The Canadian best seller, The Ontario Table, the best food from across the province and its $10 Challenge has caught the attention of Queen’s Park! How cool is that – it’s like David (me the sole culinary activist!) is now being offered a helping hand by Goliath (the highest levels of provincial government!).

Earlier last week, Premier Dalton McGuinty announced proposed legislation that aims to boost sales of Ontario grow food. The intent of the Local Food Act was to celebrate and support local Ontario foods, produce, recipes, and food products. McGuinty quoted The Ontario Table’s $10 Challenge as part of the push to see local growers getting their products in front of more consumers. “If families dedicated just $10 more of their weekly food budgets to buying Ontario products, it would generate $2.4 billion in economic activity and create 10,000 new jobs,” the Premier quoted.

We’re really loving the support of our work to promote local food. We’ve been at this for over 20 years now so this is such a great feeling to get this far, but as you can see from the two government websites, there is no mention of The Ontario Table. Obviously an oversight. Check it out.

Foodland Ontario

Premier of Ontario

So now what? Well, we’ve been in communication with Foodland Ontario and are working on fixing this immediately but they seem to think there are some issues to overcome. In the meantime, Premier McGuinty has resigned. In the media’s mind this now means the Local Food Act is dead and so is the $10 Challenge. In fact, I had a radio interview cancelled today because of the Premier’s resignation, stating the Local Food Act and the $10 Challenge are now not news!

Hey, wait a minute! The Ontario Table $10 Challenge was never part of the Local Food Act, it was and always will be the property of The Ontario Table!

I know I’m just a culinary activist trying her hardest to promote local food. But my $10 Challenge taken up by Goliath is not dead or gone – it’s not yesterday’s news! If you support buying local food, I’d love you to help me keep The Ontario Table $10 Challenge alive. 1) Buy local and post it on my Facebook page; 2) Like and link to The Ontario Table facebook page; 3) follow me on Twitter and talk about it #$10Challenge, #ontariotable; 4) post it on your website or link to ours.