The Nourishing Communities research group is conducting the second annual OMAFRA-funded survey to identify existing and potential regional food hub demand in Ontario. If you are a farmer, processor, distributor, retailer, restaurant, or institution that engages with the regionally-produced food value chain—or would like to—we need your input, so we can provide the most up-to-date summary of food hub activity in Ontario for 2015, and identify future demand.
The goal is to enable you to get more local and/or sustainable food into the hands of consumers, and develop a more accurate snapshot of your local food system. The survey results will help regional food value chain members explain their needs when applying for loans and/or grants, and help funders understand more about community and business needs, where funding or resource gaps exist, and how to effectively support operations such as yours.
We need everyone to complete this second survey so we can tell the story of how this sector is growing. Please complete this survey within the next three weeks, if at all possible!
Thanks to everyone who participated in the first survey of food hubs in 2014 – we are happy to share results. Please contact Project Manager, Mike Nagy at nagym@uoguelph.ca or at 519-829-6249.
We also conducted 25 case studies and network analyses that describe innovative value chains, food hubs and network projects as good practice examples of food hub initiatives: http://nourishingontario.ca/ontario-food-hub-case-studies-2015/