School Food Action Coalition

The goal of the School Food Action Coalition project is to increase local food options available in secondary school cafeterias. The coalition is made up of stakeholders that influence Peel District School Board's food procurement including PDSB purchasing and communications representatives, Compass/Chartwells district Managers and special project Directors, Peel Public Health and EcoSource. A key priority of this coalition is keeping students engaged in the foods being offered at their school using local food as a platform for participation.

Radical food change has come to Ontario schools with the implementation of the new School Food and Beverage Policy. School communities will need to display bold action in order to keep students interested and eating in school cafeterias.

Through our previous work on the Youth and Local Food Program, EcoSource found that when students are engaged and better understand the impacts of their food choices, they are passionate about wanting to make informed food choices that benefit the environment and their local community. Using this logic, the School Food Action Coalition will work to better understand the current state of local food procurement at the board level, identify ways to increase local food options in cafeterias, and engage students in these food options through innovative outreach and participation campaigns.

The School Food Action Coalition is generously funded by the Broader Public Sector Investment Fund of the Greenbelt Fund and will provide a replicable framework that can be used in other provincial institutions to increase local food procurement and keep students engaged in cafeteria food.

Peel students participated in the The Cooking Up Action Cook-Off to have their winning local food dish featured by Chartwells in all Peel District School Board Cafeterias. For more information see:

Cooking up Action press release

Cooking Up Action 2011: Local Food in Your Cafeteria video - 5:46 min.

Cooking Up Action Promo video - 1 min.

For more information or to get involved please contact:
Stephanie Crocker, Associate Director
905-274-6222
scrocker(at)ecosource.ca