Amberley T. Ruetz has been working nationally and internationally to advance school food and farm-to-school programming since 2015. In 2019, Amberley was invited by the Federal Minister of Families, Children and Social Development to Canada's first roundtable consultation on developing a National School Food Program.
Amberley continues to consult the government on school food in Canada in her new capacity as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Saskatchewan. She is also the key interlocutor on Canadian school food research to the Global Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition, the research arm of the Global School Meal Coalition, and the Co-Chair of the Canadian Association for Food Studies' School Food Research Working Group.
Nationally, Amberley led the first systematic survey of school food programs in Canada, was the Scientific Co-Lead of the Arrell Food Institute’s Spotlight Report on Canadian School Food Programs, and is now coordainting the largest evaluation of school food program implementation models in Canada led by Dr. Rachel Engler-Stringer.
As a community-engaged researcher, Amberley also regularly advises a number of non-governmental organizations advancing school food in Canada. Amberley has been supporting the work of the Canadian Coalition for Healthy School Food since 2018, in 2021 she contributed to the development of Canada's Farm-to-School Evaluation Framework and was appointed to Farm to Cafeteria Canada’s Advisory Council.
For media interviews please feel free to contact me at amberley.ruetz@usask.ca.