On December 1, 2022, Youth in Food Systems (YFS) became the official youth program of Seeds of Diversity. Before that, it unofficially launched under WRSFG in April 2021, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic. When school grounds were inaccessible, and therefore school garden work put on hold, staff wondered what it would take to create a youth-focused - or better yet, youth-driven - program online.
And so it began.
Throughout 2020 and 2021, while a lot of in-person programming was suspended, staff focused on finding ways to support youth in connecting with food systems and learning about sustainability in a virtual format. This led to the development of the Youth Portal, and to the creation of online youth volunteer projects.
Thanks to the hundreds of youth participants from across Ontario that have taken part, and a number of valuable partners and supporters, YFS is able to run peer-led food media creation, interview food industry leaders in the Food Leaders Interview Series, and carry out local Waterloo-Region based Youth Food Markets and Youth Seed Stewardship work.
The official rebrand to Youth in Food Systems was in order to have a name more reflective of all that the program does. Read more about this decision here.