Eastern Ontario | Northern ON | Golden Horseshoe | Southern ON
Everdale Organic Farm and Environmental Learning Centre, Hillsburgh
* Registered charity, working farm with about 300 members and public and farmer eduction centre
* Emphasis on building community connections
* Connects aspiring farmers to available land
* Active use of social media for marketing
* Funding mix from CSA shares, foundations (e.g. Heifer, Trillium) and private donations
Waterloo Region Neighbourhood Market Initiative
* Primary goal to improve community access to healthy food
* Markets are spaces to buy-sell food, for Community Nutrition Workers to provide cooking advice and recipes and for some local entertainment
* Coordinated by part-time paid seasonal staff supplemented by volunteers
* Funded through a number of sources including municipalities, foundations (e.g. Lyle S. Hallman) and United Way
Herrle’s Country Farm Market, St. Agatha
* Herrle’s family farming since 1858, running farm-gate sales since 1964, and an on-farm store since 1988
* Sell their own produce and goods from their farm and those of their neighbours, even year-round sales out with small amount of imported food but most of what they sell is from 100 miles
* 50 market staff and 30 seasonal workers
* Community-building focus
* Municipal zoning regulation that is prohibitive to on-farm retail, particularly when it comes to larger-scale operations such as theirs
Western Fair Farmers’ and Artisans’ Market, London (Middlesex County)
http://www.londonsfarmersmarket.ca
*Farmers’ market located in what is otherwise a food desert
*Has been shown to have influenced (lowered) overall food costs in the neighbourhood *Economically sustainable, while providing a launch pad for small producers
*Dedicated to providing opportunities for producers while also ensuring access to affordable food
Spring Arbour Farm, Walsingham (Norfolk County)
http://www.springarbourfarm.com/
* First CSA in Canada
* One-person enterprise that maintained economic sustainability over 20 years of operation
* Winner of the Ontario Premier’s Award for Agri-food Innovation Excellence
* Versatile operation with biodiversity as its main organizing principle
Local Organic Food Co-ops (LOFC) / Ontario Natural Food Co-op (ONFC)
http://cultivatingfoodcoops.net/
* In existence for 35 years, ONFC is a model of a sustainable operation that has over the years managed to resist being absorbed by transnational distribution giants
* While relatively large, ONFC continues to work based on principles of cooperation and sustainability (economic, social and environmental)
* The Local Organic Food Co-operatives, as one of the ONFC projects, is aiming to create collaborative networks and one of its mandate’s pillars is the creation of regional food hubs