Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security awards 2023/24 scholarships

Who: Maple Leaf Foods and the Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security 

What: The recipients of the 2023/24 Maple Leaf Board Scholarships in Food Insecurity have been announced.

Each of the four students will receive $15,000 to support their research around food insecurity in Canada. 

This year’s recipients are: Masters candidate Jayda Veinot from the University of New Brunswick; masters candidate Laura Jimenez from Dalhousie University; masters candidate Natalie Bakko from the University of Calgary; and masters candidate Shannon Udy from McGill University.

Veinot's research aims to enhance the provision of care by dieticians to food-insecure patients in New Brunswick, while Jimenez's research will explore the role of the COVID-19 pandemic income supplement (CERB) on the prevalence and severity of food insecurity nationally.

Bakko's research will explore how Canadian municipalities are addressing the connection between housing and food insecurity, and Udy's research will help design a participatory process to food security planning in Kahnawà:ke, a Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) community.

"We are delighted by the quality of Jayda, Laura, Natalie and Shannon's research and look forward to learning and sharing the knowledge that results from their work," said Sarah Stern, executive director of the Maple Leaf Centre for Food Security, in a statement. These scholarships provide much-needed support to students as they broaden our understanding of food insecurity in Canada.”