Webinar Recording: Local Food Procurement in the Ontario Broader Public Sector
Posted: March 9, 2015
Categories: Events / GoodFoodBites / Local Procurement / Municipal Regional Food Policy Network / News from Sustain Ontario / Webinars / Working Group News
On February 25th, the Municipal Regional Food Policy Peer Learning Circle came together for a webinar to discuss Local Food Procurement in the Ontario Broader Public Sector. Access the presentation slides and summaries below as well as the webinar recording (password available to Sustain Ontario members, supporters, and event attendees). Please direct questions about the event, resources and network to municipalpolicy@sustainontario.ca.
Webinar: Local Food Procurement in the Ontario Broader Public Sector from Sustain Ontario on Vimeo. Password sent to event attendees via email. Sustain Ontario members and supporters can request the password by emailing members@sustainontario.ca.
Each year, millions of public dollars are spent on food for municipally funded and organized facilities including public cafeterias, childcare centres, convention centres, and long term care facilities. By looking for ways to redirect some of this money back into local food economies, there is a huge potential to build a more vibrant local food system. This is easier said than done, however, so Sustain Ontario organized a dynamic panel of experts to outline their recent strategies for navigating and affecting broader public sector food purchasing. By addressing these issues as a group and releasing these resources publicly, we intend to encourage Ontario’s municipal leaders to ask the right questions, think outside of the box, and develop meaningful local procurement plans for the future. (See also: The Law Leaves Room for Local Food.)
We first heard from Dan Munshaw, Manager of Supply Management for the City of Thunder Bay, who spoke at length about the differences between private and public purchasing strategies, the reasons why municipalities should support the local food chain (multiplier effect), and some of key steps for consideration before embarking on these types of purchasing policies.
Joining us from the road, Hayley Lapalme, Program Designer and Facilitator for My Sustainable Canada, briefly described My Sustainable Canada’s 3P Mentorship program. Launched early last year, the 3P Mentorship program was designed to help the staff of select institutions change food purchasing culture and practice. The program is already looking to expand and help others across Ontario, having already exhibited some very exciting results with regards to purchasing volumes and general awareness. Hayley’s supplementary report shows the programs many successes and future plans in greater details.
Wendy Smith, Contract Specialist for MEALsource, discussed her role coordinating and strengthening the relationships between institutions and local food sources. Wendy offered a wealth of knowledge throughout the call on the structure of our local food supply chains, RFP and purchasing contracts, tracking and food waste, and health and safety requirements from institutions. She was also able to offer excellent suggestions and strategies for others engaging in this work across Canada.
Our final panelist, Sandra Hamilton, Social Innovation Consultant & Project Lead, North Island College, Institutional Local Food Initiative, joined us all the way from British Columbia to outline her work promoting and enabling local food purchasing on Victoria Island. In addition to talking about her own work, Sandra introduced several national and international best practices and purchasing policies that encourage local food purchasing. In doing so, Sandra was able to illustrate the intricacies of institutional food purchasing, while also demonstrating the overall success and transferability of local food purchasing strategies.
Regrets were sent from Brendan Wylie-Toal, Greenbelt Fund BPS Grant Program Specialist. He was unable to join us due to unforeseen circumstances.
A huge thank you to Carolyn Young, Sustain Ontario’s Director, for also presenting some of Sustain Ontario’s work around local food procurement and for facilitating our discussion.