The popularity of local food and sustainable agricultural practices has grown since the early 2000s. But despite the growing demand for fresh, local and sustainable food, the reality is that most of our food still comes from industrial processes and from other countries. On-campus initiatives like Meal Exchange’s Good Food Challenge are trying to create...Read More

By Reilley Plue The University of Toronto (UofT) is Canada’s largest university, with over 90,000 students across three campuses (Mississauga, St. George, and Scarborough). This means a lot of mouths to feed! The largest of the three campuses, St. George, caters to over 61,000 full-time students and is located downtown where there is no shortage...Read More

By Neal Cameron The University of British Columbia has been a leader in moving food service procurement towards supporting more sustainable and just food systems. As the first Fair Trade Certified Campus in Canada and the first Canadian university to purchase exclusively OceanWise seafood, UBC has shown a commitment to engaging in food system change....Read More

By Jae Doncillo You hear it all the time: Vision Matters.  Vision dictates an organization’s trajectory. It informs the decisions that are made on the ground. It is the basis of why products exist the way that they do and why services are executed the way that they are. Vision is what creates experiences.  But...Read More

By Kaitlin Rizarri Ryerson University (RU) Students’ Good Food Market was started by two key student leaders, Maria Jude and Kimberly Vaz. Both have made significant changes to Ryerson University’s state of student food insecurity. Kimberly ran a referendum so that the Good Food Centre, the school’s food bank, could receive guaranteed funding. Maria launched...Read More

Photo Credit: Amy Hadley, CBC By Sanjana Sharma My name is Sanjana and I’m a second-year Computer Science student at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay. I found my passion for food when I started working on Meal Exchange’s Students Feeding Change project on my campus earlier this year, and understood that not having access to...Read More

Photo: Robin picking tea in Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka, wearing a hat with an attached mesh bag that holds the plucked tea.  By Robin Sagi, Good Food Challenge Coordinator at Humber  Over $300 million is spent by educational institutions on food annually in Canada. Meal Exchange, a Canadian charity, is working to help students and...Read More

By John Vu Amongst the many different definitions and interpretations of sustainability, there is a need for a standardized metric that all post-secondary campuses can follow.  The Good Food Challenge (GFC) provides a rigorous national standard for Good Food (measured by the Good Food Calculator), captures best practices in campus food procurement, and establishes a...Read More

Photo: UVSS Financial Director Dakota McGovern signing the Good Food Campus Commitment. Student governments are a powerful tool for enacting change on campuses. In terms of food security, when student governments are empowered to make decisions about procurement and access, they can be a strong ally in the fight for good food for all students...Read More

An interview with Joanne Bays, National Director, Farm to Cafeteria Canada  In May, nearly 300 leaders from across North America gathered in Victoria BC to take part in Canada’s first National Farm to School Conference – an event designed to illuminate and inspire activity to get more local healthy foods in the minds and on the plates of students....Read More