Eat Local Muskoka: Growing a Regional Food System
The Fair Finance Fund is proud to mark an important milestone with the approval of its first-ever mortgage loan — a significant step forward in expanding our support for Canada’s local food economy. This investment supports Eat Local Muskoka, a cooperative, community-rooted food enterprise that is strengthening regional food systems across Muskoka and the Kawartha Lakes.
Eat Local Muskoka is led by Colin, a new-generation farmer who has built a collaborative model that connects local producers directly with their communities. Working alongside seven small-scale, non-certified organic farmers, the enterprise coordinates weekly Local Food Boxes that serve over 200 families each week from spring through late fall. With pick-up points across multiple towns and villages, the program makes fresh, locally grown food more accessible while maintaining strong relationships between farmers and customers.
In addition to direct-to-consumer sales, Eat Local Muskoka supplies several fine dining restaurants in the region, ensuring that high-quality, locally grown produce is featured across Muskoka’s food landscape. Their approach is rooted in fairness and transparency: farmers receive wholesale market rates for their products while contributing collectively to shared marketing and operational costs. This cooperative structure allows multiple farms to thrive together while building a resilient regional supply chain.
Over nearly a decade of operation, Eat Local Muskoka has grown steadily by focusing on quality, trust, and community connection. Their food boxes are priced competitively — often more accessible than certified organic options in grocery stores — while maintaining strong margins that allow the business to remain sustainable. As food prices continue to rise, their model offers a compelling alternative that keeps more value circulating within the local economy.
At its core, Eat Local Muskoka is driven by a broader mission: to increase local food capacity and strengthen the long-term viability of farming in the region. Their partner farms prioritize soil health through practices such as cover cropping and composting, avoiding synthetic inputs while building productive, resilient land over time.
The Fair Finance Fund’s mortgage investment supports the next stage of this work by enabling the business to take on long-term land security. This is a meaningful shift — not just for Eat Local Muskoka, but for the Fund itself. By providing mortgage financing, the Fund is expanding its toolkit to support deeper, more permanent forms of food system infrastructure.
For Eat Local Muskoka, land access is foundational. Securing farmland allows the team to invest with confidence in long-term improvements such as greenhouse expansion, irrigation systems, and storage infrastructure. These investments are already underway, with a focus on increasing production capacity, extending the growing season, and supporting more stable, year-round employment for staff.
The enterprise currently employs a small seasonal team and is working toward improving job quality through fair wages, paid sick days, and more consistent scheduling. By expanding production and infrastructure, Eat Local Muskoka is building toward a model that can sustain both farmers and workers more reliably over time.
Looking ahead, the organization is exploring growth into new markets while maintaining a careful balance between scale and sustainability. Like many small agricultural businesses, they are navigating challenges related to rural labour availability, shifting demand, and long-term planning in an unpredictable economic environment. Their approach remains measured — growing in a way that preserves quality, relationships, and financial stability.
Fair Finance Fund is proud to support Eat Local Muskoka through this landmark mortgage investment. This partnership reflects a shared belief that strengthening local food systems requires not only working capital but also long-term, place-based investments in land, infrastructure, and community-driven enterprises.
As the Fund continues to evolve, this first mortgage signals what’s possible — supporting businesses and the foundations they grow on.
