About Us

In 2015/16 Taste Real contracted the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance (OCTA) to develop a County of Wellington Food Tourism Strategy to position the region as a food tourism destination.  Significant opportunities exist to enhance the established Taste Real initiative to become a tourism driver for Guelph Wellington and to leverage the existing agricultural, food and beverage assets in the region.  These assets include authentic on-farm experiences, a wealth of agricultural products, restaurants with a demonstrated focus on local sourcing, new and emerging craft breweries and popular festivals and events.

This Strategy was designed with a focus on meeting the strategic objectives of Taste Real (as listed above)

Recommendations contained in the Strategy were developed through inventory collection, market readiness assessment using the Experience Assessment Tool™ (EAT™), and stakeholder outreach. A Steering Committee, organized by Taste Real and the County of Wellington, was engaged throughout the development of the Strategy to provide insight and feedback.

Because supporting the local community allows for business retention and expansion.

1. When stores are kept in business, it keeps jobs in town.
2. Money spent in your town in a local small business is spent again locally, often another five to seven times. Money spent at the big-box stores leaves town immediately and goes to the headquarters of said company.
3. You get better customer service from small businesses.  And you can say "hi", knowing the face behind the counter, which builds customer loyalty.
4. Supporting local businesses keeps your community alive. It keeps the local economy alive which helps with local events, and local community organizations, which small businesses are more apt to sponsor and support.
5. Supporting local food and farming helps make our communities more sustainable - economically, socially, environmentally and culturally.

 Taste Real puts local food first by making it easy to bring to the table

Taste Real undertakes the marketing of local food initiatives, saving organizations and businesses many advertising dollars, by developing new products and marketing local farm and food businesses so that members can focus on their own product. We are laying the foundation to increase production in the area to satisfy the demand of the public sector, having recently been awarded a grant to get local food into local hospitals, day cares and schools. We are also growing culinary tourism opportunities.

In Wellington and Waterloo Counties combined, $452.5 million is spent on food. If 10% of that was spent on local food, we would see an additional $45 million spent locally. We are building connections by networking between stakeholders and establishing new partnerships to achieve this. Working closely with Guelph Tourism and the Economic Development Officers of 6 of Wellington's municipalities, together we are growing one of the most vibrant, local food economies and food tourism destinations in Ontario.