Sustain Ontario’s staff awarded the Wayne Caldwell Scholarship
Posted: November 30, 2010
Categories: Food in the News / Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario
On October 28th 2010, approximately three hundred planners attended the Ontario Professional Planners Institute’s (OPPI) historical symposium on Healthy Communities and Planning for Food. The symposium, which was held in Guelph, attracted planners across Ontario and Canada and was attended by various individuals from food and farming organizations. It was the first time in Canadian history that one of Canada’s planning institutions officially recognized the importance of food consideration in planning communities.
Sustain Ontario’s Tammara Soma attended and received the prestigious Wayne Caldwell Scholarship.
Keynote speaker Dr. Samina Raja Ph.D, a planner and professor from the University of Buffalo New York, provided important information on how planning decisions directly and indirectly impact the community, especially with respect to health and access to healthy foods. She also provided examples of international best practices on food system planning. From the planning of transportation, waste management, retail, housing, agriculture, or schooling, it became quickly evident that there is much that planners can do to improve the food system. Dr Raja also gave an encouraging report on a new trend in the planning profession, more specifically, the increasing demand for “Food system plannersâ€. Apparently, due to increasing public awareness on the importance of food and the growing movement supporting local foods, private consulting firms and the government are increasingly seeking out planners who have a specialized training or understanding of the food system.
Later that night, Sustain Ontario’s very own Food System Planner, Tammara Soma was awarded with the OPPI Wayne Caldwell Scholarship. The Wayne Caldwell Scholarship is awarded to recognize a student member who is making an important contribution in the field of planning for food. This scholarship is the first of its kind in Canada, and perhaps in North America, to be awarded for the emerging field of food system planning.
It was in short, a dream come true for Tammara who has devoted her planning education to a specialization in food system planning. Her major research paper investigated the role of a food system planner and during her studies, she travelled to Spain to conduct research on food markets and the protected designation of origin labelling system. Prior to Sustain Ontario, Tammara worked as a food planning liaison with a City Councillor in Toronto and interned with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing in the Greenbelt Section. She is also one of the founding members of the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council and a member of OPPI’s Agriculture and Rural Affairs working group. With respect to planning for food, Sustain Ontario has just recently sent a formal submission to encourage the Provincial Policy Statement to be amended to include food and agriculture considerations.