Farmer-Chef Project - Find Local Organic Food
Jun 24, 2008
Farmer-Chef Project Will Connect You to Organic Product -
Tell Them What You Need!
The Atlantic Canadian Organic Regional Network (ACORN), a not-for-profit organization that promotes local organic agriculture in Atlantic Canada, is working to connect local chefs with specific organic products. Recent funding of more than $20,000 was secured to hire a new project coordinator to strengthen linkages between producers and the foodservice industry.
Theresa Richards will oversee the Farmer-Chef Project for the next year. Richards is based out of the Sackville, NB office and has begun work on assessing the demand for organics. ACORN is also working with the Canadian Organic Growers to increase the capacity of the organic industry to meet the consumer demand.
Richards has created an Organic Food Procurement survey, in hopes that all restaurants and chefs who would be interested in local organics will take part. The survey is online and all personal information will be confidential. Results will be compiled and used to help build availability and supply of local organic products. It is designed to be filled out by whoever does the ordering or menu creation.
Click here to tell ACORN what you need:
The Organic Farmer-Chef project will also work to increase capacity of the organic industry to meet the requirements of the foodservice sector. For example, Richards will be creating marketing materials for farmers, including farm profiles and product sell sheets. There will also be workshops on food handling and storage best practices. To find a current source of local organic products, ACORN also offers a free on-line directory of all certified organic producers in the region with their available products. It is available at http://acornorganic.org/acorn/databaseregional.html.
For more information, or if you would like to contact ACORN about this project, feel free to call them at 1-866-32-ACORN (22676) or e-mail Theresa@acornorganic.org
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