VISION
Healthy Food, Healthy Planet.
We envision a future where food is valued as a social good. Human health, ecological health, and community well-being are the ultimate ends.Local food systems are rooted in regenerative practices that help cool global temperatures and restore healthy water cycles.Food is delicious and nutritious because it comes from healthy soil. In every community, a flourishing network of producers is meeting demand for food that nourishes people’s bodies, communities, and the Earth.This isn’t simply a nice vision. It’s a necessary one, if we want to heal our communities, our bodies, and the world we call home.
What We Do
We build a groundswell of demand for impactful choices that nurture people and planet.
Local food webs allow people to experience food as a social good, nourishing communities, economies, and nature. As these choices multiply, their impact scales. That’s why CCFE is laser-focused on strategically engaging audiences who have the potential to propagate across the system.We use a proven audience segmentation model, developed by OneEarth Living, to understand, target and motivate influential groups to act in ways that bring others along. Rooted in behavioural science, our programs lead with taste - and place joy and experience at the centre - to connect people directly to their local food ecosystem, helping build a bigger, louder, more visible and engaged market for food that benefits people and planet.
Flavour Harvest
Flavour Harvest is a program designed to celebrate peak-of-season ingredients while encouraging the purchase of local food grown in living soil, free from toxic chemicals.Now in its second iteration, focusing on neighbourhood farmers’ markets, Flavour Harvest continues to connect eaters with the farmers behind their food—using taste and storytelling to spark curiosity, shift habits, and support a healthier food system.
NEW! Workplace Programs Pilot
Building on our experience designing joyful, taste-forward programs, CCFE is launching a new pilot series to deliver delicious, healthy food experiences directly to the workplace! These programs will be designed to strengthen team connections and support mental health and well-being at work.Programs may include:
• ‘Eating for Mental Health’ workshops
• Team Salad Club
• Semi-prepared meals and produce boxes from local farmers (that may be covered by health spending accounts)
• “Cooking Made Easy” classes with sign ups across levels and functions
• Onsite farmers markets or relaxation gardens providing herbs & greens to take home
Get in on this unique opportunity!
Enrollment for the pilot is now open for a limited number of participants. We’re looking for employers eager to engage and motivate their teams in a new, creative way. CCFE will customize a program to meet your organization’s health and wellness goals.Benefits include:
• Fully customized program designed around your team and their needs
• Alignment with organizational goals related to people, culture, and sustainability
• Special, discounted rate for taking part in the pilot
To learn more and get involved, reach out to Lindsey Boyle [email protected].
Why We Do It
Our food system is failing us and the consequences are devastating and increasingly urgent.When food is treated as a commodity, and profit is incentivized above all
else, the result is a destructive cycle that perpetuates waste, nutritional loss, ecological harm, and the social unraveling of our communities. That’s where we are today, and the impacts are mounting.But food also holds the power to repair what’s been broken. We know that food brings people together across cultures, religions, and regions. And we believe meaningful change begins with individuals.The CCFE is just starting this vital journey. Our aim is to elevate and amplify voices that guide the shift towards locally-connected food networks. Now is the time to recalibrate and reintegrate nature's abundance into our lives.
TEAM
Founder & Chair
After a 30-year corporate career, including CEO roles, strategic consulting, M&A work, and a two-year term as Chair of the Canadian Marketing Association, Alan turned his focus to mentoring leaders of social enterprises with great vision and potential in 2012; providing pro bono strategic guidance and leadership coaching. Alan is a passionate advocate for the profound shifts needed for our food systems to promote human health and restore our planet - and how individuals can drive that change. Alan founded the CCFE with the firm belief that meaningful action is not inspired by fear or guilt; but from positive experiences coupled with education and support.
Executive Director
As the inaugural Executive Director of CCFE, Sarah brings nearly 25 years of experience in balancing human and natural systems. Growing up with oil pumps in the foreground and melting glaciers on the horizon, she understood this tension from an early age. After earning a law degree, Sarah's journey led her through grassroots awareness campaigns, a global conservation organization, and executive roles at Evergreen, the national urban environmental charity behind the celebrated social enterprise, Evergreen Brick Works. The CCFE's belief in joyful engagement drew her in, as did its dedication to promoting the work of others working from soil to stomach.
Managing Director,
Demand Side Strategy
Lindsey is a market research expert with a passion for local food, well-being, circular economies, and regenerative agriculture. As a Vice President and Partner at The Sound, she spent years advising top tech, food, and lifestyle brands. Confronted by the climate crisis, Lindsey co-founded Sandown Centre for Regenerative Agriculture, an incubator farm on Vancouver Island that educates the community about soil health's many benefits—better food, improved human health, and enhanced climate resiliency.
Manager, Operations & Evaluations
Zahra is a systems optimization specialist working at the intersection of food security and climate action. Her work is rooted in post-humanist thinking and is guided by the belief that we must move beyond anthropocentric ideologies — transitioning from extraction to regeneration, from ownership to kinship, and from egosystems to ecosystems. She loves exploring how cultural narratives, food systems, and our connection with the natural world can awaken deeper ways of being, and believes that food and the ceremony of eating are powerful catalysts for restoring right relationship — with ourselves, with each other, and with Earth.
Communications Specialist
You will find Kate in a food market or in her kitchen as often as you will her at her keyboard. Early in her career, she has already gained significant experience in journalism and digital marketing. She was a key part of the launch team for "The Breach," an award-winning digital media platform. With a penchant for projects promoting environmental sustainability, wellness, and collective action, Kate is passionate about storytelling that meets people where they’re at, especially if it involves something we all can relate to: food!
Network Weaver
Susanna Redekop believes in the power of food to connect people and place. With nearly 15 years of food justice work all throughout the food system, Susanna’s involvement with food democracy and people-centered economies started with co-managing the West End Food Co-op in her own neighbourhood to provincial and national work with the Local Food and Farm Co-ops, Fair Finance Fund, and the Canadian CED Network. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology from University of Toronto and a Masters of Environmental Studies from York University. Susanna is passionate about food as a human right, and believes everyone has the right to healthy food and a healthy planet.
ADVISORS
CHANGE
Cultivate Change With Us
We believe those already embracing change can inspire others who are ready to follow, and together, we can shift the demand that shapes our food system. That’s why we work alongside food leaders like The Sweet Potato and Pfenning’s Organic, to make healthy, sustainable choices more accessible and appealing.
“For us it starts with the soil, but for consumers it starts with taste. The value of our partnership with the CCFE has been in the opportunity to collaborate to create meaningful taste experiences for a new, younger audience.”
— Jessica Wynne, Sustainability Specialist, Pfenning’s Organic
If this vision resonates, let's talk.
Transforming our food system takes collaboration, creativity, and committed partners. Whether through strategic funding, skilled volunteering, or joining our Board, your support helps us connect people to food that’s good for both people and the planet. Together, we can accelerate projects that make sustainable choices easy ones.
Let’s explore how to work together.
Interested in partnering with us? Download our Partnership Principles to see how we plant the seeds of change.
COLLABORATORS
AFFILIATIONS
Contact Us
Got questions or ideas?Send us a note at [email protected]Give us a call at (647) 254-3933Mailing address:
192 Spadina Ave, Suite 407
Toronto, ON M5T 3A4
Canada
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