Summer students at the Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health recently presented a summary of their work through the summer.
Sage Milne is a recent graduate with her Honours Specialization in Global Health, and this summer she was the research assistant and lead on the Great Local Food project.
“This project was developed because Huron County is a rich agricultural hub and there's a connection between access to good food and good health and a strong local economy and we wanted a project that really connected Huron County as a whole," Milne shared.
They found there is still a bit of disconnect, Milne notes, between local producers and the local consumers they're trying to reach.
Milne says some of the ways local consumers access locally produced food include buying from a stand at the end of a farmers drive way for sweet corn, and driving to the farm to get half a cow from a freezer.
“Farmers markets, for example, are one of the ways people access local food, but driving out all the way to a local producer might be inaccessible. So we're trying to really find where and how people are accessing local food and if there's any gaps or opportunities out there," added Milne.
There are organizations that are trying to bridge that gap between local producers and local consumers, and Milne says Huron County's Economic Development Department's Taste of Huron app lists local producers. She adds there are also now some online farmers markets to help local consumers.
