the Good Food Innovation Awards are returning as a national platform celebrating the people shaping Canada’s food future.
Founded by the late Anita Stewart, the awards were created to honour innovation, leadership, and the power of food to connect communities from coast to coast to coast.
Her understanding of Canadian cuisine reached far beyond urban centres. It lived in farmers’ markets, in the wilderness, on docks and fishing boats, in the North, in remote kitchens, and wherever Canadians gathered around the table.
She said “Canada is food, and the world is richer for it”.
The program paused after her passing during the pandemic. This conscious decision emphasized collaboration over competition and allowed time for Anita’s family, the board, and the wider food community to breathe.
Now, the awards return with renewed purpose with Food Day Canada and the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph.
The Stewart family hopes the Good Food Innovation Awards will grow to become
