Grand River Foods

Creating the world’s kitchen

[February 25, 2010]

Article by Ray Martin, Cambridge Times Staff
Three years ago, Craig Richardson, president of Grand River Foods, said that his greatest concern going forward is finding the skilled workers he is going to need.

“That got me in a bit of trouble with the former executive director of Canada’s Technology Triangle (the marketing agency tasked with drawing new companies to the region),” Richardson said “After we talked, he said I had to meet Dr. John Tibbits, president of Conestoga College, and he set that up.”  The result is Conestoga College’s Institute of Food Processing Technology, which will train high school graduates, immigrants and displaced workers from other fields to become the next generation of skilled workers in the food processing industry.  “When the new Cambridge campus opens we hope to have 500 students initially,” Richardson said. 

Richardson became the point man in bringing together various federal government departments and the province to address the skilled worker shortage in the food processing industry.  Along the way he met with Cambridge MP Gary Goodyear, who immediately understood Richardson’s situation and worked with him to get the support he needed.

“Gary has been a great supporter all the way through this process. I told him what I was trying to do and he really got it,” he said.  Bruce Archibald, former deputy minister of OMAFRA (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs) also understood the importance of what Richardson was attempting to do and paid for a feasibility study.  Richardson then helped to create the Alliance of Ontario Food Processors (AOFP), a non-profit organization representing food and beverage processing companies. The alliance started small but has grown to approximately 300 members, with more companies joining all the time.

“What people forget is this is the oldest sector of the workforce and we are losing a lot of our skilled workers,” he said.

According to a workforce study prepared with OMAFRA’s help, 35 percent of workers in Ontario’s food processing industry is 45 years of age or older.  What makes this information even more striking, according to Jane Graham, AOFP executive director, is that the figures are based on 2001 census data.

The food processing and beverage industry is currently vying for top spot in Ontario’s manufacturing sector, right up there with the automakers. It is a $33-billion industry, which is slated to grow to $40 billion in the next three years.

“The one thing about this industry is there are no ups and downs, it’s always slowly growing,” Richardson explained.  The food processing and beverage industry directly employs more than 110,000 workers and indirectly at least another 100,000.

In January, OAFP hired Luis Garcia as chair of the Institute of Food Processing Technology and he will be writing the program curriculum in the coming months with the assistance of a committee made up of industry representatives. The program is expected to launch in September 2011.  The food-processing program will be imbedded within the college’s new school of engineering at the Cambridge campus. Students will take all the basic engineering courses, but the program will be tweaked to meet various demands the industry has for the skilled trades required to keep the assembly lines in a food processing or beverage plant rolling.

In time, Richardson believes the program will grow to include business studies to train managers needed to run the plants, as well as other facets of the industry.  “The food processing program is really just the beginning,” he said.  Richardson believes Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology, could be on the right track. 

“He believes that Ontario could become the world’s kitchen, and the Institute of Food Processing Technology could help make that happen,” he said.

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