Healthy and sustainable food in Quebec schools and health institutions

Quebec’s primary and secondary schools and health institutions (hospitals, CHSLDs, CLSCs) are invited to participate in the pilot project À la soupe!, an Équiterre project for responsible food supply to institutions. For a duration of three years (2007-2009), À la soupe will promote healthy, ethical, and sustainable food to the adults and children who work in and attend those establishments and schools. 

The participating institutions will be part of a growing solidarity-based food cooperation with a local ecological farm and benefit from organic fruit and vegetables that are freshly picked by their farmer. Each year, the project can take on a new set of institutions. Different tools and activities are offered to participating institutions: information and awareness-raising workshops for parents and employees; educational activities and tools for children and adolescents, and trainings and practical tools for kitchen managers.

Équiterre also embarked on a tour of some dozen Quebec regions in the fall of 2008 in order to inform and mobilize the actors of those regions about responsible food at institutions and to explore the possibilities of creating links between farmers and institutions on regional and local levels.

At the same time, an advisory committee—composed of ministries, school commissions, a nutrition researcher, and representatives of farming, environmental and school associations as well as health institutions—will monitor the project and contribute to developing solutions to the challenges of responsible food in institutions.

At the end of the project, an implementation guide will be developed based on the experiences of the pilot project and made available to institutions in Quebec.

Have we sparked your interest?
Contact Lova Ramanitrarivo, À la soupe! project manager, at (514) 522-2000, ext. 250 or at lovar@equiterre.qc.ca.

Click here to download the À la soupe! information flyer  >>>

The opinions expressed on this page are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official point of view of the Public Health Agency of Canada.