“We all eat … we all have the right to good food,” says Emily Doyle.

“I think the linking of food security conversations to conversations around food and environmental sustainability makes the issue accessible to everyone.”

When Emily first got involved with Food First NL, it was known as the Food Security Network. “It was the go-to spot to connect with actions and conversations around food sustainability and food security in the province,” she says.

 “At that point in time, I was volunteering with Food Education Action St. John's and the Food Security Network was an important resource organization, and an established provincial network, filled with dedicated people that could provide support and knowledge to initiatives that we were trying to get off the ground in St. John's,” says Emily.

Emily is currently completing her PhD research on an assessment of the school food environment in our province. She was interested in particular in studying the potential of school gardens to enhance students’ connection between food, health, and sustainability.

“I think that school food can be a great tool to educate kids,” says Emily. “It's all a part of discovering the role food plays in building healthy communities.”

Emily currently works as a school health promotion liaison consultant, and is a partner of Food First NL’s on our Farm to School project; an initiative that is getting food from local farms onto the plates of students in their school cafeterias.

“I was fortunate to have been studying the subject of the school food environment, as Food First was partnering with Farm to Cafeteria Canada on some innovative school food practices, like engaging the wider food system stakeholders in the dialogue, emphasizing food literacy, and how that connects to the foods that are eaten at school.”