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Who We Are
- Members
- Community Partners
- Staff Profiles
- Funding
Just Food is a grassroots, non-profit organization that includes
staff, volunteers, community partners, members and funders.
All projects are community-based. We seek direction from our community partners. We solicit feedback from all members through our monthly e-newsletter. All members are also invited to meet formally once a year and provide feedback into the work of Just Food. Overall direction comes from the Steering Committee and staff.
We are sponsored by the Social Planning Council of Ottawa. The SPC has been essential to the success of Just Food in subsidizing overall infrastructure, and providing research and project support.
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Just Food membership is free and open to everyone interested
in working towards a just and sustainable food system in Ottawa.
We are building a strong community of members from all parts
of the food system, including farmers, restaurateurs, food
processors, chefs, food retailers, nutritionists, community
centres, community service organizations, emergency food providers,
home and community gardeners, schools, university research
institutions, students and of course eaters!
Please see the "Get Involved"
section to access the membership form and sign up for the
Just Food newsletter.
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| Staff |
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Moe Garahan has been working on food security issues in Ottawa since 1995. She was part of the founding teams in Ottawa for the Good Food Box, the Community Garden Network and the Ottawa Food Security Council (OFSC). Moe has been Director of Just Food (previously OFSC) since 2004. Moe is passionate about connecting people to their food sources. She believes we can create a sustainable system in Ottawa, with fair wages for farmers, high quality foods in our homes, schools and businesses and sufficient food for those struggling to meet their basic needs in a way that keeps our environment healthy and our taste buds hopping! |
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Heather Hossie works on Community Economic Development (CED) initiatives at Just Food. She has been coordinating the Savour Ottawa initiative since its inception and also presents the Reel Food Film Festival each year. Heather has worked at various non-profits for over a decade, though was introduced (and got hooked on) sustainable local agriculture while overseas. Ever since, she has kept an eye to agriculture, food systems and local economic development. Heather loves to eat, so working with local farmers, chefs, retailers and eaters is a natural fit! |
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Terri O’Neill has been with Just Food since October 2007. As the Community Gardening Network coordinator, she works with both the City government, and the more than 20 volunteer garden coordinators within the Network to enhance community gardening and coordinates the Community Garden Development Fund, assisting communities to establish new gardens across the City. She is also responsible for organizing the gardening and food preservation annual workshop series. It was as a graduate of Ryerson’s Food and Nutrition Program that she discovered her passion for food security. Since her time with Just Food, she has worked on a number of different projects including Ottawa Buy Local Food Guide, Farmer Training workshops and public events. Terri loves to cook with, and to eat fresh, tasty food and believes that there is no fresher or tastier food than the food that you grow yourself. |
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Erin Krekoski joined Just Food in January 2010 as the “Food for All” Ottawa food policy project coordinator. She grew up in the middle of a big family on a farm in northeast Alberta, where she learned early on to love good food. Erin has worked on a number of community-based research, social justice, and food security projects, and believes that when communities come together to work for change, incredible things can happen. |
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Julia Laforge is happy to have joined the Just Food team as outreach coordinator in November 2010. Julia has a Bachelor of Science in Land Use and Environmental Studies from the University of Saskatchewan and a Masters of Arts in Geography from the University of Ottawa. For her thesis she visited farmers who'd lived through the 1930s in Saskatchewan and asked them about the importance of social networks to helping them migrate out of the more drought-prone areas of the province. She is an organizer whose roles include sitting on the board of directors of OPIRG-GRIPO at the University of Ottawa and We Are Many, an environmental music festival that took place in Saskatoon in 2008. Her love for nature started at a small lake in central Saskatchewan where her parents had a small cabin and a very large garden which also led to her interest in sustainable agriculture and food production. |
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Erin O'Manique
After a 25 year career in international development, specializing in
biodiversity and sustainable agriculture policy, Erin made the switch
to local food issues. A passionate urban gardener who believes in
cooking real food for her family, Erin got involved in the Food for
All project and led the policy writing team on community food
programs. She is the Project Manager for the Local Food and Urban
Agriculture Hub project, and is working with her Just Food colleagues to develop a beautiful dynamic Local Food Hub. Erin is also a soprano and has sung with the Ottawa Choral Society for as long as she can remember. |
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