Homegrown Ontario™ finds a slot on OLG restaurants’ winter menu

Homegrown Ontario finds a slot on OLG restaurants’ winter menu.

Mississauga, ON – December 7, 2009 – During the month of December the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) will dish up Homegrown Ontario meat and poultry on its Winter Ontario menu at nine charity casino and slots restaurants. Customers will have the opportunity to enjoy delicious recipe creations using ingredients sourced locally. This partnership between OLG and Homegrown Ontario demonstrates a shared commitment to support the local economy and the environment.

“It is important for me to buy locally as much as possible because I support the farmers who are…producing food that is far superior to anything mass produced and shipped [from] thousands of miles away,” says Jessica Hitchcock, third cook at OLG Brantford Casino.

Cara Quinto, third cook at OLG Brantford Casino agrees. “There are so many reasons [buying] local is important to me but the most compelling reason is that it just makes sense. You know where your food comes from, how far it travelled and how fresh it is.”

The culinary team at OLG Brantford Casino includes: Jessica Hitchcock, Cara Quinto, Alisha Verge, Chris White, Patricia Sloan and Sue-Anne Mawson-Sararas. Together they were given the opportunity to develop a feature winter menu on behalf of all nine participating restaurants. While they wanted to develop warm, comfort foods, the driving force was to create dishes using locally sourced, high quality ingredients. The Winter Ontario menu features Homegrown Ontario meat and poultry in the hearty Chicken Pot Pie, delectable Pork Loin with a Maple Cranberry Infused Chutney and flavourful Veal Ragout along with locally sourced starters and desserts.

The Homegrown Ontario menu items are affordably priced starting at $8.95 and can be easily identified, by the logo of the little red barn with the trillium in the centre. This emblem is a testament to the quality meat and poultry products produced by Ontario’s farmers and processors. The nine participating OLG locations include: OLG Slots Ajax, OLG Casino Brantford, OLG Slots Georgian, OLG Slots Grand River (reduced menu), OLG Casino Point Edward, OLG Casino Sault Ste. Marie (reduced menu), OLG Casino Thousand Islands, OLG Casino Thunder Bay (reduced menu), and OLG Slots Western Fair (reduced menu).

About Homegrown Ontario

Homegrown Ontario is a partnership between Ontario Pork (OPPMB), the Ontario Veal Association (OVA), the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency (OSMA), the Turkey Farmers of Ontario (TFO) and the Independent Meat Processors (OIMP). OPPMB represents 2,800 hog farmers in the province. The OVA is a producer organization representing 450+ grain fed and milk fed veal farmers. The OSMA is a producer-run organization representing 4,200 sheep producers in the province of Ontario. The TFO is a producer-run organization that represents 189 turkey farmers in Ontario. OIMP is a non-profit organization representing the interests of 180 meat and poultry processors, packers and retailers across Ontario.

Funded in part by the OPPMB, the OVA, the OSMA, the TFO, the OIMP, the provincial government and Agriculture Adaptation Council’s CanAdvance Program, the Homegrown Ontario program aims to build and promote a branded identity for Ontario meat and poultry. Visit www.homegrownontario.ca for more information.

About OLG
OLG is a provincial agency responsible for province-wide lottery games and gaming facilities. Since 1975, OLG lotteries, Casinos, Slots and Resort Casinos have generated more than $28 billion for the benefit of the Province of Ontario. Gaming proceeds support Ontario’s hospitals, amateur sport, recreational and cultural activities, communities, provincial priority programs such as health care and education, and local and provincial charities and non-profit organizations through the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

For more information:
Anthony Tiburzi / Debbie Boyce
Faye Clack Communications Inc.
t. 905-206-0577 ext. 234/245
e. atiburzi@fayeclack.com / dboyce@fayeclack.com

OLG Media Line
1-888-946-6716