New funding agreement for Eastern Ontario Agri-Food Network
Posted: April 8, 2021
Categories: GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Members
A media release copied below from the Eastern Ontario Agri-Food Network
March 9, 2021
L’ORIGNAL, Ontario – For the first time in its 10-year history, the Eastern Ontario Agri-Food Network (EOAN) has funding commitments from three municipalities in the region. This year the United Counties of SDG and the City of Cornwall have joined with the United Counties of Prescott and Russell in making substantial financial commitments to the network to expand existing marketing activities and member services and develop new programs.
“We have been working closely with the EOAN since 2011, and we are proudly joining the City of Cornwall as well as the United Counties of SDG in continuing to support the regional agri-food sector,” said Stéphane Sarrazin, Warden of the UCPR.
“The City of Cornwall and SDG have each decided to also fund the EOAN at a rate of $25,000 each per year, and to each send a delegate to our board of directors,” said EOAN executive director Tom Manley, who added UCPR’s funding commitment of $40,000 remains in place. “That gives the EOAN a starting budget of $90,000 this year, plus various membership revenues and fees for services delivered. It will be a great year for local food in eastern Ontario.”
Local governments realize that a successful grassroots food movement must be sustained with multi-year core funding that can leverage further grants and sector assets, said Manley.
“Agri-food is the number one economic sector in Canada,” he said. “Twelve per cent of farmers in SDG sell directly to consumers and 44 per cent of the farms have farm sales of less than $55,000.”
Outside of Ottawa, eastern Ontario is a mixed geography of rural communities, farming, and small cities. Given the economic importance of agri-food, municipalities see local food as an economic development engine.
“Municipalities are responsible for regional economic development. Together, we see the EOAN as a partner in the local food sector. Cornwall and its neighbours look forward to witnessing the EOAN in action,” said Cornwall Mayor Bernadette Clement.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer demand for local food is more obvious. At the same time, international trade and tourism are negatively affected. Therefore, the municipalities recognize that a post-COVID economic revitalization in a largely rural area will depend heavily on local food.
“Given the pandemic’s impact on long-distance tourism, local communities recognize that their tourists will be local or a few hours away. Therefore, agritourism and culinary tourism are critical elements in the rural economic recovery,” said SDG Warden Frank Prevost.
In this economic context and with this new funding, the EOAN will develop new programs: capacity building, operator training, food asset mapping and directories, regional agri-food branding, a regional e-commerce program focused on local food, locally-themed agri-tourism, expanded farmers’ markets, collaborations with other tourism networks and assets, and many more initiatives.
Contact:
Tom Manley, executive director
Eastern Ontario Agri-Food Network
613-361-2056
info@agro-on.ca