Ontario Government Helps Build School Food Literacy Program

May 26, 2025

$198,600 OTF Grant from the Ontario Government Helps Build School Food Literacy Programs

Caledon, ON – On Saturday, local MPP Sylvia Jones met with the team at Albion Hills Community Farm to hear more about the $198,600 Resilient Communities Fund grant from the provincial government’s Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF). The grant is being used to build resilience and sustainability by increasing the farm’s capacity to deliver food and eco-literacy education programs with farm visits from local schools and community groups.

“With this grant, our government is strengthening Albion Hills Community Farm’s ability to inspire the next generation through food literacy education,” said Sylvia Jones, MPP for Dufferin-Caledon. “By investing in these programs, we are supporting healthier communities and a more sustainable future for Dufferin-Caledon.”

The project builds on the farm’s work to increase food literacy education in local schools including school to farm (S2F) and farm to school (F2S) programs. Funding from the grant is being used to develop new and expand existing programs and farm infrastructure, enabling the farm to increase its capacity to support students on their food learning journeys.

One of the highlights of this work is the Caledon School Vegetable Garden Network which has for the past three years supported sixteen vegetable gardens in all Caledon schools in Peel District School Board. In 2025, Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board schools in Caledon are joining in to establish vegetable gardens in their schools. Someday soon, all schools in Caledon will have vegetable gardens supported by students, staff and the school community. In addition to our main program “Be a Farmer for the Day”, other school and community food literacy education programs like the Caledon Crunch, Farm to Table, Take a Bite Out of Climate Change and Breaducation are also being rolled out.

The farm works in collaboration with local community partners including Palgrave United Community Kitchen and Headwaters Food and Farming Alliance, (F2S Programs) to deliver programs.  In addition to serving as a farm program hub for the neighbouring field centres – Etobicoke Outdoor Education Centre (TDSB) and Albion Hills Field Centre (TRCA). All of this work builds on the concept that Food is Science and the introduction of Food Literacy into the Ontario School Curriculum in September 2022. The Ontario Edible Education Network (Sustain Ontario) and Farm to Cafeteria Canada are amazing provincial and pan Canadian partners that continue to provide leadership and guidance for this work. 

Karen Hutchinson, President of Albion Hills Community Farm explained the importance of the grant as follows: “Community farms and organizations play an important role in educating our next generation of eaters, while also giving community members places to learn to grow/buy, eat and prepare locally grown foods. Farms are the backbone of many rural communities across Ontario and they are becoming increasingly visible in our urban areas. Food connects us all and has the possibility to provide solutions to many of our current social and ecological problems. It is critical that we support local places to grow food and programs to teach all, especially for our children and youth. This grant provides critical support for this work,” said Karen Hutchinson, President of Albion Hills Community Farm

AHCF is a 17-acre community farm and learning centre incorporated as a non-profit organization located in the Albion Hills Conservation Area. At AHCF, we grow healthy local food and community with a passion to educate and engage all. To accomplish this, the farm provides: a 1.5-acre market garden with vegetable sales at a weekly farm stand and on-line; a 60-plot community allotment garden; four major community events each year: field crops; demonstration and education projects (bees, chickens, food waste/compost, learning gardens, hedge rows and green infrastructure); research projects; and, on-farm/community engagement through school field trips, community workshops, camps, volunteer days, farm to school programs and events.

At AHCF, we gather and operate on part of the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. We are hosted on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the Wendat. The land remains home to many First Nations, Metis and Inuit peoples from across Turtle Island.

The Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) is an agency of the Ontario government with a mission to build healthy and vibrant communities across the province. Last year, OTF invested nearly $105M into 732 community projects and multi-sector partnerships. Projects aim to enhance economic well-being, foster more active lifestyles, support child and youth development, provide spaces for people to come together and connect, and create a more sustainable environment. Visit otf.ca to learn more.