When Celia White first started digging into the campus food system at Vancouver Island University (VIU) in Nanaimo, British Columbia, she found passionate people, and big potential. “There was a lot of interest in making the VIU campus a more sustainable place in terms of food,” says White. “But there wasn’t a lot of consolidated...Read More
Photo Above: Farmer Dona Madalena with a crop of passion fruit sold through the farm to school program in Tangara de Serra, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photo by Hannah Wittman. When Hannah Wittman first started traveling to Central Brazil more than a decade ago, she was astounded at the sheer tenacity of the small family farmers...Read More
When pioneering chef and advocate Alice Waters told the thousand-plus delegates at a recent Farm to Cafeteria conference that “the question of local food is deeply a question of equality,” she struck a chord that had been resonating throughout the conference all week. Sure, local food is about good health and the environment. It’s about supporting...Read More
Place-based learning. Culturally Responsive Education. Experiential learning. Life-long learning. Nice ideas, now what does that look like in the classroom? Come and see how two teacher’s explorations into connecting students with their learning evolved into a Foods Program that spills across curriculum and enlivens the campus of a rural BC high school on the islands of Haida Gwaii. In the...Read More
Our efforts are paying off! Farm to Cafeteria Canada has been working behind the scenes with representatives from diverse sectors right across the country to support the introduction and adoption of policy that will get more local foods into our public institutions. Last June, we were delighted to support the introduction of bill C-539 in...Read More
In 2013, 15 daycare centres in the Montérégie region of Quebec received help from environmental group Equiterre as part of the Croqu’Plaisir program, which encourages the creation of healthy food environments for preschoolers in daycare facilities, in part by promoting the purchase of local produce. It was the program’s first year, and already, the results...Read More
The USDA’s National Farm to School Census data was made available on October 22, 2013, just 12 days after Farm to Cafeteria Canada released the first national survey of local food activity in Canadian schools, campuses and health care facilities To determine the prevalence of farm to school programs in the United States, USDA surveyed...Read More
It’s harvest time and the Farm to School Manitoba Healthy Choice Fundraiser (Farm2SchoolMB) is delivering orders of fruits and Vegetables from Manitoba Farms to licensed child care facilities and schools grades K-12 throughout the province. Sponsored by the Province of Manitoba, Manitoba Association of Home Economists (MAHE), Peak of the Market and Buy...Read More
VANCOUVER/Vancouver Sun/ – Most Canadian schools teach children about local foods as part of their regular curriculum, but only 14 per cent have an offical policy or contract that requires local procurement, according to respondents to a national survey by Farm to Cafeteria Canada. About 90 per cent of the 144 schools that completed the recent survey...Read More
VANCOUVER/Tyee/ – Colleges and universities are driving local food procurement in the public sphere, according to a new survey. The survey, conducted by Farm to Cafeteria Canada, is the first of its kind to look at local food purchasing by public institutions across Canada. In total, 239 representatives from colleges and universities, public schools and health care facilities...Read More
