Mohawk College is currently working on a project to increase local food procurement at Ontario’s 24 colleges, in partnership with the Greenbelt Fund and the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
Kate Flynn, Sustainable Food Systems Research and Program Coordinator at Mohawk, tells us the project has now reached its first major milestone—completing Phase 1 of the project—after releasing the report, Increasing Local Food Procurement at Ontario’s 24 Colleges: The Evolution of Campus Foodservices.
The newly-released report lays out a series of opportunities and proposed key actions to support increasing local food purchases from Ontario farmers at Ontario colleges.
The Mohawk College website explains that the research report includes:
- An in-depth examination of the current challenges to bringing more Ontario-grown food to Ontario college campuses
- A list of recommended actions for multi-year improvements that will inform the development of a scalable, transferable procurement framework
- The results of the Ontario Colleges Foodservices Survey in which over 4,000 college students participated and provided extensive feedback on college foodservices
The research from the report also paves the way for the next two phases of the project: on-campus pilot projects, and a local food procurement framework that can be adopted by all Ontario colleges.
And so along with the release of the report, Mohawk College is issuing a call for applications from other Ontario colleges to participate in on-campus pilot programs.
“These pilots are designed to address challenges identified in the research by replicating and validating models established at Mohawk, and by creating new solutions that respond to the research findings,” explains Flynn.
To view the application for pilot project partners, click here or the image attached to this blog post.
All Ontario colleges are welcome to apply, and pilot project partners will receive up to $10,000 in funding.
For any questions about the research report or pilot projects,contact Alan Griffiths, Manager of Sustainability, Mohawk College at alan.griffiths@mohawkcollege.ca.