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What if students could be nourished by local farms? Farmers welcoming students to their fields to discover the wonder of how produce is grown, and school food services bringing that produce to the plates of their students. That’s the dream that Équiterre’s Farm to School Quebec initiative is seeking to make a reality.
At the core of Farm to School Quebec: eating healthy, home-grown food, better understanding all that happens between farm fields and our plates, and developing relationships with local producers in order to improve the resilience of our food systems.
A growing movement
Équiterre is working to expand the Farm to School movement throughout Quebec to help better position our schools to benefit from and to support our food-producing communities.
As regional coordinator for the pan-Canadian organization Farm to Cafeteria Canada, Équiterre has helped 15 schools over the past few years to set up sustainable food projects and educational activities within their communities: growing, harvesting, preparing, processing and serving healthy, local and sustainable food.
Despite the pandemic, enthusiasm for the Farm to School project has not let up. 35 new schools from all over Quebec joined the movement in the past year, through the 100°* call for projects! Équiterre will be working with each of them to implement their sustainable food initiatives. We have even developed a guide, entitled Pour un approvisionnement alimentaire local dans les écoles du Québec (soon to be available in English), to help schools along in designing, implementing and consolidating their efforts.
Robert Viau ©
« “From now on, I always want to eat my veggies!” »
- Student at ÉcolACTion
Resilient local food systems
Reconnecting schools with their communities is one of the pillars of the Farm to School Quebec approach. Getting involved in the project is an opportunity to help revitalize regions, stimulate the local economy, and build more resilient local food systems.
Our schools are at the heart of our cities, towns and villages. By developing healthy and productive environments within our schools, by reducing the physical - but also relational - distances between schools and the rest of our communities, especially the agricultural community, we are building stronger and more resilient local food systems.
Our schools are home to hundreds of thousands of children who are being directly impacted by climate change, both now and in the future. Implementing projects that specifically fight climate change by promoting the local economy and reducing emissions helps to give them tools for a greener and more resilient future.
Please help promote the Farm to School movement in the schools around you!
Let’s build nourishing communities together.
*Équiterre has been collaborating with 100° on its local food procurement projects in Quebec public schools.
These initiatives are made possible thanks to the financial support of the Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation du Québec (MAPAQ) under the Politique gouvernementale de prévention en santé and the Stratégie nationale d'achat d'aliments québécois.
Aliments du Québec is also offering to pay the membership fees for its Aliments du Québec au menu des institutions program for all participating schools.
