Mission, Vision, and History of the County Food Hub

“The Kitchen That Saved A School”

By partnering with the County Food Hub and sharing it’s space, Sophiasburgh Elementary School has tackled the challenge of declining enrollment and transformed into a crucial hub for community support. This collaboration offers new opportunities for local residents and delivers essential resources, all while ensuring the school’s continued operation.

About County Food Hub

Officially we are Prince Edward County Food Hub Inc, a federally incorporated not-for-profit commercial kitchen in Prince Edward County, but you can call us County Food Hub.

“My favourite part about County Food Hub is that it supports agri-food businesses to build their brands and increase production with top-level professional equipment, which filters products back into the community. When local businesses do well, they invest in their hometown, they choose to stay living here and the community keeps thriving. I love that.”

— Melissa Tran, Spark Magazine

WHO WE ARE

County Food Hub services small-scale food operations, caterers, food truck proprietors, restaurants, not-for-profit food security organizations, and, through a developing program of food education and training, the students, parents and community of Prince Edward County and the Bay of Quinte.

IT ALL STARTED WHEN…

The idea for County Food Hub was born from a community need to save a vibrant rural school. With the school scheduled for closure the local residents gathered together to brainstorm a way to keep the doors open and, at the same time, meet a need that would benefit the surrounding community. This is how “the kitchen that saved a school” began.

The County Food Hub capitalizes on our region’s innovation in the food, agriculture, service and entertainment industries. It meets an identified need for a shared commercial kitchen space and food business incubation sites. County Food Hub embraces local food possibilities and works to provide a dynamic and potentially replicable solution for under-utilized space in an operating elementary school that can offset costs and keep students in school close to their homes.

EVERYONE IS WELCOME

All are welcome to use the kitchen. The general public, businesses and not-for-profit organizations will rent our health-certified shared commercial kitchen space for the safe preparation of food and drink items. This supports growing businesses and growing food needs in our community. There are three long-term tenant spaces for lease to regional food producers. Offering this affordable space assists small business in scaling up operations to grow their businesses.

OUR VISION
Provide Ontario with a model approach to strengthening rural education that makes use of surplus school space to provide educational opportunities for students and social and economic opportunities for local communities.

OUR MISSION

  • Provide food production and development opportunities so that local entrepreneurs can more efficiently take their ideas to market, improving local economic development.

  • Provide support for healthy food distribution and food training so that more and more under-served low income families have increased access to healthy food at reasonable cost.

  • Provide space and resources for food service training to support the fast-growing culinary industry in the region.

  • Develop innovative enhanced learning opportunities to encourage a life-time commitment to healthy eating, food sustainability and a keen appreciation of the opportunities present in the local food industry.

OUR FOUNDERS

  • Charles E. Pascal was a founding board member and instrument in getting County Food Hub started.

    Charles was an internationally recognized educator and author with expertise in early and higher education, public policy, leadership and strategic philanthropy. His 2009 seminal report to the Premier of Ontario-- With Our Best Future in Mind has informed policy and practice in early child education in Canada and beyond. Charles was the Chair of the colleges’ Council of Regents. He had deputy ministerial posts in social services and education and was also the Deputy Minister of the Premier’s Council on Health, Wellbeing and Social Justice. He became the first Executive Director of the Atkinson Charitable Foundation. During his 15 year tenure, the Foundation was key to establishing early learning policy, the Ontario Child Tax benefit and the Canadian Index of Wellbeing.

    Charles was Professor of Applied Psychology & Human Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. Charles had a PhD. in Psychology (University of Michigan) and had received recognition from many organizations to date, including three honorary college diplomas and three honorary university doctorates. He was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in December of 2014. He has a lifelong love of baseball as a player, writer and coach.

MIKE FARRELL

  • Like many newer residents in the region, Mike moved with his family from Toronto in 2015 to what he now affectionately calls "The Island Nation State of Prince Edward County". He quickly got involved with the local community and hasn't looked back since.

    When news broke that Sophiasburgh Central School was scheduled to close, Mike worked with a wide array of local parents, community groups and leaders, including fellow CFH co-founder Todd Foster, to find a way to either "stave off the execution" or, better yet, find an innovative solution that would allow the school to stay open permanently.

    Long story short, against all odds,  and with huge community support,  the concept of a shared commercial kitchen and community food hub in the school won the day. Mike remains ever-grateful to the County community. He is especially grateful for the support, and patience, of his partner, Cat Richens, and his two daughters  (both Sophiasburgh Central students) Mabel Ray and Sawyer.

    In his other lives, Mike is co-chair of the Sophiasburgh Recreation Committee, a working musician, a volunteer DJ at 99.3 County FM, and has enjoyed 25+ years as an award-winning market researcher, strategist and business leader.

CHARLES PASCAL

  • Todd is a lifetime resident of Sophiasburgh and still lives on property that has been in his family since 1835.  Todd attended Sophiasburgh Central School (the school he helped save!).

    Todd Foster is a Civil Engineering Technologist and spent a 20 plus year career with a local design-build construction firm where he held all titles from Project Manager to President.  Todd has co-coordinated and built a wide variety of design-build projects from large warehouses to automotive dealerships; office buildings to multi-story condominiums and more. 

    In 2011, Todd decided that a career change was in order and retired from the construction industry to take over the operations of his family’s campground.  Todd, along with his wife Krista, now own and operate County Shores Camping in Prince Edward County.  Todd and his wife have 3 children.

    Todd has a passion for seeing rural education remain and be reformed to reflect the “old but new” lifestyle of Prince Edward County and Rural Ontario. 

TODD FOSTER