Pepper North, a 100% Canadian-sourced brand of hot sauce founded by Ana & Drew Stevens, was recently featured in Scotiabank's "Asks a Small Business", where Ana shares some of their story and some insights into how they successfully scaled their business. The Oshawa-based hot sauce company now has national distribution in over 700 stores!
Thank you to Meena Hassanali, York Region's Agriculture and Agri-Food Business Specialist, for providing us with this great year-in-review blog post, which shares the positive progress that's been made delivering on York Region's Agriculture and Agri-Food Sector Strategy. This year, they hosted or participated in over 50 workshops, events and meetings, engaging over 3,000 stakeholders to raise awareness of the strategy. They also collaborated with York University’s campus-linked accelerator and innovation hub YSpace to support the launch of a Food Accelerator Pilot. Learn more here, including what's in store for 2020!
A recording from the first webinar of the Local Food in Healthcare professional development series is now available on our Serving Up Local II: an Economic Analysis page. The SULEA project is the second phase of our Serving Up Local project, which saw Halton Region's municipally-run long-term care homes increase local food on their menus by 43%! Check out the recording to learn about the Halton Region LTC Nutrition Supervisors' strategy — and please share with those you think might be interested!
Canada’s Food Price Report for 2020 forecasts a 2 to 4% increase in food prices in the new year, bringing the predicted annual cost of food for the average Canadian family to $12,667 — an increase of $487 over 2019. Read more and access the report here. The predictions are made using historical data sources, machine learning algorithms, and predictive analytics tools. This is the annual Food Price Report's 10th edition, which is released jointly by Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph.
"When you celebrate this holiday season, I encourage you to support hardworking Ontario farmers by choosing Ontario grown and made food for your family, friends and all your loved ones," shares Ernie Hardeman. "Giving the gift of local this holiday supports our farmers, our producers and our economy." Read more from the province here.
