Eat Local Grey Bruce - Infrastructure, Owen Sound $49,000

Eat Local Grey Bruce will launch a new food hub to enhance the profitability of local food producers and incubate small farms by providing access to a first wholesale market. The project will establish the necessary infrastructure, including equipment and staffing, to grow the local food presence in Grey and Bruce County particularly as part of a tourism experience.

Food Literacy at the Royal and Expanding the Local Food Distribution Hub, Toronto $80,000

FoodShare will scale up its successful Ontario High Schools Cooking Competition, engage with over 20,000 students at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair to promote local food, and update its food literacy lesson plans for teachers. In addition, FoodShare will invest in an expansion of its local food distribution hub to increase capacity and local food purchases.

Resetting the Table, Winchester $15,000

Against the Grain Farms is a small farm specializing in novel grain products, and in particular heritage grain varieties. This project will establish value chain relationships with private and broader public sector foodservice providers interested in serving high-nutrition, Ontario-grown grain products.

Investigating the Feasibility of Local Food Brokerage Program, Guelph $15,000

The Seed Community Food Hub in the Guelph Community Health Centre will develop a brokerage program to generate income to support its food security program, while partnering with local farmers and food aggregators to increase sales to community organizations and private institutions.

Food Literacy Attitude and Awareness Research, Smithville $65,000

The Ontario Federation of Agriculture will establish a baseline survey of consumer awareness and understanding of local food, engage in a promotional campaign about Ontario agriculture, and study the effectiveness of local food literacy campaign activities to improve the success of future local food literacy projects across Ontario.

Promoting Local Food Procurement Across Ontario's Universities and Colleges, Toronto $125,000

Meal Exchange will pilot a Real Food Challenge and Campus Food Report Card at 8 Ontario Universities to rank and promote local food procurement on campus, and engage students to influence university decision-makers to increase local food procurement.

Ontario Pork Consumer Outreach, Guelph $41,500

Ontario Pork will educate consumers about the use of lesser-known cuts of pork to promote full-carcass utilization and cut down on waste. The campaign will include grocery promotions for consumers, farm tours for bloggers, and recipe development for under-utilized cuts of pork.

Expanding Cookstown Select Organic Brand and Increasing Market Access for Organic Growers, Simcoe $33,000

Cookstown Greens will invest in upgraded production equipment to launch a new “Cookstown Select” line of organic vegetables targeted to parents and families who want to feed growing children health, local certified organic produce with direct lines of traceability.

Improving Access of Lamb Products in Ontario, Millgrove $43,000

Beverly Creek will invest in new automation equipment and marketing tools to expand its product line. This project will also begin the process of building upon the humanely slaughtered line of lamb products to move towards introducing kosher lamb products.

Embracing Entomophagy, Richmond Hill $20,000

Entomo Farms will engage chefs and restauranteurs participating in Toronto’s Winterlicious and Summerlicious festivals to experiment with new dishes using insects and insect protein and introduce Ontarians to this emerging niche product.