Raising Plates for Local Food

Ontario foodies be advised: Monday June 1 marked the official start of Local Food Week.

For the next six days, people in communities across the province will raise their plates in celebration of good things grown, picked and processed in our region.

An annual initiative of the Ontario Government, Local Food Week shines a spotlight on local food, which the province defines as food produced and harvested within its borders.

According to Ontario’s Local Food Act, 2013, ‘local food’ means:

  (a)  food produced or harvested in Ontario, including forest or freshwater food, and

  (b)  subject to any limitations in the regulations, food and beverages made in Ontario if they include ingredients produced or harvested in Ontario; (“aliments locaux”)

More broadly, the event serves to highlight the province’s 37,000 small and family-owned farms, whose labour throughout the year plays an integral, if not under acknowledged role in sustaining our communities, our economy, and the natural environment.

While the official fête only lasts a week, the annual event seeks to inspire a more durable connection to local food by raising public awareness of our regional food system while encouraging consumers to adopt easy to make changes in terms of what and where they eat.

Here at Nourish, our love for local food lasts year round, and creating new connections to local food is a key component of our work. In 2013, we created Nourish Market Dollars as a way of doing this. Today, we are seeking to expand the program by enlarging it’s impact throughout the Peterborough Community.

Here’s a visual breakdown of how Market Dollars Work. We recommend viewing the presentation in full screen.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1iWaoGMVujAqvFEVorsP6u4m2COFdAlLCU87EwUGRNaQ/edit?usp=sharing

To donate to the Nourish Market Dollars intiative, click here. You will be redirected to YWCA Peterborough Haliburton’s website where you can make your donation. Please ensure to designate all donations to ‘Nourish’ by providing additional instructions under the “Message/Instructions” field.