Going Local for a Change

In rural and urban communities across North America,signs that our modern food system is failing ourfarmers, our environment, our health and our poor aregrowing painfully apparent. Now that we findourselves at the brink, an appetite for change hasstarted to develop. Farm-to-university programs areamong a new crop of food system alternatives designedto change food and agriculture from the ground-up.Regarded as the planned efforts to connectuniversities with local farms, farm-to-university isintended to benefit farmers with fair and stablemarkets while making local sustainable food moreaccessible to members of university communities.As an initial assessment of the possibilities forfarm-to-university at Concordia University, thiscommunity food planning study was an attempt toidentify stakeholder interests as well as potentialbarriers and opportunities to development. Using acommunity food security framework focused onpartnership, program and policy development, thiswork sought to connect with relevant and diversestakeholders from both inside and outside the University.