Co-create Market City TO
Building a network one project at a time

When a conference is not simply a conference! 

It is a network creation process by which we develop relationships and “small networks” to help us get to where we want to go and build the public market ecosystem our city needs.

When Toronto applied and won the bid to host the 11th International Public Market Conference, it was always about how we leveraged this milestone moment to advance the work needed to support public markets in our city and strengthen the mid-size distribution infrastructure that enables inclusive economies, local food and social connection. 

Inspired by CITIES4CSR URBACT network building model and the Constellation model of collaborative social change Tonya Surman, over the last few months, Market City TO has been the backbone support to this process, this is a visual representation of the work to date, and it is just the beginning. You can check the 12 workshops that emerged, and the potential of building 12 local /global networks on these issues. 

Partnerships, issues, and learnings that emerge from this process will inform the City of Toronto Public Market strategy and the governance model of Market City TO. 

It is a messy, complex, emerging and participatory process—all keywords when we think of bottom-up innovation and solutions that lead to systemic change. 

I love and thrive in this space and am grateful for the opportunity.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Eu90I8UwAtVUCrpZAaK6v-Vyxvwx6heL/view?usp=sharing

We work with Toronto’s intrepid market managers, vendors, city staff and policy-makers to activate the power of markets.

Get in touch ->

Marina Queirolo
Public markets & food systems specialist
mqueirolo@marketcityto.org

Project For Public Spaces' Market Cities Network is a global forum for markets of all kinds and the people committed to their success. We’re honored to join as a Founding Member, a role where we can connect and advance leaders in the public markets field.

Supporting partnership from the Golden Horseshoe Food and Farming Alliance and Hypenotic.

International partners with Project For Public Spaces.

Project partners with City of Toronto, St. Lawrence Market, Greenbelt Markets, Scarborough Farmers Market, and Canadian Farmers Market.

We respectfully acknowledge that the work stewarded by Market City TO takes place on many Indigenous nations' traditional territories.

Tkarón:to has been cared for by the Anishinabeg Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat, and its current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. Now home to many First Nation, Inuit, and Métis communities, this territory is subject to the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to share and care for the land and resources in the Great Lakes region peacefully. The dish with one spoon reminds people we only have one dish, one mother earth we can take from. Therefore, we should take only what we need, leave something for others, and keep the dish clean. It also demonstrates our collective responsibility to share equally. This area had been a gathering place for Indigenous peoples for centuries before colonization; they hosted the original markets.

The relationship between food, culture, land, and communities informs our work on Toronto public markets. As we work towards collectively reimagining Toronto as a market city and mobilize the partnerships to make it happen, we prioritize finding ways to support Indigenous food sovereignty in their territory. We respectfully acknowledge that the work steward by Market City TO is on traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations.