Committees

The Four Committees of the TYFPC provide a way for both Council and Community Members to become more active with North America’s first Youth Food Policy Council.  The Committees seek to respond to opportunities and fill the gaps that exist within Toronto’s Foodie Community.  Anyone is welcome to join a Committee and be an active contributor to the TYFPC.

Education Committee

This year the education committee has full plate! We have a three-pronged approach to both execute programming and lay down foundations for futures years, with a priority to create meaningful volunteer opportunities.

The Education Committee plans to unfold a successful workshop program on Food Policy. In the last year, a workshop lesson plan has been developed that outlines the contours of local, national, and international Food Policy in terms digestible for a young audience, particularly high-school or ‘early years’ post-secondary students. Our goal, with the help of dedicated volunteer facilitators, execute the workshop five times to diverse audiences. You can become part of the process now by volunteering to help test this food policy workshop among TYFPC community members, or become a workshop facilitator!

The Education Committee plans to develop a workshop to execute next year! Have and idea? Work with us to help develop a workshop on a food issue you feel passionate about. This could policy oriented, or a hands-on training activity!

The Education Committee plans to get to work on the 2nd Bi-annual peer-reviewed TYFPC Journal Gathering. To uphold the precedent set by our inaugural journal of quality research and writing of today’s youngest food interested writers, we will start the process of publishing the second issue.

There is plenty to get involved with in the Education Committee this year, don’t hesitate to volunteer!

Advocacy Committee

  • Collaboratively researches and produces 1 small, accessible to youth, food policy paper quarterly on a topic of choice. Ideas for paper topics come from Community Meetings, past consultations or Council Member interest.
  • Publishes policy paper on the TYFPC blog. All contributors are encouraged to make reference to this work on their CV or resume.
  • Ensures the inclusion of a Youth voice in the development and implementation of the Toronto Food Strategy.
  • Delivers public deputations on sustainable food system topics deemed important by TYFPC.

Toronto Youth Food Policy Council’s 2010 Video Deputation supporting the Markham Food Belt

Network Committee

The role of the Networking Committee is to act as the link between the youth community, and the broader Toronto food community, and to conduct TYFPC outreach.

This year the network committee has 5 main goals that all speak to expanding the TYFPC network:

  1. To reach out to a variety of youth groups across the city with the aim of creating a diverse and dynamic TYFPC community. We have identified a need to increase the presence of the TYFPC with other youth groups in an effort to make us more accessible to the broader community.
  2. To engage with a younger youth audience (high school age) and get them involved with the TYFPC community and hopefully spark their interest in food policy issues
  3. To create an organizational database of groups, organizations, and contact information that will help us with outreach for events and to engage with like-minded groups across the city
  4. To work with the education committee to engage youth in attending or facilitating TYFPC workshops
  5. To co-host and/or participate in events with food advocacy groups across the city, including a possible event with our friends at Food Forward.

The networking committee needs volunteers to help out in the following areas:

  • We need 1 or 2 volunteers who have connections to high school age groups who they think might be willing to engage with the TYFPC and would be willing to help us make contact with these groups
  • We need 1 or 2 volunteers who are connected to universities (like UofT) who can help us to navigate the system of clubs and groups on campus to find like-minded groups to make contact with
  • We need 1 or 2 volunteers who would be willing to help to create a database of organizations and groups across Toronto for us to engage with

If you have any other ideas that you think we haven’t touched on or if you know of any groups that we should be making contact with to gain more support please let us know!

Executive Committee

  • The only internal Committee made up of the Chair, Vice Chair, Head of Operations, IT-Social Media and Internal Communications
  • Organizes council social events and a council weekend retreat
  • Researches and writes grant proposals, reports to funders on council activities and manages council funds.
  • Oversees annual summer review process and strategic planning
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