Champions of a Vibrant & Healthy Local Food System

Waterloo Region Food Summit

What are we doing about the hidden hunger in our community?

On November 16 & 17, 2009, The Waterloo Region Food System Roundtable and Waterloo Region Shares co-hosted the Waterloo Region Food Summit at the Victoria Park Pavilion in Kitchener.

Follow-Up Action to the Summit

Declaration of the Waterloo Region Food Summit

Presentations made at the Summit

Video and Photos

Media Coverage

Evaluation of the Summit

Summit Agenda

Organizational Supporters of the Summit

DECLARATION
The Summit culminated in the signing, by more than seventy people who were in the room at the time, of a Declaration of the Summit participants' priorities for improving food access and food security in Waterloo Region.

The full text of the final Declaration can be found here. All Summit participants and anyone else interested in furthering the work of improving food access in Waterloo Region is encouraged to use the Declaration to guide their actions and advocate for policy changes. You are invited to contribute your comments on the Declaration in our Discussion Forum.

PRESENTATIONS
To view the Power Point presentations of the keynote speakers at the Summit, click on the links below.

Elbert Van Donkersgoed [9MB .ppt file]

Kathryn Scharf [8MB]

Mary MacKeigan and Brice Balmer

Marc Xuereb

Elizabeth Faulkner

PHOTOS
The slideshow below contains photos of the visions created by participants of the Summit. This was a very popular exercise with participants: creating the visual visions of what a food system should look like was a very energizing process!

VIDEO
The entire Summit was recorded on High Definition video by the Multicultural Cinema Club and turned into three separate videos, shown below. You can obtain a DVD copy of all three videos for $10 by emailing our Site Administrator.

The Food Summit Story (17:38)

featuring interviews of several Food Summit participants who have experienced food insecurity at some point in their lives, as well as footage from the second day of the Summit as described by Summit organizers

Kathryn Scharf (28:21)

Program Director of The STOP Community Food Centre in Toronto describes the reality of people living in poverty, and how programs like The STOP can support people's immediate needs with respect and empower them to advocate for justice.

Elbert Van Donkersgoed (45:58)

Long-time agricultural policy advisor and editor of the Locavore News describes some of the big changes in agriculture in the last century, and how they have shaped the unsustainable and unjust food system we have today.

FOLLOW-UP ACTIONS
A number of small groups assembled on the Tuesday afternoon of the Summit to make prioritized action plans based on the Declaration's strategic directions. They took notes on Action Planning sheets, which you can view here. The sheets have been typed up into one Excel document which you can view here.

Want to get involved in actions to support the work started at the Summit? Keep checking this website (and subscribe to our email listserve, WRFoodNews) for information on upcoming meetings of people working on these issues. All events will be posted to our Upcoming Events page, and emailed periodically to everyone on the WRFoodNews listserve.

Want to call a meeting to work on one of these issues and let others know about it? Contact us and we'll spread the word to everyone who attended the Summit and everyone on WRFoodNews. A few have happened already: here's the notes from two of them.

December 4, 2009 - Planning Committee Summit Debrief
February 4, 2010 - Summit Follow-up Action-Sharing
March 2, 2010 - Summit Follow-Up Action meeting

Another meeting has been organized by Summit participants to discuss how actions can be coordinated. It's happening on Tuesday, March 2, 2010, from 9-11am, at the Downtown Community Centre in Kitchener. See more details about this event on our Discussion Forum.

Keep up the momentum!

MEDIA COVERAGE
The Waterloo Region Food Summit enjoyed good coverage from mainstream media. Radio stations 570 News and KOOL-FM ran stories prior to the event announcing it. The Record published a front-page story on it on November 19th, and CTV ran a 2-minute story at noon and another story on their 6pm News. Rogers 20 Waterloo Region devoted their entire half-hour episode of Newsmakers to the Food Summit. See their coverage below (you'll need to fast forward through about a minute and a half of blank screen in their commercial breaks).

To view the media release sent out before the Summit, click here.

FUNDING
Anyone interested in finding funding options for implementing projects consistent with the Summit Declaration is welcome to consult this guide to local funders whose interests include food projects. It was made available on paper at the Summit, and can be viewed here.

EVALUATION
Fifty people filled out evaluation forms at the end of the Food Summit, and 91% of those people indicated that the Summit met their overall expectations. A full report of the evaluations can be viewed here.

Keep checking back on this website as we continue to upload information about this historic event, including videos of the keynote speakers and a summary video of the entire event.

Agenda

Click on underlined names for links to full profiles.

Monday, November 16, 2009
7-9 p.m.	Welcome by Masters of Ceremony Wendi Campbell, Waterloo Region Shares and Ellen Desjardins, WR Food System Roundtable
	Kathryn Scharf, Program Director, The STOP Community Food Centre, Toronto -What it's like to live with poor access to food, and what we all need to do about it
	Elbert Van Donkersgoed, Editor, The Locavore News: Perspectives on Good Food and Farming -How the whole food system needs changing to provide healthy food for us all
	Brice Balmer and Mary MacKeigan, Opportunities Waterloo Region -anti-poverty advocacy initiatives in Waterloo Region and Ontario
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
9-10:30 a.m.	Presentation of Draft Declaration of the Waterloo Region Food Summit Introductions in Small Groups – what is your experience with accessing food? Video Presentations – How people experience food insecurity in Waterloo Region, Problems with our Long Distance Food System Where are We Now? – Presentations on who is doing what to address food system issues in Waterloo Region
BREAK
11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.	Visioning – What would a healthy food system look, feel, and sound like?
LUNCH	Visit program displays, vision drawings
1:30-3 p.m.	Identifying Priority Actions – small groups form according to Declaration’s Strategic Directions to identify two priorities for each area
BREAK
3:15-5 p.m.	Actions Planning on the Priorities – small groups plan action for priorities, one small group refines Declaration based on Summit input Presentation of Final Declaration – and signing by all supporters Wrap-Up