Local Food Week Highlights: Ontario’s Inaugural Local Food Report + Queen’s Park Farmers’ Market
Posted: June 10, 2015
Categories: Edible Education Network / GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Ontario / Policy News
On June 4th, Ontario launched its first-ever Local Food Report. during the province’s second official Local Food Week (June 1-7, 2015). OMAFRA Minister Jeff Leal announced the report’s release at Foodland Ontario’s annual Farmers’ Market held on the Queen’s Park lawn.
Sustain Ontario was honoured to be a part of the festivities, collaborating with local food champion and educator Chef Bruce Wood of Beau’s All Natural Brewing. Beau’s is a Local Food Fund recipient that embeds support for regional food systems and environmental sustainability throughout its business. Our menu for the day highlighted local producers from the area surrounding the Vankleek Hill brewery in Eastern Ontario. Chef Bruce enthusiastically spoke about the brewery’s relationship with local farmers, sharing that he knew all of the menu’s farmer suppliers by name. There was a great energy around the table from local food fans who wanted to recreate the lamb meatballs and roasted asparagus and mushroom focaccia at home. It was a great day to celebrate food literacy and local food skills!
Thank you to Bruce, Paige and all of the supporters from Beau’s who helped make this day a big success. Please visit the Beau’s All Natural Brewing website for recipes, and visit our Facebook page for more photo highlights from the day.
Ontario’s Inaugural Local Food Report
The first annual Local Food Report, mandated by the Local Food Act passed in November 2013, measures the province’s progress in increasing awareness of local food across Ontario by offering a snapshot of the province’s local food activities, goals and accomplishments. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs the Act aims to increase awareness of local food, nurture local food markets and foster vibrant food-based economies across the province.
A major highlight of the report was setting food literacy goals to increase Ontarians knowledge of local foods, including what local food are available, where to purchase local foods, and how to prepare meals made with local food.
The report highlights Sustain Ontario’s member FoodShare for the organization’s leading work on food literacy. FoodShare’s programs help Ontarians reach the new food literacy goals. FoodShare’s Great Big Crunch event was mentioned in the report as a special day of classroom education on local food.
The report also highlighted the Local Food Fund, a $30 million investment by the province to support innovative projects that increase consumer awareness of and access to local food. As summarized in the report this fund supports projects that market and promote local food, and strengthen regional and local food networks.
The report demonstrates the Ministry’s commitment to tracking and reporting the progress of the Local Food Strategy. Next year’s annual report will include:
- Celebrate and promote stakeholder success stories and accomplishments.
- Outline first-year progress toward the local food literacy goals
- Profile successes from the food donation tax credit for farmers
- Convey Foodland Ontario’s latest figures for consumer recognition and consumer intentions to buy local food
- Highlight results achieved by projects supported by the Local Food Fund and the Greenbelt Fund
Access the Local Food Report online.