Over 150 Candidates Declare Support for Food & Farming
Posted: October 21, 2014
Categories: GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Ontario / Policy News / Vote ON Food and Farming 2014
Across Ontario, over 150 candidates for municipal councils and school boards are taking part in the Vote ON Food & Farming municipal elections campaign. As part of the campaign, council candidates have responded to surveys crafted by local food champion groups that take a solutions-based approach to issues such as regional economic resilience, farmland preservation, community food access and food literacy. Ontario is full of innovative programs and policies that address these issues, but many need council support to have a deeper impact.
“We’re absolutely thrilled with the positive responses we’ve heard from candidates,” says Carolyn Young, Program Manager at Sustain Ontario. “Many expressed surprise at discovering how much of an impact they can have on their local food systems. It shows that candidates want to take action on these issues, but more needs to be done to educate them on the impact they can have through food.”
The local campaigns are led by Local Food Champions – food policy councils, stakeholder roundtables, and non-profits active within the municipalities – and coordinated by Sustain Ontario, the Alliance for Healthy Food & Farming, a cross-sectoral alliance of over 80 member organizations. Local Food Champions sent surveys to all candidates running their upper-tier municipalities. Read candidate responses at voteonfood.ca/municipal-elections. All submitted responses are linked to from the respective municipality’s page.
Leading 7 local campaigns, Local Food Champions sent surveys to all council candidates in:
- Wellington County
- York Region
- Greater Sudbury
- Counties of Frontenac (including Kingston) and Lennox and Addington
- Haliburton County
- Essex County
- United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry.
Independent food-focused campaigns for the City of Ottawa and the Thunder Bay Census Metropolitan Area are also profiled on the Vote ON Food & Farming municipal elections hub.
In addition to the council candidate surveys, Local Food Champions have also sent the Say Yes! to Good Healthy Food in Schools survey to candidates running for school board trustee. The Say Yes! survey is part of a toolkit designed by the Ontario Edible Education Network to help school food advocates and decision-makers in local and provincial government make the case for Student Nutrition Programs, food literacy in the curriculum, and other ways of advancing school food environments.
The Say Yes! survey is also being distributed to school board candidates in Renfrew County, the City of Ottawa, and Muskoka District.