Ontario – A Category of its Own, Milton $360,000

Leading by example, foodservice distributor Gordon Food Service (GFS) is ushered in a new era of industry giants supporting local food production. During this project, GFS created an internal team focused on increasing their local food purchases. Working with vendors, GFS took steps to ensure local food was labeled as such and easy to identify in their system. GFS continued their push towards local food by implementing a marketing initiative that included the new Ontario’s Own logo, grower profiles, advertising in external publications, and adding a Local Ontario page to the GFS national website. GFS’s efforts proved a shining success with an increase in local food purchases of $1.7 million year over year.