PRESS RELEASE - Festival of Food Ideas in Montreal

A Festival of Food Ideas Welcomes Food Leaders From Across Canada in Montreal

MONTREAL, November 19, 2013 – Food organizations from across Canada will be joining Montreal-based food groups for a Festival of Good Food Ideas on Tuesday November 26th, at l'Espace La Fontaine at 6pm. Over 200 individuals and organizations are expected to take part in the event, which is catered by Montreal’s food movement including restaurants and food banks, much of it with local and sustainably sourced ingredients, as well as guest speakers and live musical entertainment.

The Festival of Food Ideas (poster) is being hosted by Food Secure Canada as part of activities surrounding their Annual General Meeting (AGM) being held in Montreal the next day. Over the course of the evening, participants will share food and stories about food, as well as discuss their challenges, successes and hopes for an equitable, healthy and more local food system.

Award-winning Abenaki film-maker Alanis Obomsawin will open the evening with a song and acclaimed Quebec writer and social activist Laure Waridel will deliver a keynote address. Featured speakers will talk about the on the ground solutions to our broken food system. They include Nick Saul (co-author of The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement) and Debbie Field (Executive Director of Toronto’s FoodShare which delivers healthy, locally sourced meals daily for over 150,000 kids) and Isabelle St-Germain (who will speak of Equiterre’s groundbreaking work on food from the farm to the court room).  Musical entertainment is being provided by jazz pianist and singer Jessica Vigneault (daughter of Gilles Vigneault), Juno award-winner Paulo Ramos, and percussionist Daniel Bellagarde (draft program).

The event is the Montreal launch of Food Secure Canada, whose bustling head office was opened in Montreal just over a year ago. Major partners for the event include Espace La Fontaine, a beautiful bistro in the heart of the park, as well as USC Canada, a leading development organization that has just launched a global seed map and the J. W. McConnell Foundation, and UNIFOR. Several community organizations – Santropol roulant, Regroupement des Cuisines Collectives, Moisson Montréal and local businesses are also supporting the event.  See the complete list of sponsors.

The event is free and open to the public. A donation in the amount of your last restaurant meal is suggested for those who would like to contribute towards the cost of the event.

Food Secure Canada is a national membership based organization working towards zero hunger, healthy and safe food, and sustainable food systems in a perspective of food sovereignty.

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More information or additional comment: Diana Bronson:  514 271 7352; cell  514 629 9236 or director(a)foodsecurecanada.org

To arrange interviews with guest speakers, Nydia Dauphin: 514 271 7352; cell 819 598 4416 ou communications(at)foodsecurecanada.org