SoupCycle is a bicycle-based delivery service for organic soup, made from locally grown produce and delivered each week to subscribers.

Three soups are typically on the menu in any given week at SoupCycle. Consumers who live or work in the Portland, Oregon, company’s delivery area begin by checking out the selections for the following week and placing their order by midnight on Friday; rustic bread, salad and dressing are also available. With a list of subscribers in hand, SoupCycle then buys the necessary produce from local farmers. On Monday it cooks up those ingredients into delectable soup, and then on Tuesdays it begins its weekly deliveries, with a different delivery day for each area. Each of SoupCycle’s trailers can carry some 40 soup containers, 40 bread loaves and 20 salads at once.

Since SoupCycle first launched about a year and a half ago, it has delivered more than 10,000 orders of soup, spent USD 33,000 with local farmers and saved 3,000 gas-powered miles by using bicycles instead. Some 300 subscribers now enjoy its weekly deliveries.

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TFPC partners with business and community groups (including City Councillors and volunteer representatives from consumer, business, farm, labour, multicultural, anti-hunger advocacy, faith, and community development groups) to develop policies and programs promoting food security – the TFPC has been instrumental in putting Food Security and Food Policy development squarely on the municipal agenda in Toronto

aim is a food system that fosters equitable food access, nutrition, community development and environmental health. They operate as a sub- committee of the Toronto Board of Health, have a small staff and modest budget. They have no authority to pass or enforce laws yet are free to make their own decisions on food policy issues.

This innovative and effective arrangement has gained international respect from public health, community food security and sustainable agriculture organisations. The staff and council members serve as catalysts and brokers bringing people from different organisations together to help them find new ways to solve old problems.

The Council is a forum for discussing and integrating policy issues that often fall between the cracks of established
departments and research specialities. Staff and members advocate for policy change at the municipal, provincial and federal level.

To find out more about the Toronto Food Policy Council visit http://www.toronto.ca/health/tfpc_index.htm.

This is from “Social Innovations in Victorian Food Systems”, case studies by Ferne Edwards.