City of Toronto Seniors Services and Long-Term Care received the City Manager's Award of Excellence in the Innovation category the highest internal recognition for outstanding achievement within the Toronto Public Service. George Brown Chef School students played an integral role in this project for their contributions aimed at creating healthy and sustainable meals for long-term care residents.
Image: Recipients of the 2025 Toronto City Manager's Award of Excellence in the Innovation category. Jeanne da Silva and Lloyd Sudeko were in attendance for George Brown.
George Brown faculty from the Culinary Management - Nutrition and Food and Nutrition Management programs were on hand when Seniors Services and Long-Term Care received this internal recognition at City Hall on September 18, 2025. George Brown partnered with the City of Toronto's Long-Term Care Dietetic Services department on the project.
Award-winning collaboration
Students developed delicious and nutritious menu options for long-term care residents that blend plant-based protein and beef. The idea was to take familiar beef dishes for residents and seamlessly blend them with plant-based protein. Not only did Chef School students get real-world experience creating dishes, but they also contributed to the City of Toronto's Cool Food Pledge to develop meals with a low carbon footprint. There are now nearly 30 per cent fewer beef dishes on a three-week menu cycle in City of Toronto Long-Term Care homes compared to 2019.
Check out a City of Toronto video about the project.
Reducing emissions, one meal at a time
To put the environmental impact of the plant-based blends project into greater perspective, City of Toronto Long-Term Care homes serve nearly three million meals per year. As part of the Cool Food Pledge, the city aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent in municipal food procurement by 2030. George Brown students are helping the city move closer to its goal.
The initiative was introduced at George Brown by Khashayar Amirhosseini, the Manager of Food and Dietetic Services for the City of Toronto and a George Brown program advisory committee member, and Culinary Management - Nutrition Professor and Program Co-ordinator Moira Cockburn.
"A team from the City of Toronto's Long-Term Care Dietetic Services department joined us for a full day of taste-testing," Cockburn said. "They were extremely impressed with the creativity, nutritional information provided, and the quality of the student dishes and have since incorporated some of the recipe ideas into long-term care homes."
From the classroom to community impact
When the project started, the City of Toronto Senior Services and Long-Term Care team provided a teaching session for Culinary Management Nutrition students on long-term care in Ontario, the Cool Food Pledge, and dysphagia (difficulty swallowing). Amirhosseini and Registered Dietitian Princee Karla and Chef Frank Merrill, both from Sysco Ontario, led the session.
George Brown professors incorporated the initiative into the programs, including the Nutrition Issues course taught by Dr. Linda Gillis and the Large Quantity Nutrition Issues course taught by Chef Jeanne da Silva and Chef Tony Barone.
