Canadian Association for Food Studies

The Community Food Security Hub is one of the Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE) project’s five research hubs.  CFICE is co-managed by Carelton University and The Canadian Alliance for Community-Service Learning, and the Community Food Security Research Hub is co-lead by Food Secure Canada in cooperation with the Canadian Association for Food Studies. It conducts ongoing research to strengthen Canada’s food security networks, identify best practices, and channel lessons of success and pitfalls from existing organizations into guidelines for emerging projects to increase their success. Its ultimate goal is to achieve community food security across Canada. Keep up to date on the research conducted by this hub by visiting their website and checking CAFS’ list serve, and Member Projects page for periodic updates. Check out the latest news about the project in this newsletter: CFICE CFS Hub Newsletter 2014

The FoodShed Project is a loose network of urban and rural initiatives working together to transform the food system in the southern Ontario foodshed. We bring together agrifood organizations in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors working collaboratively with food scholar activists and students to excavate, document, and link groups in our community of food practice. It works toward a vision of a resilient Ontario agrifood system, that integrates native and diasporic populations, cuisines, and crops, and is centered on small scale, networked, culturally diverse enterprises.

The FoodShed Project is for anyone who wants to gather others around a specific project related to the overall goals of researching, educating, animating, and networking local initiatives to transform the food system. Attached are notes and a summary of the ideas generated at a February 2011 gathering, as well as a project update. The FoodShed Project works through constellations, that is, groups that form spontaneously to pursue specific tasks for as long as they reflect passions and energies. Anyone can work collaboratively to form new constellations to build on the ideas and priorities shared by FoodShed Project partners.

FoodShed Project Update (PDF)

FoodShed Project Conversation By Course Notes (PDF)

FoodShed Project Conversation By Courses Summary – Feb 4 2011 (PDF)