Tag Archives: Community Food Centres Canada

Field notes for social change: a conversation with Raj Patel

Upcoming Webinar
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
12-1pm EST

Join Community Food Centres Canada for a webinar that explores how social change actually happens. In this one hour webinar, Raj Patel—an award-winning writer, activist, and academic—will deliver lessons from the frontlines of the food justice movement. He has worked for the World Bank and WTO, and protested against them around the world. His first book was Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System and his latest, The Value of Nothing, is a New York Times best-seller. CFCC’s Nick Saul will moderate the discussion.
This webinar interrogates the question: where does social transformation come from? We’ll explore successes and failures of various facets of the food movement in the global North and South, and we’ll unpack how different actors — individuals, organizations, businesses and governments — have championed change.

Register Here!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact mara@cfccanada.ca

Key Food System Roles in Ontario

Director, Sustain Ontario

Sustain Ontario, a project of Tides Canada Initiatives (TCI), is looking for an inspiring, experienced and dedicated individual to fill the position of Director. The successful candidate is someone who can articulate the long-term outcomes for healthy food and farming in Ontario, and move Sustain Ontario toward those long-term goals. They are passionate about the work and have a proven track record of leadership, including the ability to guide and motivate teams comprising people of diverse backgrounds and experience.

Sustain Ontario faces a turning point in its life cycle and is looking for a dynamic individual who can lead the organization through the changes. A planning exercise has developed a Three Year Strategic Plan and Sustain Ontario is looking for a person who can take this plan, find funding to carry it out, and continue to innovate and support actors within the food system in Ontario. Read more

Knowledge Exchange Coordinator, CFCC

Community Food Centres Canada (CFCC) is looking for a Knowledge Exchange Coordinator to play an important role in supporting knowledge dissemination and exchange activities between CFCC and its partner Community Food Centres, member Good Food Organizations, and the broader community interested in learning about the best practices and issues around CFCs and other grassroots food programs.
Read more

Fortnightly Feast

Sudbury food co-op poised for expansion

…The goal is to make Eat Local Sudbury a regional hub for local food distribution with the added offshoots of increasing awareness of local food production, supporting local farmers, and boosting the economy. The funding will be used to develop a three-part business plan to expand both its retail facilities and its programming to accommodate a much larger volume of food. Read more

The need to ‘grow’ more topsoil

from the Guelph Mercury, Ralph C. Martin:

When I hear a big, hairy audacious goal, I expect drum rolls and trumpets, or if it’s really big, tubas. There was not even a piccolo adagio when Abe Collins, a Vermont farmer, educator and consultant shared his passion for topsoil formation and grazing at the Ecological Farmers of Ontario Conference, held earlier this month in Guelph. Nevertheless, the audience was all ears. His big, hairy goal? He expects a community, near Lake Champlain, to blanket their watershed in deep topsoil in a decade. Read more

CED Net National Jobs Postings include many food jobs

  • Communications and Marketing Manager, Community Food Centres Canada
  • Nova Scotia Organic Market Research Assistant
  • Entrepreneurship and Marketing Coordinator, Le Santropol Roulant
  • Farm Co-Manager, Le Santropol Roulant
  • McQuesten Urban Farm Community Animator
  • Social Planning and Research Council of Hamilton
  • CSI’s Desk Exchange Animator Program, Centre for Social Innovation
  • Ecological Gardening Internship, Harvest Moon Society, Clearwater  Manitoba

Read more

NGFN Food Hub Benchmarking Study 2014

Food Hubs are delivering on their promise of enabling identity-preserved, primarily local and regional food to enter the wholesale market, enabling small and mid-sized farms access to buyers that would otherwise be unattainable.

But aggregation and distribution of food is a very thin-margin business, and hubs take on additional expense working with smaller farmers, providing technical assistance, and other grower and community services. Are food hubs able to support themselves with their operations? What are industry-standard financial and operational benchmarks for food hub businesses?

Read more and see webinar here

Upcoming Food Events

WORKSHOP

WORLD FOOD DAYS AT NEW COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

Wed Oct 15, Thurs Oct 16 and Fri Oct 17

At New College, U of T, we’re celebrating World Food Day with 3 days of special events! Join us for great speakers, workshops and FOOD on the theme of “Agroecology: The Next New Thing in Food?” Everyone welcome!

