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We present preliminary findings in our multi-year research project investigating Toronto's produce supply chains. Our first working paper, titled The Ontario Food Terminal: Supporting Food Access, outlines the critical role that the Terminal plays in feeding the city. The findings are salient to our current political context and the on-going housing crisis. In the push to build much-needed housing, our research underlines the importance of considering how people access fresh fruits and vegetables. 

While many people haven’t heard of the Ontario Food Terminal, it helps define the Toronto foodscape. The Terminal’s steady supply of fresh fruits and vegetables from Ontario farms, as well as imported goods, supplies the diversity of food stores that define the city—from the corner green grocer, whose wares spill onto the sidewalk, to the community grocery store serving different food cultures, to the mobile food peddlers who bring low-cost food to various neighbourhoods. The Ontario Food Terminal also connects Ontario farms to people in the city. Our analysis underlines the importance of considering food sources, infrastructure and food systems as the city continues to grow. 

To download the report, please click on the photo.

 

Nourish to Flourish

In 2022, Master of Public Health student Christine Del Rosso from the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, worked with our lab on an exciting project. Christine is a dietician and supported our research program with her work on diet and the human microbiome. After conducting a substantive literature review of the biomedical and nutrition research into diet and the human microbiome, she prepared a guide for dietitians working with clients who live and eat as part of the South Asian diaspora. The scientific literature in this area strongly focuses on the Mediterranean Diet, leading to widespread dietary recommendations favouring this way of eating. However, other foodways have foods that share a similar nutritional profile--lots of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and other sources of fibre. So Christine put together a visual guide for dieticians and a second for their clients who practice South Asian foodways that adapts the Mediterranean Diet to South Asian cuisines. A big thank you to the community members who provided their feedback on the guides.

We hope her guide will be of help to dieticians in Canada and around the world. Please feel free to download these PDFs!

Click the image to download the PDF for Registered Dieticians

 (PDF file) 

Click the image to download the PDF for clients

 (PDF file)