We are pleased to congratulate Halton Healthcare Services (HHS), as the Ontario Vegetables Growers’ Association has selected HHS as the winner of the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers’ (OGVG) first Local Food Week Competition for their Local Food Expo and related promotional activities during Ontario Local Food Week in June. HHS is a multi-site healthcare organization and is comprised of three hospitals serving the communities of Milton, Oakville, Clarkson and Halton Hills in Ontario.
Shared in this release: “OGVG General Manager, George Gilvesy, and Foodservice Representative, Nancy Hewitt, presented the first Local Food Week award to Marianne Katusin (HHS Manager, Operational readiness, Food Services) and Elma Hrapovich (HHS Director of Nutrition and Foodservices). This team developed multiple locally-themed OGVG promotional displays creating a lot of excitement and awareness about this celebratory week.”
Following the summer expo’s exemplary success, which had over 500 attendees, HHS has now prepared three fall Local Food Expos, along with various other activities during Ontario Agricultural Week. The fall expos are on:
September 29 @ Oakville, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
October 7 @ Georgetown, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
October 8 @ Milton, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Marianne Katusin encourages: “What a great week to learn about the local food chain in Ontario and see how we are incorporating local foods into our hospital menus. We invite everyone from all our HHS communities, as well as our staff, physicians and volunteers to come out, taste samples and purchase vegetables or baking and other treats.”
Halton Region has assisted the HHS team in connecting local Halton farmers to the Expos – an exceptional opportunity for visitors to connect with those that grow our food!
Earlier this year Halton Healthcare made a commitment to procuring more local food in their hospitals, and they launched the Local Food Expo as a means to promote this commitment to local food. In January 2014, HHS was awarded funding from the Ontario Greenbelt Fund for an innovative project called Good For You, Locally Grown aimed at getting more local food into hospital kitchens.
“The Greenbelt Fund provides us with the opportunity to build local networks, support Ontario producers and host food expos, as we develop a local food policy for HHS, and help lead the way for other healthcare facilities in Ontario,” Katusin tells us.
We’d like to send a big congratulations to Halton Healthcare Services for leading by example, and strongly demonstrating the importance, and impact, that supporting local food and farmers can have on our communities.