About Us
Our Food Future – Our radical and sustained change in the food system of Guelph-Wellington.
Our vision for a circular food system – a system that values, shares and celebrates a diversity of affordable, nutritious and culturally relevant foods that support a healthy, resilient community. Our work has four broad goals:
- 1. Increase access to affordable, nutritious foods
- 2. Support the development of circular businesses and collaborations
- 3. Find economic value of food waste
- 4. Support whole food systems change
Visit Our Food Future’s Midterm Report for more details about our goals, objectives, strategic intervention areas, and outcomes.
What is Reimagine Food?
The Reimagine Food Campaign and Engagement Initiative is Our Food Future’s local effort to inspire a circular food economy movement. By working with businesses, governments, community groups, and individuals we aim to inspire and empower people to learn about how circular theory comes to life, engage in lively conversations about food system transformation, build demand for circular products, take pride in our local food culture, and develop new ways of valuing food while wasting less. We need these audiences to become champions and stewards of this initiative so that this project can create significant and sustained change.
Our Role
Cities have an important role to play in the circular food economy
You may wonder what the City and County actually DOES. Supported with funding from the Federal government, Our Food Future works in both urban and rural governments to support and steer circular change. This looks like offering resources to raise awareness about opportunities and bringing different stakeholders together to address big problems.
Governments make and enforce rules for things residents rely on like managing our water and waste, zoning, and planning community spaces. They also buy a lot of stuff and have the power to create markets for circular products and services and to cultivate localized networks and innovation systems.
Solutions happen faster through collaboration. That’s why staff in the Our Food Future office convene people with diverse expertise, talent and resources through face-to-face and online collaborations. We also use data, technology and innovative thinking to solve food system challenges and create new circular businesses, jobs and social enterprises. We’re also creating new training opportunities (particularly for women, youth and marginalized populations) to prepare local residents to work in the new food economy.
Transitioning our food system is going to take a lot of work from residents to farmers and businesses to governments and everyone in between.