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A national partnership of academics, practitioners, physicians, NGOs, universities, and hospitals — investigating how Canadian institutions can align with Canada’s Food Guide.
Funded by a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (2024–2026), the Food Impact Network (FIN) was established to create a national partnership of academics, practitioners, physicians, NGO’s, institutions such as Universities and Hospitals, to investigate the opportunities and the challenges of aligning Canadian institutions, such as Universities and Hospitals and food systems with Canada’s Food Guide.
In the FIN 1.0 we have focused on four work bundles (WB1-4) that capitalized on the excellent work of specialists from cross-sector and interdisciplinary teams. In the last 3 years, these four work bundles have achieved massive momentum and created a strong extensively researched foundation for expanding this work to all institutions across Canada in FIN 2.0.
The FIN team and partner sites have solidified the tools and strategies to guide institution dining services towards implementing planetary health menus and the Canadian food guide, providing consumers better tasting, healthier, and environmentally sustainable food options while preserving their autonomy.
Food Environments & Culinary Training
WB 1 has analyzed partner site food environments, trained culinary staff in plant-forward dishes, altered menu items to increase popularity and consumer uptake.
Patient Satisfaction & Food Waste
WB 2 has assessed patients’ satisfaction with pre- and post- plant-forward meal swaps at partner sites, conducted a visual plate waste audit to calculate food waste pre and post plant-forward meal swaps.
Nutritional, Economic & Policy Impact
WB 3 has gathered and analyzed pre- and post- plant-forward menu swap data from partner sites to understand the nutritional and economic impact of the menu transition at the partner sites, explored a potential modeling approach for a Canada-wide policy model to understand the economic impact of diet transition, and prepared policy briefs for the social, health and environmental impacts of plant based diets.
Misinformation & Barrier Research
WB 4 has conducted research on industry spread misinformation and commonly narratives strategically used to deny or diminish the benefits of plant-forward food systems, the barriers to their adoption and their effrects, as well as strategies to overcome these barriers.
Together, we are building the evidence, relationships, and momentum needed to align Canada’s food systems with planetary and human health goals – making sustainable food the accessible and attractive default.
Funded by the SSHRC Partnership Development Grant (2024–2026), the Food Impact Network (FIN) is a collaborative research and action initiative uniting experts, academics, and partners across Canada. The network is organized into four thematic “work bundles,” each addressing a key area in the transition to Planetary Health Menus and Canada’s Food Guide within public institutions.
Working with hospitals, universities, NGOs, and policy influencers, FIN provides applied research, food coaching, and communication strategies to scale sustainable, health-aligned food practices. With 17 co-applicants and collaborators, 15 partner organizations, and support for interns and research assistants, this project is helping institutions design better food environments, shift procurement strategies, reduce waste, and transform public narratives around food.
Work Bundle 1 partners with institutions and experts like Forward Food and Greener by Default to design food environments that make healthy, sustainable choices the easy default. Pilot studies have tested procurement and placement strategies that improve the appeal, accessibility, and affordability of foods aligned with Canada’s Food Guide. These shifts support new dietary habits while preserving choice and promoting better health and sustainability.
This WB2 works to gather data on consumer food preferences through consumption patterns, including attention to foods chosen and levels of food waste and their impacts (Eustachio Colombo et al., 2021). We engage consumers to identify ways to make more shifts in food culture and to reduce waste.
WB3 works to build on the relevant literature and findings from the pilot studies to model the impacts on public health, environment, economic, and equity when institutions adopt CFG. Recommendations are focused on advancing Canada’s goals and aspirations to improve public health, environment, economic, and social justice.
This work bundle works to examine public narratives, traditional media, social marketing and food messages to reveal factors mediating institutional food practices and consumer food habits (Grier & Bryant, 2005; George et al., 2016). Also, we consider messages to target audiences that increase the allure and convenience of foods that offer health and environmental benefits while being sensitive to difficulties individuals may face in making food choices (Pineda et al. 2022). With our partners, we mobilize and implement the knowledge through an array of creative pathways.