Food Access

Everybody has the right to access to good quality, healthy, culturally appropriate food. Find out how FLEdGE collaborators are helping to increase food access for all.

Swiss chard, green onions, and kale on CSA food pick up table

Report: Evaluation of Cost-Share Local Food Boxes in Nova Scotia

The Ecology Action Centre provides services to communities through subsidized local food box programs in rural Nova Scotia. The Cost-Share Local Food Box addresses food insecurity while recognizing that food access is a key factor in shaping the programs. Continue reading “Report: Evaluation of Cost-Share Local Food Boxes in Nova Scotia”

Woman selecting sweet potatoes from basket.

FoodShare Good Food Market Expansion Explorer

FoodShare is a non-profit organization that works to increase access to affordable high-quality fresh food for all people. Their Good Food Market (GFM) program does exactly that, bringing fresh vegetables and fruit to neighbourhoods where they might not otherwise be available. Continue reading “FoodShare Good Food Market Expansion Explorer”

HGMH Therapeutic Garden Video

Now in its seventh year, the HGMH Therapeutic Garden benefits stroke rehab patients through exercise engaging fine motor skills and memory, while producing bountiful vegetables for patients, staff and visitors.

Food Counts: A Pan-Canadian Sustainable Food Systems Report Card

The Food Counts: A Pan-Canadian Sustainable Food Systems Report Card brings together already existing measures of social, environmental, and economic well-being to help researchers, policy makers, and practitioners examine food systems at the national level. Continue reading “Food Counts: A Pan-Canadian Sustainable Food Systems Report Card”

Hidden Harvest has Big Dreams for a Greener Ottawa. What Are Yours?

Imagine if every time you purchased $100 worth of groceries, your grocery store donated $25—or 1/4 of their ‘harvest’—to their local food bank. This is the scale of charitable benefits that Hidden Harvest supports in Ottawa.

Hidden Harvest’s impactful new video describes the benefits of gleaning to the uninitiated, and follows with a series of recommendations challenging municipal political leaders to make their community’s future “the most sustainable future it can be”. The video captures the essence of the Nourishing Communities Hidden Harvest Case Study by Chloé Poitevin DesRivières, released earlier this year. That case study found that, along with benefits to local food access agencies and processors, the services Hidden Harvest offers to the community and the city by creating alternate means to feed people, manage renewable resources, developing green infrastructure, and diverting waste from landfills speak to the aims of different city offices, including community and social services, energy planning, and forestry services.

This new video makes the case that the exceptional value in the public services produced through largely voluntary labour deserves the support of public officials.

Post by Phil Mount.

Local food and farming coop logo—green field in circle with orange fork and spade in background

Northern Ontario Food Systems: A Scan of Infrastructure and Transportation

This scan, conducted by FLEdGE RA Alison Earls, identifies key food security challenges pertaining to transportation and infrastructure in Northern Ontario. Continue reading “Northern Ontario Food Systems: A Scan of Infrastructure and Transportation”

Ariel photograph of hospital and parking lot, with green boxes indicating hospital garden plot, indoor kitchen, and compost bin. Main image is overlaid with smaller images of researchers working collaboratively in front of a map mounted on the wall.

Ontario Public Institutions and On-site Food Production

Visualizing the Future for Health Care
For 3 years, Project SOIL has investigated the viability of on-site food production at public institutions, through collaborative arrangements with local food producers. Continue reading “Ontario Public Institutions and On-site Food Production”