We are going to be better.

This past week our organization has been listening and learning and rethinking on how we truly stand up for the people that make up our culinary tourism community.

Our staff has had hard conversations with each other. We know we need to do better. We've always believed that meaningful change comes with action.

We're taking the following steps as an organization across all our activities:

• We're going to take the required time and resources necessary to educate our organization - starting with attending the Centering Diversity for Workplace Equity: Building Inclusive Systems session this week being delivered by the Regional Diversity Roundtable. 

• We will engage in training our team on racial inclusion and equity.

• We will be formalizing a set of Diversity & Equity Protocols and Policies within our organization.

• We will be telling more Black and Indigenous stories on our channels to better represent diversity in the culinary tourism sector.

• We will be making more effort to find new ways to engage Black and Indigenous owned businesses in the #FeastOn Program.

• We will be prioritizing sourcing and celebrating the stories of Black and Indigenous people at the Terroir Symposium.

• We will hold ourselves and our partners accountable for meaningful, active and genuine engagement with diverse communities in all our project work.

• We will work to increase the diversity of our team, our BOD, Advisory Groups and Internship Program.

Black Lives Matter. Indigenous Lives Matter. We know this is a marathon, not a sprint. We believe these actions and conversations will lead to better, more inclusive systems within our organization and communities. It's work we have to do every day and these are just the first steps in a long journey to dismantle oppression and create a better future for generations to come.