York University gets funds to support agri-food entrepreneurs 

Toronto – In the lead up to International Women’s Day 2024, Lawrence MacAulay, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced up to $476,742 in funding over the next two years to York University’s YSpace, an innovation hub supporting startups and entrepreneurs. The funding will support the new Food & Beverage Accelerator program that aims to build and implement specialized tools and resources to support the unique challenges faced by underrepresented groups in the consumer-packaged goods and agri-food sector.

YSpace will be leveraging its expertise from both ELLA, which provides dedicated programming for women entrepreneurs, and the Black Entrepreneurship Alliance, which provides specialized streams for Black entrepreneurs to better engage with communities.

This investment was provided through the AgriDiversity Program, an initiative under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership. The AgriDiversity Program supports activities that strengthen Canada’s agriculture sector to better leverage the potential offered by Indigenous Peoples and other underrepresented and marginalized groups in Canadian agriculture—including women, youth, persons with disabilities, racialized persons, visible minorities, 2SLGBTQI+ communities, and official language minority communities—to fully participate in the sector by helping these groups address the key issues and barriers they often face for sector participation. Canada’s diverse population is a source of strength and helps make the sector more competitive and prosperous.

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada is committed to addressing the profound systemic inequities and disparities that remain present in our society and institutions. We continue to collaborate with various underrepresented communities and actively seek to incorporate the diverse views of Canadians in all aspects of the agriculture sector.