
Jaya’s Preserves is a mother and daughter team from West St. Paul, Manitoba, making homemade small-batch preserves using traditional methods. Arriving from India in 1970, Jayashri brought with her a rich cultural heritage of Indian cooking and food preservation techniques learned from her mother and grandmother on the family farm. Growing up in Southern India eating spicy pickles made from tender mangoes, lemons, limes and jackfruit, Jayashri developed a love for these spicy condiments.
In her new homeland, Winnipeg, Manitoba, many attempts were made to pickle various locally grown fruits and vegetables in the traditional Indian way. From crabapples to green beans and cauliflower, Jayashri’s gardening and culinary adventures lead her to try pickling carrots. After many years of experimenting, tasting and adjusting, Jayashri’s Spicy Carrot Pickle has become a favorite among family and friends.
Presenter: Jayashri, Jaya's Preserves
Suitable for: All Educators
Location: École Leila North School, 20 Allen Blye Drive, Winnipeg, MB
Participant Max: 25
FULL - B5: Soil to Soul
Maggie is a Canadian gardener from the Manitoba Prairies (Zone 3b). A passionate plant mama. A backyard chicken-keeper. The co-host of The Grow Guide podcast. And the founder of From Soil to Soul.
Growing her own food became a key part of her life in 2016. That year, her now husband surprised her with a greenhouse for her birthday, she knew very little about gardening and naively jumped in head first. But right away, she fell completely in love.
With organic gardening, you don’t have to worry about adding too much fertilizer that it will harm your plants. You don’t have to worry about carefully washing your veggies after harvesting. You don’t have to worry about harming your ecosystem. Instead with organic gardening you get to follow natures lead, bringing you back to the way food was meant to be grown.
Presenter: Maggie, Soil to Soul
Suitable for: All Educators
Location: École Leila North School, 20 Allen Blye Drive, Winnipeg, MB
Participant Max: 25
Sessions - 3:00 PM-3:30 PM
FULL - Wrap-Up & Reflections