Whitby This Week

DURHAM — High school students in the Durham District School Board have been expanding their palates this year, while learning the value of local food.

Ecosource, a non-profit organization that supports local food purchasing and education, is partnering with the Durham District School Board and its cafeteria food provider, Compass Group Canada, to turn local teens on to local foods through education and by bringing Ontario foods to secondary school cafeterias. Thanks to funding from the Greenbelt Fund, a non-profit organization that supports Ontario agriculture, the project has allowed students to taste different Ontario foods.

“We have been hearing from students that they would like to see more diversity in the food offerings they see at school,” said Jennifer Milne, manager of purchasing for the board. “This project not only offers them an opportunity to taste new food products, but also to learn how their food choices affect their local community.”

Hospitality students have been particularly interested in the impacts of the food system on both the economy and health.

They’re really starting to understand that the food system is quite complex and there’s a lot of different steps to it. Soni Craik, Ecosource

“They’re really starting to understand that the food system is quite complex and there’s a lot of different steps to it,” says Soni Craik, the school food program manager at Ecosource.

To celebrate the inaugural Local Food Week in Ontario, the Cafeteria Connects: Bringing Ontario Foods to Secondary School Cafeterias project, brought Ontario tofu to students at Sinclair Seconday School on June 4.

“There are a lot of opinions around tofu and whether or not students would be interested in tofu and it was by far our most successful tasting event,” reported Ms. Craik.

Ms. Craik said students were served beef-flavoured Ontario tofu in tacos, allowing all students, including vegans, to try them out. The tacos were available for purchase the following day.

Before this event, the program has featured a number of local dishes with ingredients including turkey, apples, squash and maple syrup.

“I’m pleased to see the creation and promotion of nutritious food for our children,” said Ajax Trustee Yvonne Forbes at the most recent standing committee meeting.

The project will continue next year, and plans include more workshops for hospitality students and a farmers’ market at the board’s education centre in September. Also, the project plans to have a board-wide purchasing strategy in place that will guarantee a certain selection of produce from Ontario farms at all secondary schools in the board.

“This will be the only board in Canada that has created a strategy like that,” said Ms. Craik.