Presented by the New College Initiatives Fund, the Principal’s Innovation Fund, Equity Studies, New One, Caribbean Studies, the New College Office of Residence and Student Life and the Toronto Food Policy Council.
For details, contact Lori Stahlbrand lori.stahlbrand@gmail.com

WEBINAR

Addressing Food Insecurity in Children: Lessons from Brazil

Nutrition Resource Centre Kids in Focus Webinar Series

Tuesday October 21, 2014
10:30 am – 11:30 am EDT

Brazil has been receiving international recognition for its ground-breaking and progressive FOME ZERO (ie. Zero Hunger) strategy for food security. In this webinar, join Dr. Cecilia Rocha, Director of the School of Nutrition at Ryerson University, as she draws important insights from Brazil’s experience for improving children food security and health in Ontario. Read more

WEBINAR

Good Food Organizations

Tuesday, October 21, 2014 12:00 pm EDT
The Good Food Organizations program offers a way for community-based food security organizations across Canada to work towards a healthy and fair food system through a shared set of “Good Food Principles”. Join Community Food Centres Canada for a 45-60 minute interactive orientation on our new initiative, Good Food Organizations. Register

PUBLIC LECTURE

“Who wants to be a farmer? Youth, gender and agricultural futures”

Tuesday, 21 October 2014 at 7pm
Guelph Public Library, 100 Norfolk St.
Dr.Ben White
Professor Emeritus, International Institute of Social Studies,
Erasmus University, The Netherlands

Register

WEBINAR

Shared Opportunities on Institutional Lands: Challenges and opportunities of on-site food production

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. EDT

In Ontario, several institutions are already producing food on their properties as a way to generate revenue; supply nutritious fresh food for consumption (by staff, patients, students, etc.); provide skills training and therapeutic benefits; and build social enterprises. This webinar will share how project partners at health care, social service and educational institutions went about getting gardens off the ground at their institutions, as well as some of the lessons we learned in the first year of working with pilot projects across the province. Read more

 

PUBLIC LECTURE

“Empathetic Innovations for Inclusive Development: Can we learn from Grassroots Innovators?”

Tuesday, Oct. 28th, from 5:30-7:00pm in RM 1800 in the Pathobiology Bldg. University of Guelph

Dr. Anil K. Gupta is professor in the Centre for Management in Agriculture, Indian Institute of Management, and coordinator of the Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions.  Open to the public. Free admission. Please direct any enquiries to Abeir el Arqusosi at a.arqusosi@exec.uoguelph.ca

CONFERENCE

Building Resilient and Innovative Food Systems

Join the Halton Food Council to hear from a panel of farmers, policymakers, community groups, and grocers as they share their stories about the opportunities and challenges to build a more resilient local food system.

Thursday, November 6th, 2014

8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

A local breakfast and lunch will be served. For more information contact haltonfoodcouncil@gmail.com or call 647-830-0328. Space is limited.

Register at http://haltonfoodsummit.eventbrite.ca 

CONFERENCE

Seed Connections

November 7th, 8th, 9th, 2014
MacDonald Campus of McGill University, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec
Building on the incredible success of their 2012 conference, The Eastern Canadian Organic Seed Growers’ Network (ECOSGN) is partnering with The Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security and Seeds of Diversity Canada this year to host their second major ecological seed conference for Eastern Canada.

ECOSGN’s “Seed Connections” conference is a fully bilingual event bringing together farmers, seed-savers, seed companies, community gardeners, researchers, and experts on organic seed production to share knowledge, skills, and experience over a packed, 3-day agenda! Whether you are a beginner gardener or an expert seed producer, if you are interested in ecological seed in eastern Canada – this is the conference to attend!
Read more

CONFERENCE

Food Secure Canada Assembly

Food Secure Canada has announced the full programme for its bi-annual assembly, Waves of Change: Sustainable Food for All, which will take place at the Halifax Habourfront Hotel from November 13th to 16th.

With more than sixty workshops, plenaries, and working groups, these three days of action-packed learning by Canada’s food movement will provide an unique opportunity to tackle a broad range of food issues and to create effective, collective responses to current challenges of sustainability, hunger and health. Read more

CONFERENCE

Eastern Ontario Local Food Conference

November 24-25, 2014

Kingston Four Points Sheraton

The 2014 Eastern Ontario Local Food Conference is our region’s annual conference bringing together all aspects of our local food system. This event gives you the opportunity to:
• Get a “bird’s eye view” of what’s happening in local food throughout eastern Ontario;
• Make key connections with businesses and organizations that can support your work;
• Attend sessions that address current challenges in Eastern Ontario’s local food sector;
• Enjoy and celebrate eastern Ontario’s local food offerings with others who are as passionate about local food as you are. Read more

