The Social Planning Council of Sudbury (SPCS) strives to strengthen communities through essential community and social development initiatives. Adopting a holistic approach to community development and research, the SPSC brings people together to facilitate planning that leads to positive social change and community action.

There are unique challenges to food security that exist in Canada’s northern regions, which require interventions that are rooted in northern cultural and political contexts. While local initiatives are having a positive impact, greater awareness and understanding of these initiatives is needed. The Centre is supporting SPCS on a two-year project (2019–2021) to map knowledge about actors, projects and policies that address northern and Indigenous food security. This includes updating an existing asset map, conducting a social network analysis (SNA), creating an ‘atlas’ of northern food policies and developing data sharing infrastructure across the north. The outcome of the project will be greater knowledge about what works and what doesn’t to support northern food security and a more strongly connected information sharing network across the north.