Carly Hayes
Ottawa Youth Food Policy Council | Ottawa Ontario
Carly has always maintained close connections to her community, growing up in a rural area near Peterborough, surrounded by family farms. Her interest in local food systems was sparked during her Master’s at the University of Waterloo, specializing in food policy. Following graduation, she led two research projects at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the first on malnutrition policies in Peru, and the second on increasing investment in adolescent nutrition. While she now works at Global Affairs Canada, Carly continues to advocate for healthy and sustainable local food systems as the Research and Education Lead with the Food Secure Canada Youth Caucus.
About the Project
The Ottawa Youth Food Policy Council will build off existing YFPC models to engage youth in advocacy, education, and action to promote and achieve a food-secure Ottawa, where all community members have access to safe, affordable, nutritious, sustainable, and culturally relevant foods, and the right to food is upheld by Ottawa’s decision-makers. We plan to undertake consultations with local food security organizations to identify areas of mutual interest and collaboration, along with groups working on intersecting issues (e.g., housing, poverty, racism and marginalization, climate change) to identify gaps and barriers to food policy change in Ottawa, to set a forward-looking change agenda.