Veritas Cafe Local Food Expansion, Waterloo $15,000

Veritas Café, owned and operated by the Graduate Students Association at Wilfrid Laurier University, focuses on local and healthy foods. Veritas Café will increase their storage and customer seating capacity, expand their menu using seasonal local food, launch an online local food marketplace and offer seminars to help students and customers increase their local food literacy.

Single-Serve Grab-n-Go Whole Milk Program for the Broader Public Sector, Loretto $25,000

Sheldon Creek Dairy will purchase equipment to scale up their pilot project to provide accessible grab-and-go single serve size 250 ml and 350 ml non-homogenized whole milk products to elementary and post-secondary schools, retirement residences, and daycares. Production of their single-serve products has reached capacity, yet demand is out pacing supply.

Good For You Locally Grown-Phase 3, Oakville $38,500

Halton Healthcare will develop meals made with Ontario ingredients to increase local food purchases by 10% annually. Building on the success of their last two projects, phase III is to expand in-house scratch cooking primarily for i) sandwiches ii) desserts and iii) entrees. They will purchase a packaging machine for prepared sandwiches and host a Local Food Expo connecting local farmers, buyers, distributors, and hospital staff, in order to increase the amount of Ontario food in their institutions.

Increasing Local Food Procurement in the City of Toronto's Long-Term Care Homes and Services, Toronto $37,500

The City of Toronto's Long-Term Care Homes and Services division will undertake a comprehensive review of its use of local food in its 10 long-term care homes, with a plan to increase the amount of local food purchased by $350,000-$420,000 annually or from 19% to 25% of their total food spend -  through a combination of menu substitutions, new recipes, and equipment and staff training for in-house scratch cooking.

Get Fresh Café Expansion, Thunder Bay $35,000

Roots to Harvest will partner with the Lakehead District School Board scale up its “Get Fresh Café” to two area high schools in Thunder Bay, reaching over 2,500 students. The project is a complete overhaul of the schools’ cafeteria offerings from pre-packaged food to sourcing all fresh and from-scratch ingredients, sourcing as much as possible from Ontario growers.

Developing a Local Food Procurement Training Program for Industry Professionals, Hamilton $30,000

Mohawk College will develop an online professional certification program in local food procurement through their Online Continuing Education division. The program will teach foodservice staff local food procurement skills, as well as how to create menus that celebrate and maximize the use of Ontario foods.

Serving Up Local Food Training at Long-Term Care Facilities, Vaughan $20,000

The GHFFA and TRCA will build on the success of their two-year local food procurement initiative to launch a comprehensive local food literacy initiative to train long-term care professionals and frontline staff on local food offerings to increase the visibility and awareness of local food in LTC homes.

FoodReach Goes to School, Toronto $10,000

Parkdale Activity – Recreation Centre will expand its FoodReach program, which provides nutritious prepared meals for schools without food preparation areas, by increasing the number of customers through a marketing campaign and upgrading its ordering system to label products that are locally grown.

Good For You, Locally Grown – Phase 2, Oakville $51,500

Halton Healthcare will build on the progress made to increase local food served in its hospitals by working with farmers, manufacturers and other industry colleagues to develop recipes using Ontario food that meet the nutritional needs of patients. The project will also establish branding to identify local food choices to patients, as well as a marketing campaign to promote the local food offerings at Halton Healthcare facilities.

Get Fresh Cafe - Local Food Procurement Pilot, Thunder Bay $45,000

Collaborating with the Lakehead District School Board, Roots to Harvest will launch a “Get Fresh Café” in a Thunder Bay high school, including a complete overhaul of the school’s cafeteria procurement to source all fresh and from-scratch ingredients. The model will be replicable across the school district.