Building a
community-centred
food system at
Concordia University.
We tackle the economic, social, and ecological implications of the way food is accessed in our community.
We incubate a better food system.
FARMERS’ MARKET
Farmers markets play an important role in building resilient local food systems and vibrant communities. The Concordia Farmers Market was founded as a student project in 2014 and has been overseen by the Concordia Food Coalition since 2017. We work with community partners to bring fresh, local foods and artisanal products to campus, all while empowering students to be the leaders of food system amelioration. This year the Market will run on Tuesdays at Loyola June through August and Wednesdays at SGW September through October.
Are you interested in selling your products at the Concordia Farmers Market? We are currently looking for vendors!
→ Learn all the details and how to become a vendor
→ Learn more about our Market & CSA Partners and how to sign up for a basket
→ Stay tuned for special market events in our Calendar
FOOD GROUP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
Formerly known as Working Groups, the new Food Group Development Program is designed to support campus-community food initiatives to form a resilient food system at Concordia and beyond. The CFC helps Concordia-based food groups to incubate new projects (Seed), expand existing organizations (Grow) and strategically troubleshoot challenges (Revitalize).
Formerly known as Working Groups, the new Food Group Development Program is designed to support campus-community food initiatives to form a resilient food system at Concordia and beyond. The CFC helps Concordia-based food groups to incubate new projects (Seed), expand existing organizations (Grow) and strategically troubleshoot challenges (Revitalize).
Application periods open for a few weeks every fall and winter semester.
This year we are supporting:
Application period will open again during the fall semester.
For more info or just to discuss your project, reach out to us!
For any questions, please email foodgroups@concordiafoodcoalition.com
THE NEW FOOD ENTERPRISE (NFE)
The NFE will be an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable social enterprise capable of becoming Concordia’s campus food service provider. We are building a coalition of community stakeholders and local food producers to supply affordable and sustainable food options at scale to the university.
With support from the Concordia Student Union, the Hive Cafe Co-op, SEIZE and collaboration from the university’s senior administration—there is already broad understanding that the NFE is the transformative model that Concordia needs. Our job is to bring it to fruition.
We connect and convene.
PARTNERSHIPS & CONFERENCES
We bring together key stakeholders from the student community, faculty, administration, and the general public to stimulate vital discussions and collaborations on core issues in Concordia’s food system and campuses across Canada.
This year we are working with:
The Communal Lunch Project – “empowering students through food skills and knowledge to build a better campus food culture.”
The ultimate goal of this two year research partnership with CLP is to establish a framework for building food coalitions on campuses nationwide and cultivate a federative body for these coalitions to communicate and collaborate with each other, essentially bridging the gap left by the end of Meal Exchange.
The Canadian Association for Food Studies – “working to support critical, interdisciplinary scholarship and practice across the many issues that food systems comprise.”
We are hosting the 2024 Student Symposium: Sustaining Shared Food Futures at Concordia on June 17 & 18th.
FOOD GROUP ASSEMBLIES
We facilitate semesterly conversations between established food groups and new food initiatives at Concordia so they can share knowledge and leverage collective power to achieve their missions.
THE FOOD ADVISORY WORKING GROUP (FAWG)
The Concordia Food Coalition has a seat at the FAWG, where we can advocate directly to Concordia’s administration and negotiate terms for a more sustainable food system. Right now, our primary goals are reforming the food services RFP process and making sure cooperative organizations like the New Food Enterprise are given proper consideration.
We learn and we teach.
TRAINING AND CAPACITY BUILDING
We run training and provide capacity-building support to fee-levy food groups on campus. From Board governance and strategic planning, to financial literacy to MAPAQ food handling, we share expert and technical skills that can help them become more effective and sustainable organizations.
POP ED
Food systems are complicated and grassroots change can feel overwhelming. We cultivate space to tell stories in service of transformational food change at Concordia and we produce primers for students to easily understand the issues.
Join us for walking tours on the History of the Concordia food movement or play our Food Revolution Game to get the inside track on decades of student organizing and win prizes!
Come to our monthly social events like Dinner & Docs for a delicious vegan meal, a short documentary and causal conversation with different campus food actors about our perspectives on the food system.
Check out and download some cool guides, zines and videos here!
101 pamphlets on Industrial Meat, GMOs Pesticides, Hormones and Antibiotics.
Have an idea for a zine, workshop or other awareness-raising project? We are always looking for new ways we can work with students to educate others! Get in touch with us at communications@concordiafoodcoalition.com to bring your idea to life.
RESEARCH
Since our inception we’ve done a ton of research focused on topics of alternative food system models, campus food sustainability, food sovereignty, and we’ve also done some extensive needs assessments, surveys and interviews of Concordia food groups to profile their work (as with the Concordia Food Groups website) and gather data on the hard and soft resources required to make them thrive. This work has been vital to informing our value to the food community but also to informing our negotiations at FAWG.
[link href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/15txvGKpWSfp9HTPdC20udK2ZNn4D06q6/view?usp=sharing"]
RFP and Emancipating Concordia’s Food System (2018)
Imagine Together: Sustainable Food Services Building a Food Sovereign Campus