Ongoing
Building a sustainable food culture starting in school
Our approach
30 Years of Commitment and Vision
For over 30 years, Équiterre has worked on building a better world where each and everyone can have access to nutritious, local and sustainable food. To ensure that our mission also reaches younger generations, our organization actively contributes to healthy and sustainable food from field to plate in Quebec’s and Canada’s schools by building projects, participating in national and provincial initiatives in school food programs and doing advocacy work.
🎓 De l’éducation à l’alimentation au plaidoyer politique, Équiterre participe activement à la transition vers des milieux scolaires nourrissants et durables.
Our projets
À la soupe! project 🥣
Integrating local and responsible food in different institutions
From 2007 to 2009, Équiterre has worked with daycare centers, schools and hospitals to promote procurement from local and organic farms or toward farms in process to obtain certification. By combining agricultural partnerships with educational activities, it raised awareness among youth and their communities about the connections between food, health, the environment, and the local economy. The À la soupe! educational toolkit is a resource born from this project and still used to this day.
- 76
76 participating institutions 🏫
- 16
partner farms 👩🌾
- 7
regions of Quebec 🌎
- + than 500 young people reached 🧒🏽
Farm to School
Connecting youth with local producers
Launched more than a decade ago, the Farm to School Quebec program pan-Canadien organization Farm to Cafeteria Canada, of which Équiterre is one of the initiators, reflects Équiterre’s vision : to reconnect young people with food provenance and to support local producers.
🥗 Through grants and educational tools, Équiterre supports schools in implementing educational activities such as gardening in the school playground, cooking workshops, salad bars or for example integrating local foods into their meals.
🍎 Each Fall, National Farm to School Month celebrates schools creativity who cultivates the taste of local produce.
Local Food in Quebec Schools
More space for local food in schools
🌎 Did you know?
The recognition program Aliments du Québec au menu recognizes a large number of schools. We also have collaborated closely with them on the projects Farm to School Quebec and Local Food in Quebec Schools.
The Local food in Quebec Schools initiative gathers various mandates carried out by Équiterre and coordinated by 100° within the framework of the National Strategy for the Purchase of Quebec Food (SNAAQ). Since 2021, Équiterre supports schools willing to incorporate local food into their students' meals. Équiterre helps schools define and achieve their local procurement objectives, through a structured support, a toolkit and a series of online courses on the following theme « Eating local food at school ».
La marmite éducative
Tools for youth workers on a digital platform
- 500
educational tools and professional services on nutritive and sustainable food 🧰
- 110
organisations in Quebec that provide resources on the platform 🌐
- 118,500 person visited the platform since its launch in 2021 🧑🏫
Designed for teachers, educators and youth workers who work with youth aged 0 to 17, La marmite éducative is a free digital platform that brings together turnkey educational resources to address nutritive and sustainable food in schools, early childhood settings, youth activities and summer camps.
Eating well at School (Bien manger à l’école)/ Universal food program in Quebec (PASUQ)
Making school meals a right
Since 2021, Équiterre is partnering with other stakeholders to support the campaign Eating Well at School (Bien manger à l’école), which aims for a Universal food program. The goal is to ensure that each child in Québec, from preschool to high school, has access to nutritious and sustainable snacks and meals at an affordable cost and to quality food education.
With several partners, Équiterre works with public decision-makers, institutions and researchers to document, analyse and experiment the best practices in school food, and to articulate recommendations for the operationalization of a universal food school program in Quebec. 🔎
Équiterre works with public decision makers who recognize the importance of universal access to nutritious and local food at school and to quality food education. 🍎
Nourishing Indigenous Foods & Foodways in Schools initiative
Acknowledging and promoting indigenous foodways in schools 🫐 🫘 🐟
Nourishing Indigenous foods and foodways in schools supports indigenous school communities in passing on traditional food practices and in enhancing youth food literacy. Rooted in a process of decolonization and reconciliation, the project aims to increase schools capacity to cultivate, harvest, preserve and serve indigenous food, all while encouraging students participation.
- A project co-created with Indigenous school communities
- A respectful guidance based on humility, dialogue and reciprocity
- An approach who links food, culture, territory and well-being
Planetary Health on the Menu at School 🌱 🎒 🌎
The Planetary Health on the Menu at School project aims to help youth discover how to change their plate by adding more vegetables, in order to integrate a more affordable, sustainable and respectful of the planetary boundaries diet.
Support and education to encourage the inclusion of more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and plant-based proteins in meals
School Take Root
To mobilize youth around healthy, local and sustainable food 🥕
- 424
campaigns launched in 196 schools across 13 regions of Quebec
- 119 906 young people who are aware of the issue
During six years, the School Take Root project has helped schools and youth activities in the province of Quebec to promote a healthy, local and eco-responsible diet through a turnkey fundraising campaign based on the sale of organic vegetable baskets. The project aimed to raise awareness among youth about sustainable food, to support local agriculture and to contribute to food security, especially through solidarity baskets.
Advocacy and research
Changing public policies for sustainable food future
Through research and dialogue with decision-makers, Équiterre contributes to food policies in order to strengthen the resilience, equity and sustainability of Quebec's food system, from farm to plate.
Mobilization and partnership
Acting together to feed differently
Équiterre believes in the power of collaboration. By working with partners such as the Collectif Québécois and The Coalition for healthy school food, Farm to Cafétéria Canada, the Table québécoise sur la saine alimentation, school networks, health organisations and local producers, the organization promotes coherence of efforts across the country.
These partnerships have created the possibility to fund hundreds of projects, provide educational tools to thousands of stakeholders and to sustainably anchor Quebec’s food in youth meals. 👍
Discover more:
Concret results
Thanks to these programs and to the commitment of its partners, Équiterre contributes to:
- connecting youth with local producers;
- strengthen local and sustainable food systems;
- providing tools to helps educators to talk about food differently;
- and influence public policies for a fairer and more sustainable food system.
By cultivating the curiosity and the pleasure to eat well, Équiterre helps shape a generation aware of the power of its food choice.
