Date: Thursday April 11th, 9am to 4pm
Location:
Parish Hall - 2nd Floor, Amphitheatre 1
Kemptville Campus Education and Community Centre, Kemptville ON

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/good-food-in-schools-creating-positive-school-food-environments-tickets-789489613687?aff=oddtdtcreator

This one-day event will bring together stakeholders working on school food education and programs across Eastern Ontario, to share efforts to create healthy and positive school food environments. Everyone is welcome; educators, students, school board trustees and staff, parents, volunteers, and community food organizations are encouraged to attend.

With growing understanding of the importance of food and food systems to our physical, mental and emotional well-being, incorporating food literacy in schools is essential. Schools today are active stakeholders in helping kids to build a healthy relationship with food, to understand where food comes from and how it is produced, and to build their own skills in growing, preparing and serving food.

The forum is organized by Foodcore Leeds Grenville Lanark, a multi-stakeholder working group committed to building healthy, sustainable and inclusive local food systems. FoodcoreLGL has created a Food Charter and related toolkits, maintains a local Food Inventory, and supports food events and programming in our region.

Our keynote speaker is Sarah Keyes - Provincial Lead, Ontario School Food and Food Literacy with Sustain Ontario. Sarah will present the purpose and work of Canada’s largest school food network, the Coalition for Healthy School Food. She will share updates on school food programs in Ontario and Canada, including progress towards a national school food program, provincial advocacy and actions, and opportunities to support this work in local communities. She will also share Food is Science which supports educators in teaching about food and food systems in Ontario’s Science and Tech curriculum.

Other speakers will include staff, students and board members from schools in Leeds Grenville and Lanark, as well as Public Health staff. We will also have time for breakout groups and networking.

Visit our Eventbrite page to register.

Event Agenda

8:30 Venue opens - Registration

9:00 Welcome remarks

9:30 Keynote: Sarah Keyes, Sustain Ontario

10:30 Break

10:45 St. Luke’s Catholic High School – School Café

11:15 Upper Canada District School Board – “UCDSB Grows” Real-World Learning

12:15 Lunch

1:30 Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit: Public Health Supports for School Food

2:00 Roundtable session/Breakout groups to share priorities, challenges and resources

2:45 Break

3:00 Sharing results of roundtables, next steps and wrap-up

3:30 Tour of Kemptville Campus greenhouses and community garden (optional)