Mohawk College has developed an online course in Local Food Procurement designed for professionals working in a foodservice setting at public institutions to grow their local food and sustainable procurement knowledge, and learn strategies for identifying, procuring and promoting local foods. Learn more about the course and register online at: mohawkcollege.ca/local-food-procurement

As far back as 2008, the City of Thunder Bay has been working to strengthen and connect their local food system to their municipally-run facilities. The City has emerged as a leader in food systems planning in the province, having adopted the Thunder Bay Food Charter, the Community Environmental Action Plan, a Community Garden Policy and supported the Thunder Bay and Area Food Strategy.

Read Breaking Down Local Food Barriers: Food Forwards Contracts in Thunder Bay

Mohawk College has created a scalable, transferable toolkit that includes a step-by-step guide, resources, along with tools to increase local food procurement at Ontario’s 24 colleges. While it's focus is on colleges that use third-party foodservices operators the ideas and initiatives described may be applicable to self-operated foodservices and other institutions throughout the public sector. You can view the toolkit and find out more at: oncollegefood.com

The Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance (GHFFA) project, Serving Up Local, is a partnership with Durham and Halton regions, and the City of Hamilton, to increase the amount of local foods offered in their facilities with a special focus on long-term care homes. To help build the capacity of other regions wanting to take on a similar initiative they have generated case studies, a project manual, and communications pieces which are available on their website.

On Jan 10, we hosted a workshop that connected buyers and sellers through the local food value chain. Furthermore, presentations were given in a number of areas to educate buyers and sellers on the purchasing and selling of local food. Here are the slides of all the presentations given.

This report by My Sustainable Canada documents the current state of local food usage in Ontario’s long-term care sector.

Most of the 600+ homes in Ontario do not track local food usage and many report barriers to adding these items to their menus. With an estimated annual raw food spend in excess of $210 million, Ontario’s long-term care sector represents a significant opportunity for local producers.

Read Local Food and Ontario's Long-Term Care Sector.

In 2015, Halton Healthcare hopped aboard Ontario's Local Food Act and put into writing a Local Food Procurement Statement to promote the use of local food in their hospitals. The statement outlines the steps and criteria in which Halton Healthcare will formulate a Local Food Procurement Strategy, and create a shareable plan and process between the hospitals and local producers to integrate suppliers into the purchasing structure of the hospitals.

Read Halton Healthcare's Local Food Procurement Statement

Additionally, Halton Healthcare had developed six nutritious recipes whose ingredients can be sourced locally.

View The Recipes.

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.

In 2011, City of Toronto adopted a Local Food Procurement Policy that requires that 51% of all products purchased to be grown in Ontario, and 80% of all processing costs to be returned to Ontario. The move helps reduce food miles while supporting local farmers and processors.

Read The City Of Toronto's Local Food Procurement Policy