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

The Alternative Avenues for Local Food Procurement in Ontario Schools project seeks to address the need for assessment, analysis, training, and barrier identification to increase the quantity of local food procured in Ontario School Boards. 

The project aims to build stronger value-chain links in Regional communities between school food procurement practices and local suppliers through multi-stakeholder coalition action. 

Read Alternative Avenues for Local Food in Schools: Ingredients for Success

Sustain Ontario has developed a toolkit geared towards Ontario municipalities and broader public sector institutions looking to initiate sustainable procurement policies and programs in their regions. Learn more about the Local Sustainable Food Procurement For Municipalities and BPS on Sustain Ontario's Website.

This case study explores how public institutions can use the procurement process to maximize the impact of their collective $750 million annual food spends. The case described spans four years and focuses on how a public sector group purchasing organization leveraged its buying power to enable a local sustainable cattle-processor to break into the institutional food service market. The case demonstrates how public sector purchasing contributes to bringing local and sustainable farming an food businesses to scale.

Read Farm To Institution: The Power Of Public Sector Purchasing

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 

This Local Food Procurement Policy was put in place by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) Seniors Home Inc. in Barrie, to ensure residents are provided with fresh seasonal foods purchased from local vendors. IOOF Seniors Home Inc. developed local food menus to help make sure that purchasing practices take into consideration seasonal availability of produce while managing cost impacts of local procurement. 

Read IOOF Seniors Home Inc. Local Food Procurement Policy

This report is the third deliverable for Food for Health Project 200218 - “Exploring the Feasibility and Benefits of Incorporating Local Foods into Ontario’s Healthcare System”

The project objectives are to:

1. Establish the current state of food provision in Ontario's healthcare system.
2. Gain an in-depth understanding of the opportunities and constraints impacting food provision decisions in Ontario's healthcare system.
3. Provide alternative perspectives on healthcare food provision and the potential for changing these practices.
4. Understand implementation details for making changes at the individual facility level.

Read Local Food Provision in Ontario’s Hospitals and Long-Term Care Facilities: Recommendations for Stakeholders

Public sector institutions are sourcing apple products from across the continent, and whole apples from around the world. But most facilities would love to integrate more Ontario product into the menus, meals, and snacks.

Working closely with the Ontario Apple Growers, My Sustainable Canada identified product opportunities for Ontario's apple growers to more strategically develop, pack, and market products to Ontario health care facilities, public school boards, colleges/universities, and correctional facilities, in order to increase the sales of Ontario apple products.

Read Procurement Steps for Schools

Read Procurement Steps for Universities & Colleges

Read Procurement Steps for Healthcare Facilities

Read Procurement Steps for Correctional & Youth Justice Facilities

This document is intended to help universities, colleges, hospitals, and other institutions – as well as those advocating for food system change – create, promote and implement practical sustainable food purchasing policies. 

It draws from the successes and lessons learned by a variety of institutions from within the United States, and from the experience of for-profit and nonprofit partners that have worked with institutions in this arena. This document does not promote any particular policy positions, but rather offers a framework to help you develop policies that will be meaningful and achievable for your institution. This document is a product of the Sustainable Food Policy Project, which was initiated in 2006 to support efforts by educational, healthcare and other institutions to have a positive impact on the food system through purchasing. 

Read A Guide To Developing A Sustainable Food Purchasing Policy