Meal Exchange

Background

Meal Exchange is a national, student-funded, youth-driven, registered charity, organized to engage, educate, and mobilize young people to work in their communities to alleviate hunger. Its vision is a country where everyone has access to safe, nutritious, affordable food.

Sierra Youth Coalition acts as a networking and resource centre for youth between the ages of 15-30 concerned with environmental and social justice issues. Its mission is to empower young people to become active community leaders who contribute to making Canada a more sustainable society.

Both of these youth-led organizations are former McConnell grantees who have demonstrated high capacity for leadership and innovation.

Full Description

This project will enable Meal Exchange and Sierra Youth Coalition to coordinate student efforts on ten university campuses with the aim of changing university food procurement policies to support local, sustainable food systems. Applied student research will be used to increase the collective understanding of local, sustainable food procurement.

A broader objective of this project is to bring together students and organizations addressing food issues in universities.This will take place through increased effectiveness of work through the formation of campus food strategy groups and campus food ‘charters’ that set out guiding principles for sustainable food service.

By sharing the resources that are developed and documenting learnings about how food systems were influenced to become more sustainable, it is expected that other campuses beyond the original ten will be able to replicate the process after the project is completed.