Thunder Bay Food Strategy Endorsed By Council
Posted: June 17, 2014
Categories: Food in the News / GoodFoodBites
Last night, Thunder Bay City Council unanimously endorsed the Thunder Bay and Area Food Strategy. The Food Strategy builds on the Thunder Bay Food Charter, which was adopted by City Council in 2008, in addition to 33 other local municipalities, organizations and businesses. The Food Charter is based on a commitment to community food security, which integrates economic, social justice, health, cultural, and environmental considerations.
The Food Strategy is a strategic action plan to carry forward the principles engrained in the Charter. And as with the Charter, the Food Strategy is a community-led approach to defining issues and crafting solutions. The Food Strategy was developed through numerous rounds of consultation, including Food Summits, seminars, surveys, and an Open House that brought out over 140 people.
The Food Strategy is organized around seven pillars. The seven pillars (or, strategic action areas) were decided by community leadership at a Food Summit in 2013. The seven pillars are: Food Access, Forest and Freshwater Foods, Food Infrastructure, Food Procurement, Food Production, School Food Environments, and Urban Agriculture. Working groups began meeting in fall of 2013 to identify local issues and draft recommendations. The working groups included a wide range of people for various backgrounds, such as city buyers, elected officials, school teachers and trustees, distributors, farmers, anti-poverty advocates, community gardeners, university students, and many others. Over 70 people were involved in the working groups, which combined, met over 30 times between September 2013 and April 2014.
Looking forward, the Food Strategy will be presented to seven other councils in the area over June and July, in addition to organizations and associations that have a vested interest in seeing this work move forward. An implementation plan and community food security report will follow, which will guide the projects and policy development over coming years.
The Food Strategy is available for download on tbfoodstrategy.ca
Update provided by Kendal Donahue, Food Strategy Coordinator for Thunder Bay and Area.