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Amberley T. Ruetz

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, University of Saskatchewan

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.

She is the Canadian delegate to the International Research Consortium for School Food and Nutrition, the research arm of the Global School Meal Coalition, Co-Chair of the Canadian Association for Food Studies' School Food Working Group, which is a member of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, and is a member of Farm to Cafeteria Canada's National Advisory Council.

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.

Experience

  • –present
    PhD Candidate in Geography , University of Guelph

Education

  • 2021 
    University of Guelph , PhD in Geography & Inaugural Arrell Food Scholar
  • 2014 
    McMaster University , MA in Globalization and the Human Condition
  • 2013 
    King's University College at Western Univeristy, BA in Political Science and Social Justice and Peace Studies

Grants and Contracts

  • 2018
    Linking Farm and School in New Regional Agri-Food Value Chains
    Role:
    PhD Researcher
    Funding Source:
    Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs