January 17, 2013,  Belleville ON

Testing Nourishing Ontario’s Community Food Toolkit

Nourish Ontario is a multi-university partnership working to help build sustainable food systems in Ontario based on the principles of ecological resilience, social justice and economic viability. The researchers  have designed the toolkit to help groups define a vision for their community food system, by identifying existing resources, capacities and challenges.
The aim of the meeting on January 17 was to test how the tool kit works in a regional context. Using concept-mapping, we will create overlapping images of regional food systems, as well as the processes that link producers and their products, suppliers, markets, institutions, consumers, and the food insecure together.
Over the course of the evening, with key people from the agricultural community, food distributors, retailers, and community partners, we identified the regional strengths and the missing pieces, which will help in planning concrete and practical steps forward in Hastings.

Workshop report and concept maps coming to this space, soon!