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Local Food Champions 2011

Change is in the air and on our plates. More Ontario food is making its way into the kitchens of daycares, schools, universities, colleges, hospitals, long-term care facilities and municipalities in Ontario. Released today, Ontario’s Local Food Champions report celebrates the local food trailblazers in Ontario’s public institutions. The report recognizes three leaders from public institutions and three farm groups that have gone the extra mile to identify solutions to incorporate more Ontario food onto the plates of municipalities and public institutions.

The following Champions have demonstrated innovative means to growing the amount of Ontario food in the education, health care and municipal sectors.

Jaco Lokker, Director of Food Services, University of Toronto, St. George Campus and Executive Chef at 89 Chestnut Residence

Markham, First Ontario Municipality to Develop a Local Food Policy

Leslie Carson, Director Food & Nutrition Services, St. Joseph’s Health Centre, Guelph

Vineland Growers Co-operative Ltd.

Algoma Orchards

Rowe Farms

 

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The Greenbelt Foundation is

  • Partnering with Harbourfront Centre to tell the story of Ontario’s Greenbelt to 12 million people via a year-long, outdoor photography exhibit

  • Successfully merging social welfare initiatives with environmental concerns

  • Providing grants and support to significantly increase sales at farmers’ markets

  • Bridging farming and hiking interests to acknowledge environmental progress by farmers

  • Supporting changing the City of Toronto policy to adopt a local food purchasing bylaw for city facilities

  • Funding policy changes to encourage more local food to be sold in Durham

  • Hosting the successful Tour de Greenbelt to promote Ontario’s Greenbelt as a tourism destination

  • Funding visionary planning processes such as the new Cootes to Escarpment Park Management Plan, and a massive reforestation plan in Rouge Park

  • Contributing $2.65 million to Greenbelt farmers to improve their operations (leveraging millions of dollars from federal sources), and to employ the opportunities of the Green Energy Act

  • Assisting in designing new policies to protect Lake Simcoe through timely research

  • Participating strategically in growing the Greenbelt by working with Toronto, Peel, Halton, and Guelph

  • Convincing Peel school boards to buy Greenbelt food for students

  • Building a local food economy from developing new markets to enhancing distribution channels

  • Developing a successful culinary tourism platform for Niagara

  • Creating Greenbeltfresh.ca, the leading electronic marketplace to source local, Greenbelt foods from over 600 producers

  • Supporting food policy council in Durham to create food charter

  • Securing local food procurement commitments for Peel schools, City of Toronto, City of Markham and others

  • Supporting interested Greenbelt Farmers to Go Organic

  • Reaching over 75 million by placing 220 permanent highway and regional road signs to ensure Ontarians and visitors know about this valuable protected area

  • Securing local food procurement commitments for Peel, U of T. City of Toronto Facilities and Markham

  • Bringing thousands of Ontarians out into the Greenbelt each year through grantee activities and the Annual Tour de Greenbelt cycling event

  • Supporting tourism initiatives including in the Niagara and Caledon areas

  • Identifying barriers to opening markets for Greenbelt farmers and proposing solutions

  • Supporting development of action plans for a variety of agricultural areas and commodities

  • Increasing amount of Greenbelt food in food share program 140%

  • Supporting the development of multi-cultural crops and training new Canadian Farmers

  • Hosted the first ever Global Greenbelts Conference in Toronto in March 2011 with speakers and delegates from over nine countries

  • Engaging with over 170 million Ontarians directly through our marketing, events and communications activities

  • Supporting the creation of an award-winning Greenbelt granola bar

  • Supporting the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance to foster strong Greenbelt Plan implementation at the municipal level

  • Funding the Holland Marsh Growers’ transition from an export, commodity focus to one that serves the local market with value- added products

  • Funding research and analysis on greenbelts around the globe which concluded that Ontario’s Greenbelt is the most robust in the world, with a strong legal and policy framework

  • Engaged Hamilton schools to switch to Greenbelt food for their students

  • Supporting the Credit Valley Conservation Authority to protect and restore wetlands

  • Contributing to greater sales of Greenbelt wines at the LCBO

  • Creating a network of Farmer’s Markets to help improve our local food economy

  • Supporting the creation of new multi-cultural crops and development of ethnic local food guides in Toronto and York Region

  • Enhancing Farmers’ Markets, increasing sales for farmers in the Greenbelt and beyond

 
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