George Brown College's Hospitality and Culinary Arts program partnered with St. Michael's Hospital to create an easy-to-use guide for kitchen staff at St. Michael's to learn how, where and when of local food purchasing and preparation. They have also included a suite of locally-sourced and nutritious recipes with a nutritional label for each to simplify a hospital dietitian's work.

Read St. Michael’s Hospital Training Manual, Recipe Book And Procurement Guide

Replicating the success with St. Michael's, George Brown then partnered with the Toronto District Schoolboard, and created a procurement guide.

Read Procurement Guide: The My Food My Way Project

The City of Thunder Bay had recently put into action its Thunder Bay and Area Food Strategy, which seeks to scale up the purchase of local/Ontario-grown food for four daycares and three long-term care facilities for whom the city procures food for. 

The city met the 2% benchmark with ease, and this baseline report outlines next steps in meeting the 10% and opening opportunities for increase of local food by public sector buyers, while also presents the findings from the first task in developing the local food service model for the City of Thunder Bay.

“Getting it There: The Role of New England Food Distributors in Providing Local Food to Institutions” presents in-depth findings and makes specific, data-based recommendations for food distributors – including food hubs – as well as government officials, funders and institutions.

St. Joseph’s Heath System created a guide to help organizations and institutions conduct food origin audits. The guide includes steps involved in food origin audits, details, and examples for each of the steps, as well as useful tools, such as a template for a letter of endorsement.

Read Conducting Food Origin Audits: A Step-by-Step Guide 

Guelph Community Health Centre’s Local Food Toolkit helps organizations overcome challenges in sourcing and serving more local food. The toolkit features stories from partners who were at various stages of their local programs, as well as a series of tools with more information about local food policies, seasonal purchasing, local wholesale suppliers and distributors, and worksheets to facilitate the transition of a BPS kitchen.

Read The Road to Local Food: increasing Local Food in Broader Public Sector Organizations

This report outlines the Corporation of Norfolk County’s experience with putting a system in place to increase the amount of Ontario food served in the Broader Public Sector. 

Norfolk County highlights four phases of the project: product of origin assessment; increased local foods; equipment; and communications, procedures, and policies.

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This discussion paper was developed by Food and Beverage Ontario and outlines common procurement processes in the BPS and provides guidance on specific business opportunities for the province’s food and beverage processors while acknowledging the unique challenges and needs of the BPS.

Read Ontario’s Broader Public Sector New Opportunities For Ontario’s Food and Beverage Processors

Local Food, Beyond the Market 6 of 6: Benefits – Guelph Community Health Centre

Local Food, Beyond the Market 5 of 6: Developing Relationships – Guelph Community Health Centre

Local Food, Beyond the Market 4 of 6: Identifying Sources – Guelph Community Health Centre