Procurement &

Local Food

Objectives

• Enhance strategic supply chain

• Regional economic development

• Respect the customer

• Make a difference

Key Support

• Council & Management

• Food Services team

• Food Buyers

• Local Producers

• Other local champions

Challenges

• Separate fact from fiction

• Staffing & change resistance

• Group buying, rebates and single

order convenience

• Access to Best Practice information

• Limited procurement tools, specific to food.

• No local food discussions within threads of Supply Association’s

• No food buying training offered within Supply profession

Process of Change

• Council / Board support

• Update Policy, SEEP focus

• Internal champion & connect regional champions

• Include local food clauses in

contracts and RFP’s

• Training of key staff

• Increase consumer demand (students, residents, patients)

• Build relationships: producers, key staff, customers

Successes

• Thunder Bay Food Charter

• SEEP Procurement Policy

• Thunder Bay Food Strategy

• Development of “Advanced Local Food Procurement Guide”

• Development & award of future food buy contract

• Leverage funding (Greenbelt Fund)

What’s Next?

• Quarterly local food meetings

• Engagement of social enterprise

• LTC food waste audit

• Refinement of KPI measures

• Expand success to local BPS agencies

Advice to offer

• Operationalize success for sustainability

• Get out of the office, tour farms, ask

questions & listen

• Choose a cause, make a difference

• Get engaged & meet new people

• Celebrate success

Come & enjoy the local foods of Thunder Bay