Sudbury woman working to make locally grown food more accessible

Erica Lagios wants to make it easier for Sudburians to eat locally grown food. She recently started a new job with the Greater Sudbury Food Policy Council in partnership with reThink Green.

As the food strategy outreach coordinator, Lagios is responsible for helping advance the work done on local food issues.

"I think we've lost that connection to where food comes from," Lagios said. "When you understand who is behind growing your food, how it gets there, and who is selling you food, you make a lot of great relationships along the way."

Since 2013 the Greater Sudbury Food Policy Council has been bringing together stakeholders and community leaders to help improve access to healthy, sustainable, culturally appropriate food.

Lagios saidone of the big successes is the all-year market with the outdoor market on Thursdays and Saturdays in the summer and in the Southridge Mall on Saturdays from November to May.

"Another great initiative is Click Fork," said Lagios. "It's an online market and you can pick and choose what you want to order. You can get fresh food, meats, flour, honey, maple syrup . . . it's another great way that we can access local food," she added.

Lagios says there are still a few stumbling blocks to eating local food in Sudbury. One of them is knowing what foods are available at what time of the year.

"We are very accustomed to going to the grocery store and getting broccoli and strawberries in January and that's not what's available when it comes to local food," Lagios said. "Maybe changing our palates a little bit is something that we might need," she added.

Lagios also cites distribution and affordability as challenges.

"If we wanted to increase what could be available in restaurants, there are some barriers to overcome around how we can get the food that a restaurant requires at a specific time weekly or monthly," she said.

As for affordability, Lagios saidshe knows that there are many people in the community who don't have the luxury of going to a grocery store and buying whatever they want.

Lagios saidshe eats as much local food as she can. "I just went to the market on Saturday and I picked up some local carrots and onions. I get local honey andmaple syrup, so this time of year, it is limited."

But the summer is different. "There's so much. You can pretty much get every ingredient you need for any meal you'd want to make, which is really phenomenal," Lagios said.