A developing story from Thunder Bay: A new program hopes to help northwestern Ontario's agri-food entrepreneurs grow their businesses.
The Food Enterprises Advancement and SME Transformation, or FEAST, program will offer advice, access to equipment, educational opportunities, and financial assistance to businesses and entrepreneurs in the agri-food sector, such as home-based baking operations or makers of other food products. On Wednesday, FedNor revealed investment of nearly $500,000 over three years for the FEAST program. "This really stems from a set of.
forums that some staff of the [Northwestern Ontario Innovation Centre, or NOIC] conducted last year where we traveled to Dryden, Kenora, Fort Francis," confirmed Richard Gemmill, executive director of NOIC, which is running the program. "We wanted to listen to the stories of businesses, and a lot of the businesses that came to the forums were food-related or agricultural-related," he stated. "Overwhelmingly, the message was that they could get financial support to start their business and there's lots of resources and supports to get a new business started." "What they needed was support to get them to that next level, to sustain their business, to continue growing their business, to scale up their business." Gemmill advised the program will operate like an accelerator, with six businesses or entrepreneurs chosen to participate in each cohort; the program is expected to begin with its first cohort in the fall. FEAST will be based in Kenora, at a hub located at the Seven Generations Education Institute (SGEI).
"Kenora is a real hub for food entrepreneurs.
"Kenora is a real hub for food entrepreneurs. and so it was a great opportunity for this partnership to help those entrepreneurs in the region scale their commercial food businesses," confirmed Meghan Cox, chief financial officer at SGEI. Participants will be able to use the commercial kitchen at the SGEI Kenora campus as part of the program. Gemmill advised there's also a possibility FEAST cohorts could be run in other northwestern Ontario communities if there's enough demand. "We're going to try to plant some seeds here that will hopefully germinate and sustain our region well beyond the three-year financing envelope that we have from FedNor," he shared. "The hope is that we can create something that is replicable across the region." It is a priority for CBC to create products that are accessible to all in Canada including people with visual, hearing, motor and cognitive challenges. Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered onCBC Gem..
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📍 Source: CBC News Thunder Bay · By: CBC News Staff · 🗓️ July 26, 2026 · 🏠 ThunderBay.Online
