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Grant Highlight: New Farmers to Grow, New Places to Go

$400,000 grant over three years

Approximately half of all newcomers to Canada settle in the Golden Horseshoe, bringing with them their skills, energy, cultures and often, farming experience. The University of Guelph’s Centre for Land and Water Stewardship, in partnership with FarmStart, supports new farmers in the Greenbelt by offering multiple tours of the regions, successfully planting plots of six ethno-cultural crops, and providing training and resources to help new farmers onto their feet.

By exploring opportunities such as the farming of currently leased lands, development of a farm training centre and the creation of new ethnic food markets, this project is injecting new life and perspectives into Greenbelt agriculture.

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The Foundation has assisted many innovative grantees over the years through our grants program. Over the next couple of months, we will be featuring grants past and present on our homepage to highlight the great work of many organizations across the Greenbelt.

The Greenbelt Foundation is

  • 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Developing a successful culinary tourism platform for Niagara

  • Supporting food policy council in Durham to create food charter

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

  • Contributing to greater sales of Greenbelt wines at the LCBO

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

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

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

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

  • Successfully merging social welfare initiatives with environmental concerns

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

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

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

  • Convincing Peel school boards to buy Greenbelt food for students

  • Supporting tourism initiatives including in the Niagara and Caledon areas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • 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

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

  • Supporting interested Greenbelt Farmers to Go Organic

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

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

 
Learn more about what the Greenbelt Foundation has done for you »

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