Lowlands Fire Food: Scaling Regenerative Food Partnerships Across Southern Ontario
Lowlands Fire Food began in 2018 with a single mobile wood-fired catering unit and a clear vision: to fill a gap in the market for fast casual food crafted around ingredients sourced from regenerative farms in the St. Lawrence Lowlands region. What started as one food truck has grown into a FeastON-certified food service enterprise with multiple operating locations across Southern Ontario.
Today, Lowlands operates a stationary food truck at the Whitby Pump House, a wood-fired kitchen at 100 Acre Brewery in Peterborough, and two mobile catering units serving private and public events across the region. Their model is simple but powerful — deliver food people crave, built around the best local ingredients available, and ensure that their own success strengthens the farms and makers they work with.
Each Lowlands location contributes significant annual purchasing to regional suppliers. Their spending supports small regenerative farms that typically operate on modest acreage and rely on consistent buyers to maintain stable seasons. By placing reliable, recurring orders and highlighting their suppliers in marketing and storytelling, Lowlands plays a meaningful role in strengthening the regional food system.
The company first partnered with Fair Finance Fund in 2021 to finance a second catering trailer, allowing them to meet growing demand and diversify revenue streams. That expansion proved successful, with event bookings increasing year-over-year and strong seasonal performance at their Whitby and Peterborough locations.
The team at Lowlands Fire Food believe in creating a food culture that recognizes local farmers and builds awareness of the bounty in the St. Lawrence Lowlands.
In late 2025, Lowlands was approved for a second Fair Finance Fund loan to support their next phase of growth: opening a fully licensed, year-round restaurant in Brooklin and transforming that space into a centralized commissary kitchen. This new location will function both as a sit-down restaurant and as a prep hub for their food trucks and Peterborough kitchen.
The investment addresses several structural challenges. Food trucks in Ontario operate seasonally, making it difficult to retain skilled staff year-round. A permanent restaurant location allows Lowlands to offer more consistent employment, reducing turnover and strengthening team stability. The company is also expanding employee benefits, including matching contributions to a Group Retirement Savings Plan, reinforcing its commitment to long-term staff wellbeing.
From an operational perspective, consolidating food preparation into a commissary kitchen improves efficiency and consistency across locations. Currently, transforming raw farm ingredients into menu-ready components accounts for a meaningful share of labour costs. Centralizing this work reduces duplication and allows for more strategic purchasing. It also strengthens relationships with farm partners by enabling larger, less frequent orders — saving suppliers time and transportation costs.
Southern Ontario’s short growing season presents another opportunity. Lowlands plans to increase bulk purchasing of local produce during peak harvest periods and preserve key ingredients, such as tomato sauce, for use throughout the year. This strategy keeps more local ingredients in their supply chain beyond the summer months and provides farms with larger seasonal sales.
Financially, the company continues to demonstrate steady growth. The Whitby Pump House location generated strong seasonal revenue and is projecting further increases next year. The Peterborough kitchen has exceeded initial expectations, and mobile catering continues to deliver high-margin opportunities without the fixed costs of traditional brick-and-mortar spaces. A five-year lease on the new Brooklin location provides stability and long-term planning capacity.
Lowlands is also exploring future growth opportunities, including potential waterfront development projects and expanded beer garden concepts, further embedding themselves in regional community spaces.
Fair Finance Fund is proud to support Lowlands Fire Food as they scale thoughtfully and deepen their impact within Ontario’s regenerative food ecosystem. By investing in infrastructure that strengthens supplier partnerships, improves staff stability, and extends the reach of local farm ingredients year-round, this second loan helps advance a model where restaurant growth directly fuels farm resilience.
Oshawa • www.lowlandsfirefood.ca