A Place for Food in Public Spaces

Wisdom from community builders

Upcoming webinar: Thursday, July 3, 2014 12-1 p.m. EDT

To learn more and register, visit www.cfccanada.ca/webinars

Join Community Food Centres Canada for a free webinar that will explore different ways community-builders are using food programs like community gardens, markets, public suppers, and bake ovens to animate local parks. We’ll highlight how the principles of placemaking can transform public spaces by highlighting local assets and serving common needs.
On the panel are Jutta Mason, who for over 20 years has led the transformation of Dufferin Grove Park to a vibrant, community-supported park, and Sabina Ali, who alongside a Women’s Committee in her culturally diverse neighbourhood of Thorncliffe Park, started a plein air South Asian bazaar and community Tandoor oven. Moderator Liz Curran, the Manager of the Regent Park Community Food Centre at CRC, is developing a suite of food programs to animate the newly re-developed Regent Park neighbourhood, including gardens, a greenhouse, and bake ovens.
We hope you can join us! Feel free to Share it on Facebook, forward via email, or Tweet about it (we’re @aplaceforfood and you can use the #placemaking tag)

When: Thursday, July 3, 2014 from 12 to 1 p.m. EDT

Where: Your Computer

How Much: Free!

To LEARN MORE and REGISTER, visit www.cfccanada.ca/webinars

In the meantime, if you’re interested in whetting your appetite leading up to the webinar, we recently wrote a piece about how Regent Park Community Food Centre is undertaking placemaking in a nearby public park; and if you’d like to learn more about how community gardening programs work in the context of a Community Food Centre, have a look at our info-packed module on the topic.

As with all our webinars, this one will be posted to The Pod Knowledge Exchange along with a host of downloadable resources a week or so after the event. Become a member of The Pod to stay in the loop about this webinar and others yet to come.

Beyond Emergency Food

Thoughts from both sides of the border

Upcoming webinar Pod-Cast:

Wednesday, December 11, 2013 12-1 p.m. EST

Join Community Food Centres Canada for a webinar Pod-cast with Jessica Powers from the U.S. organization WhyHunger on the work they do to support emergency food providers to go beyond charitable food access programs and create initiatives that foster a more inclusive and sustainable food system. The webinar will cover key principles underlying this work, drivers for transforming organizations, redefining relationships with funders, inspiring examples of change, useful resources and more.

Read more

When: Wednesday December 11, 2013 from 12 to 1 p.m. EST
Where: Your Computer – Register Here! – https://cfccanada.webex.com/
How Much: Free!
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Ross Curtner at ross@cfccanada.ca.

Upcoming Webinars

Changing How Campuses Learn and Eat through Coursework

Interested in learning how applied student research can facilitate food system change?

Tune in on October 8th at 12:30pm EDT! Click here to register.

Hosted by the Campus Food Systems Project in collaboration with Food Secure Canada, this webinar will explore how to create, support and integrate student learning into food systems change on campus and in communities. Presenters Lilith Wyatt – Sustainability Officer at McGill and Brent Mansfield – Coordinator with UBC’s Food System Project will discuss the opportunities, benefits and challenges of Applied Student Research.

 

Bridging the Gap

Helping to connect good food with low-income communities
Join Community Food Centres Canada on October 9 from 12-1pm EDT for a webinar featuring Gillian Flies of The New Farm and Ayal Dinner from the West End Food Coop.

When: Wednesday October 9, 2013 12-1pm EDT
Where: Your Computer – Register Here! – https://cfccanada.webex.com/
How Much: Free!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact ross@cfccanada.ca.

 

Resilient Cities 2014

Building on the ideas shared at the 4th Global Forum on Urban Resilience and Adaptation, ICLEI presents the 1st webinar in the 2013 series:

Resilient city-region food systems policies

Wednesday 16 October 16:00-17:00 CET (11:00 – 12:00 EDT)

This webinar will discuss the development and implementation of policies that support a resilient city region food system.

Speakers are Lauren Baker, Toronto Food Policy Council; Stanley Visser, City of Cape Town; and Marielle Dubbeling, RUAF Foundation.

Bridging the gap

Helping to connect good food with low-income communities
Upcoming Webinar: Wednesday October 9, 2013 12-1pm EDT

Join Community Food Centres Canada on October 9 from 12-1pm EDT for a webinar featuring Gillian Flies of The New Farm and Ayal Dinner from the West End Food Coop.

When: Wednesday October 9, 2013 12-1pm EDT
Where: Your Computer – Register Here! – https://cfccanada.webex.com/
How Much: Free!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact ross@cfccanada.ca.