Sustain Receives Greenbelt Fund Grant to Develop Municipalities’ Local Food Procurement Strategies
Posted: January 22, 2014
Categories: Food in the News / GoodFoodBites / Local Procurement / News from Sustain Ontario
Photo credit: Ontariofresh.ca Twitter
Sustain Ontario is the recipient of one of six Greenbelt Fund grants announced today at an event at George Brown College’s Waterfront Campus in Toronto. In partnership with Local Food Plus, the Toronto Food Policy Council, and the Greater Toronto Area Agriculture Action Committee, Sustain Ontario will work with two to three municipalities as they develop implementation plans for buy-local programs. By assessing existing practices and evaluating the impacts of local municipal food policies, Sustain Ontario will provide focused mentorship, support and resources to help establish and increase local food purchasing by municipalities. Among other things, the implementation plans will include details on the types of food that will be purchased and realistic goals for increasing local food.
The event highlighted an innovative collaborative project between grant recipients George Brown College and St. Michael’s Hospital. George Brown College’s project, Cultivating Change: Local Food Within the Healthcare Sector (granted $120,000), will see St. Mike’s staff experiment with “from scratch” local food recipes to reveal skill gaps, while George Brown students test recipes to understand how the healthcare kitchen operates. To facilitate immersive education opportunities, the College will provide ongoing support to St. Mike’s by offering internship placements where students work alongside hospital staff to assist with ongoing menu creation featuring local food.
Together, these projects will help to assess and develop the feasibility and viability of local food procurement program in broader public sector institutions across the province. Additional Greenbelt Fund grant recipients announced today are 100km Foods Inc., Aramark Canada, Local Food Plus, and The Hospital for Sick Children. For a detailed description of projects visit Ontariofresh.ca.
About the Greenbelt Fund:
The Greenbelt Fund, a non-profit organization, supports and enhances the viability, integrity, and sustainability of agriculture in the Greenbelt and Ontario. The Fund delivers support to farmers and local food leaders to ensure more of the good things that grow in Ontario are being served and distributed through our public institutions, retail, and foodservice markets. Helping to overcome challenges and support economic growth, the Fund’s goal is to create systemic change to permanently increase the amount of local food consumed in the province through grants, education, policy, and networking initiatives. The Fund is supported by public and private sources. For more information about the program and grants visit Ontariofresh.ca. For more information on local food visit foodlandontario.ca.
For more information about the Ontario government’s new Local Food Act and broader local food strategy, visit ontario.ca/localfood.
Contacts:
Jennifer Asselin
Communications Manager
Greenbelt Fund
Phone: (416) 960-0001, ext. 306
jasselin@greenbeltfund.ca