"Obviously, I would rather have a Caledon product," said Hutchinson. "But in reality … if we were to just eat from Caledon we wouldn’t have enough food."
Caledon Countryside Alliance – Now Defunct website
Buy Local Guide for Headwaters – Now Defunct website
GreenTCaledon – Now Defunct website – http://www.greentcaledon.ca/
The Caledon Countryside Alliance (CCA) has been active in promoting Buy Local and Eat Local since the 2002 launch of the Buy Local Guide for Headwaters. From 2003 to 2006 the CCA was the main organizer and one of the sponsors of the Annual Local Food Conference in partnership with the Toronto Food Policy Council. The CCA was one of the founding partners and sponsors of the Grown in Peel Guide. The Eat Local Caledon program was launched in the Spring of 2007.
Caledon and the Headwaters Region is the ideal place to focus on building a local food system and the CCA is increasing its efforts towards this mission via the Local Food Program. Eating close to home not only strengthens the local food economy but also tops the list of environmentally sustainable actions.
The main objectives of the Eat Local Caledon program are to:
- Raise awareness of the environmental, social, economic and cultural benefits of eating food that is produced locally.
- Engage the public to support a local food system and make local food choices.
- Build capacity and infrastructure to support the sale and distribution of local food and to facilitate local trade relationships.
via Eat Local Caledon…Eat Logically…Eat Locally.
The event, organized by local groups Eat Local Caledon and the Caledon Countryside Alliance, has featured localapples since its modest beginnings back in 2008.
Usually the organization raises money to buy the apples at a lower price from local growers, but this year, theydidn’t want that to be the case.
"To ask [local farmers] to give us 10,000 apples this year would not have been a good business decision for them ," said Karen Hutchinson, executive director of Caledon Countryside Alliance and organizer of the Caledon Crunch, noting that would run against the goal of the program. "We wanted the farmers to be able to sell the apples they have for the highest value."
The organizers quickly realized that they needed to make a change or not run the event at all. They wanted anothervegetable that is representative of Ontario, said Hutchinson. So naturally, carrots were a perfect fit.
While the carrots used for the event this year were not grown in of Caledon, they were as close to Caledon aspossible. The 2,500 pounds of carrots that Hutchinson distributed herself to schools across the region onWednesday came from Carron Farms in the Holland Marsh and were harvested this past weekend.
"Obviously, I would rather have a Caledon product," said Hutchinson. "But in reality … if we were to just eat from Caledon we wouldn’t have enough food."
So, the Holland Marsh was the next best alternative
Backgrounder: Community Go Green Fund Helps Individuals Reduce Greenhouse Gases
Ministry of the Environment
- Community Go Green Fund is a four-year, $6.6-million program. It came into being under Ontario's Climate Change Action Plan, announced in 2007.
- In its two years, the Community Go Green Fund has committed $4.65 million to community projects throughout Ontario.
- This year the fund received 61 applications and selected 34 projects. Last year, 23 projects were funded. The next round of funding, when applications will be accepted, is expected to be announced in the fall.
- Groups qualified to receive funding from the Community Go Green Fund include charitable or environmental organizations, community groups such as youth or a cultural association, educational institutions and First Nations communities. Municipalities were also eligible under certain circumstances.
- To be considered for funding, projects must reduce greenhouse gas emissions and use all three of the following mechanisms:
– Provide outreach and education and – Promote long-term behavioural change and – Advocate actions that create results that can be measured http://news.ontario.ca/ene/en/2009/04/community-go-green-fund.html
http://news.ontario.ca/ene/en/2009/04/community-go-green-fund-projects.html
