The Food Charter

The Parry Sound & Area Food Charter reads as follows:

The Parry Sound & Area Food Charter represents our communities’ voices, values, and priorities for a healthy and sustainable food system.  This charter will guide the development of food-related initiatives and policies within communities and organizations, and at the local government level.

We envision communities where residents, businesses, and governments collaborate to foster a localized and sustainable food system with equal access to nutritious, safe food. To achieve our vision we will:

1) CREATE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES

  • Support regional food production to enhance food security.
  • Enhance community market opportunities for local food products through farmers’ markets, direct farm sales, and local food outlets.
  • Supplement regional promotion with a food and culinary destination brand.
  • Adopt food-purchasing practices that foster social and environmental responsibility, as well as good health.

2) PROMOTE EDUCATION AND SKILL-BUILDING

  • Encourage initiatives which develop agricultural and nutritional skills.
  • Use existing educational and branding options to increase local food-production knowledge.
  • Cultivate food literacy and skills for all residents with a focus on growing food and healthy cooking.

3) MAINTAIN A HEALTHY ECOSYSTEM

  • Advocate for food and packaging waste reduction and management.
  • Promote agricultural choices which sustain our unique local ecology and protect water sources.
  • Reduce our community’s carbon footprint by prioritizing local food sources.

4) FOSTER RESIDENTS’ HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

  • Recognize food as an essential component of people’s mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
  • Adopt a rural and urban food-security system, and incorporate it into local planning.
  • Increase the number of healthy food choices in schools, workplaces, and public spaces.

5) SUPPORT EQUAL ACCESS OPPORTUNITIES

  • Recognize access to safe and healthy food as a social right – regardless of income.
  • Advocate for income, education, employment, environmental, housing, and transportation policies that support opportunities to grow and access food.
  • Campaign for neighborhoods to have walk-able and bike-able access to healthy food sources.
  • Encourage the sustainable harvesting of wild foods and access to a diversity of foods.

6) CELEBRATE CULTURE AND COLLABORATION

  • Promote community gatherings to appreciate and celebrate regional food, culture, and diversity.
  • Increase rural-to-urban dialogue to inform people about strategies which support local food production.
  • Engage people in the development of food policies and related programs.