City of Kingston Food Framework

Vegetables for sale including cucumbers, beans, and peppers. A crate of carrots in a warehouse. A family cooking together.

The City of Kingston is working alongside community partners on the development of a food framework.

The goal of this framework is to understand the programs and actions that impact the local and regional food ecosystem, identify opportunities to empower and collaborate with partners, create a structure for monitoring food systems, provide recommendations to strengthen them and track progress toward resulting goals.

The framework is touching on many different areas of the food ecosystem ranging from supporting food insecurity measures, supporting tourism and economic development opportunities, and environmental impacts such as food waste reduction.

Background

An inter-departmental team is working on the development of the framework, aligning with Council’s strategic priorities and building off work done by the PhD-Community Initiative research in 2024. The framework includes five pillars (Food Access, Food Infrastructure & Distribution, Food System Governance, Food Education & Literacy and Food Production) each with an environmental scan of current activities, initial recommendations and key performance indicators.

As part of the community food inventory, staff have already developed two important resources for the community:

  • Staff developed on the Open Data platform a list of local low to no cost food resources, including but not limited to Community Food Programs, location of Community Gardens, Cultural Food Stores, Farm stands and low cost grocery stores (Community Food Resources | Open Data Kingston).

  • On the City website staff have updated the Food Supports website and included direct links to food charities that members of the community can be directed to should they be interested in providing donations (Food Supports | City of Kingston).

Recognizing the role of the municipality in the context of a food framework, the plan will emphasize the importance of strategic partnerships, with the goal of determining how municipal resources are allocated, if internal policies should be adapted, facilitating collaboration and advocating for needed change.

Next steps

Staff are currently engaging groups such as the Rural Working Group, the Food Policy Council, EDI committee, MAAC committee, Economic Development partners and Public Health to incorporate their feedback. Staff will be bringing the framework to Council for consideration and endorsement in Spring 2025.

Implementation and further refinement with community partners is scheduled to start after.


Vegetables for sale including cucumbers, beans, and peppers. A crate of carrots in a warehouse. A family cooking together.

The City of Kingston is working alongside community partners on the development of a food framework.

The goal of this framework is to understand the programs and actions that impact the local and regional food ecosystem, identify opportunities to empower and collaborate with partners, create a structure for monitoring food systems, provide recommendations to strengthen them and track progress toward resulting goals.

The framework is touching on many different areas of the food ecosystem ranging from supporting food insecurity measures, supporting tourism and economic development opportunities, and environmental impacts such as food waste reduction.

Background

An inter-departmental team is working on the development of the framework, aligning with Council’s strategic priorities and building off work done by the PhD-Community Initiative research in 2024. The framework includes five pillars (Food Access, Food Infrastructure & Distribution, Food System Governance, Food Education & Literacy and Food Production) each with an environmental scan of current activities, initial recommendations and key performance indicators.

As part of the community food inventory, staff have already developed two important resources for the community:

  • Staff developed on the Open Data platform a list of local low to no cost food resources, including but not limited to Community Food Programs, location of Community Gardens, Cultural Food Stores, Farm stands and low cost grocery stores (Community Food Resources | Open Data Kingston).

  • On the City website staff have updated the Food Supports website and included direct links to food charities that members of the community can be directed to should they be interested in providing donations (Food Supports | City of Kingston).

Recognizing the role of the municipality in the context of a food framework, the plan will emphasize the importance of strategic partnerships, with the goal of determining how municipal resources are allocated, if internal policies should be adapted, facilitating collaboration and advocating for needed change.

Next steps

Staff are currently engaging groups such as the Rural Working Group, the Food Policy Council, EDI committee, MAAC committee, Economic Development partners and Public Health to incorporate their feedback. Staff will be bringing the framework to Council for consideration and endorsement in Spring 2025.

Implementation and further refinement with community partners is scheduled to start after.


Page last updated: 10 Apr 2025, 11:49 AM