Toronto Food Strategy Background

In 2010, the Board of Health approved a Food Strategy for Toronto. The process began in 2008 when the Board of Health approved its development to enable the City’s leadership toward a healthier and more sustainable food system. Our vision is of a food system that nourishes people and the environment, protects against climate change, promotes social justice, creates local and diverse economic development and builds community.

The Food Strategy team is a small unit within the Strategic Support Directorate focused on achieving the strategic priorities outlined in the 2010 Report, Cultivating Food Connections: Toward a Healthy and Sustainable Food System for Toronto.  In that plan, TPH identified six themes:

• Support food friendly neighbourhoods
• Make food a centerpiece of Toronto’s new green economy
• Eliminate hunger in Toronto
• Connect city and countryside through food
• Empower residents with food skills and information
• Urge federal and provincial governments to establish health-focused food policies