Member Event: Using Institutional Buying Power to Spark Innovation in Local Food
Posted: January 9, 2013
Categories: economic development / Events / Food in the News / Local Procurement / News from Sustain Members
My Sustainable Canada in hosting a workshop, Apples & Entrées for Institutions: Sparking Innovation in Local Food, on January 17 at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington. The goal of the event is to combine the forces of two local food projects that use institutional buying power to support innovation in the regional food system, with emphasis on the Ontario apple value-chain. Concurrent discussions will focus on “apple product development & marketing to institutions” and “re-imagining retherm in health care” that will provide learning and networking opportunities for participants.
To register for the free event or read the workshop agenda, visit the Apples & Entrées for Institutions: Sparking Innovation in Local Food Eventbrite page. The event will run all day from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
From the Eventbrite page:
There are a lot of food dollars in health care, schools, campuses, and correctional facilities. We’ve come a long way in recent years to recognize how we can put our institutions’ purchasing power to work by asking for local. Now we are taking it a step further and exploring how we can respond to that demand for more local, by partnering with the Ontario apple industry to encourage it’s continued growth and innovation after one heck of a year… and by exploring how institutions like health care can reconsider the way they cook, in order to support more local. This workshop will ask questions like: How can we capitalize on market opportunities for Ontario’s apple industry to supply the province’s institutions? How can we re-imagine the way we use re-therm ovens with fresh, local food to serve health care patients Ontario-made entrees?
WHAT IS THE VALUE OF ATTENDING?
- Ontario’s apple industry will learn about the institutional marketplace and have the opportunity to connect with procurement leaders from facilities across Ontario; dedicated discussion will also explore next steps to capitalize on some of these opportunities to sell to big institutional buyers
- Health care facilities will explore how they can purchase more local food by re-imagining the use of re-therm and learning from facilities that have piloted more local food recipes prepared in re-therm
- Schools, universities and college campuses will make new connections with local suppliers and procurement leaders to help them to respond to student demand for more fresh, local food and to fulfill their sustainability missions
- Other public sector institutions like correctional facilities and municipalities will see examples of how they can use their purchasing power to work for the public good, by understanding how they can invest in innovation in the local apple industry and strength of the broader food system
- Distributors and other players in the food system will be directly involved in influencing the direction of innovation in the food system, while also recognizing the part they play in building a more robust and innovative food system through facilitating easier sourcing and flow of local food to institutions
Join us to explore how we can leverage the buying power of our institutions to stimulate new partnerships, new products, and new investment in the provincial food system!
For questions, contact Hayley Lapalme, Project & Workshop Manager at My Sustainable Canada, at hayley[at]mysuscan.org.