For immediate release.

Resetting the Table: Food Secure Canada’s 9th Assembly
#resettingthetable

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TORONTO 27 September 2016: Food Secure Canada and its partners Ryerson University, New College, the Toronto Food Policy Council, FoodShare Toronto, and Sustain Ontario are hosting Resetting the Table, Canada’s largest and most vibrant food gathering that will rethink the way we produce and consume our food from October 13th-16th.

“Food is integral to the most urgent climate, health and economic issues. Resetting the Table will bring together Canada’s brightest food thinkers and most innovative organizations to share practical solutions to national and global problems,” said Diana Bronson, Executive Director of Food Secure Canada. “Since the federal government has announced its intention to develop a national food policy, this is a gathering that could lead to significant changes in the ways in which we produce and consume our food.”

Hundreds of farmers, Indigenous leaders, non-profit organizations, businesses and policy makers will be converging on Toronto for 4 days of vital discussion on the future of Canada’s food system. As the national voice of the Canadian food movement, Food Secure Canada represents hundreds of thousands of Canadians who believe our food system can be healthier, fairer and more sustainable. This year’s event will be kicked off by a special evening that is open to the public: Decolonizing the Table: An Evening on Indigenous Food Sovereignty (Ryerson Theatre, October 13th, 7 pm).

With more than sixty workshops, four plenary sessions, and many meetings and training sessions,  as well as a trade show and Reception at City Hall on Friday October 14, Resetting the Table will provide a unique opportunity to create effective, collective responses to current challenges of sustainability, hunger and health and to tackle a broad range of important questions. How can we combat the crisis of food insecurity in northern Canada? What can we do about the fact that four million Canadians struggle to put food on the table? How can we support the next generation of farmers who have innovative and sustainable practices?

Debbie Field, Executive Director of FoodShare Toronto, who participated in the founding meeting of Food Secure Canada at Ryerson University in 2001 adds, “When we came together 15 years ago at Ryerson, we could not possibly have imagined how strong our movement would be today and how Food Secure Canada would develop into a dynamic organization that is influencing the national agenda on school food and a host of other topics. Food Secure Canada Assemblies are amazing events and we are honoured to be a hosting partner this year.”

Some of the program highlights:

• Food justice: how can we create a truly diverse and equitable food system with good food jobs? (with our partners, the United Food and Commercial Workers and the Metcalf Foundation)
• The next generation of healthy Canadians: getting healthy food in schools and teaching kids to cook, garden and eat good food (with the Coalition for Healthy School Food, the Heart and Stroke Foundation and Sustain Ontario)
• Combatting food insecurity in Canada (with PROOF and Community Food Centres Canada);
• Supporting family farms and the next generation of farmers, and the growth of organics (with the Canadian Organic Trade Association, the National Farmers Union and the New Farmers Initiative);
• Building the links between climate change, sustainable energy and food (with Greenpeace and the Leap Manifesto);
• Discussions on aid, agroecology, and GMOs (with the Food Security Policy Group and International Development Research Centre);
• Building momentum with creative and innovative ways to localize our food systems that deliver on the triple bottom line (with InvestEco, CUPE and J.W. McConnell Family Foundation)
• National food policy, with an interactive panel hosted by Carleton University, bringing together Food Secure Canada, the Conference Board of Canada, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the Canadian Agricultural Policy Institute and the Assembly of First Nations.

Food Secure Canada is offering free media passes to accredited media organizations.

Food Secure Canada would like to thank our many sponsors, without whom this event would not be possible.

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For more information:

Diana Bronson : director@foodsecurecanada.org
514-629-9236 (cell)

François Zeller, communications@foodsecurecanada.org
438 401 1733 (cell)

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