**FARM TO FORK COMMITTEE MEDIA RELEASE**

The Feed it Forward Campaign has officially launched at the Urban Park Market with a significant kick-start from Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines in the amount of $5000.

The goal of the Campaign is to raise funds in the form of Farm to Fork market vouchers to provide to individuals and families accessing the South Porcupine and Timmins Food Banks. The Farm to Fork vouchers are equivalent to a monetary value of three dollars and are redeemable with participating food and produce vendors at the Mountjoy Independent Farmers’ Market and the Urban Park Market during the 2018 season.

Jennifer Vachon, Chair of the Farm to Fork committee, stated “Putting Farm to Fork market vouchers in the hands of individuals accessing food banks provides opportunity and choice — a choice for what locally grown and raised food they want to purchase, from which market, and from which farmer(s), while having an opportunity to increase the amount of fresh, healthy food in their diets and regularly attend farmers’ markets.

The campaign encourages market-goers to donate money in the form of farm to fork dollars by purchasing a $15 bundle of vouchers — $12 of which they keep to enjoy themselves at the market, while the remaining $3 are donated to the Timmins and South Porcupine Food Banks. Individuals, organizations, and companies can choose to participate in the campaign by ‘Feeding it Forward’ with the $15 bundles or by simply donating cash to the campaign.

Goldcorp Porcupine Gold Mines is the first corporation to get involved with the Feed it Forward campaign. Bryan Neeley, Sustainability Manager at Goldcorp Canada Ltd, stated “We jumped on board as soon as we heard of the initiative. Providing individuals and families with the opportunity to purchase healthy locally produced food is something that we’re very much in support of, want to promote and aligns with our own buying local strategy.” Bryan continued on to say, “We wanted to provide this boost at the beginning of the campaign, as we feel it’s important for recipients of the Farm to Fork market vouchers to begin accessing the fresh local foods as soon as possible.”

Feed it Forward bundles can be purchased every Thursday at the Urban Park Farmers’ Market, anytime during business hours at the Downtown Timmins BIA, while online payments will be available soon.
If you are interested in accessing Farm to Fork market vouchers as gifts or employee incentives, or to learn more about the Feed it Forward campaign, please contact Jennifer Vachon at 705-288-9701 or exec@antihungercoalition.com.