The Go Ontario! Granola Bar Story

EcoSource Youth and Local Food Program

As an Ontario-based environmental education organization that has been inspiring personal action and responsibility through creative community programming since 1979, EcoSource strives to link Ontario youth of diverse backgrounds to the local food system. EcoSource provides youth with hands-on education on farms and in the classroom, and works to bring healthy, local food into schools. This program began in November 2006 with the generous support of the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation, when we successfully launched our unique "Youth and Local Food" program in Ontario's Peel Region.

Ontario's Greenbelt is a bold initiative that permanently protects farmland, natural features and water resources around Toronto, the country's most heavily urbanized region. It is 1.8 million acres of potential to make Ontario, and the Earth, a better place. Encompassing the Niagara Escarpment, the Oak Ridges Moraine, Rouge Park, hundreds of rural towns and villages and some 7,000 farms, it is home to some of the most valuable agricultural land in Canada.

EcoSource promotes the value of the Greenbelt and its bounty by bringing students and families to Greenbelt farms, and by educating students in classrooms and culinary arts program kitchens, about the importance of Ontario and Greenbelt produce to the environment, our health, and our local economy. By working with Greenbelt farmers and processors, we also opened up new markets for Ontario and Greenbelt-grown food.

Taste of Nature

On EcoSource's quest to facilitate the availability of local food to schools in Peel Region, it became clear that the limiting factor in the flow of local food from field to table lies in the processing sector. Thus, EcoSource set out to recruit and work with processors to create new snacks, using ingredients from the Greenbelt and Ontario in general.

Taste of Nature offers the healthiest and most wholesome snack bars in Canada. The people at Taste of Nature have been making healthy granola bars since the mid eighties. The name Taste of Nature was officially launched in 2008 and has already become a popular choice with retailers who want to offer truly healthy snack choices to their customers. Taste of nature bars are made of 100% natural ingredients, and are also made without using additives, artificial flavours, artificial sweeteners or preservatives. The bars are currently offered in 9 flavours plus the new Go Ontario bar made of Ontario grown ingredients.

Taste of Nature was eager to work with EcoSource to formulate an all-natural granola bar made with nothing but Ontario ingredients, many of which are from the Greenbelt. Such a product is the first of its kind, where each and every ingredient can be traced back to the farm where it was grown, and every part of the process takes place in the province of Ontario.

The Go Ontario! Granola Bar

Featuring 100% Ontario ingredients this delicious and healthy treat is a ground breaking product. No additives, preservatives or trans-fats, there is nothing in this bar that was not grown on an Ontario farm!

The Go Ontario bars are not only made of Ontario grown ingredients. The fact is, every single part of the process starts and ends in Ontario. Printing of the bar wrappers, the boxes, the manufacturing facility, the graphic design firm and more. Every single part of this product is 100% Ontario.

Crafted with care at Taste of Nature this granola bar will give you a boost with Ontario cranberries, organic Ontario oats, as well as cherries, apples and honey from Ontario's Greenbelt.

All the ingredients in this bar have been sourced directly from Ontario farmers so you can feel good about eating well and helping to keep local agriculture strong!

Ingredients

The oats in the Go Ontario! Granola Bar are certified organic and grown on Grassroots Organics farm in Desboro, Ontario. Grassroots Organics is a family owned operation nestled between the Niagara Escarpment, the Saugeen Valley, and the shores of Georgian Bay in the heart of Ontario's fertile farmland. They have a farm store where they sell all kinds of local grains, meats, produce and eggs.

The cherries are from Cherry Lane Farms in Vineland Station, Niagara Region. This part of the Greenbelt is famous for tender fruit and a wonderful place to visit and pick your own! Cherry Lane is famous for healthy cherry products available from the farm, at certain retail outlets and online.

The honey is from a Greenbelt farm just outside Beamsville. Charlie Bee honey is one of the largest apiaries in Ontario. The owner, Charlie Parker, has wanted to be a beekeeper since he was 13 years old. He now has bees all over Ontario who are busy pollinating crops all throughout the growing season.

The cranberries come from Bala, the cranberry capital of Ontario! The Wahta Mohawks own and operate the Iroquois Cranberry Growers, which is open to the public from spring to fall. You can also order their cranberry products online or find them in certain health food stores.

The apples in the Go Ontario! Granola Bar come from Torrie Warner, who owns Warner Farms in Beamsville, which is also in the Greenbelt. They grow all kinds of fruit, and are open to the public, but you can also find them during the growing season at farmers markets almost every day of the week! These apples are then dehydrated by "Cheese of Canada", a local company based in Oakville Ontario. The owner, Gurth, purchases apples and pears directly from Ontario farmers and sells them as delicious 'County Natural' dehydrated treats.

School Food and Beverage Policy Compliance
The Go Ontario! Granola Bar complies with the New Schools Food and Beverage Policy and is a great fundraiser for school communities!

For more information about the Go Ontario! Granola Bar:

Please contact:
EcoSource
scrocker(at)ecosource.ca
905-274-6222

Taste of Nature
http://www.tasteofnature.ca
info(at)tasteofnature.ca
416-502-8218