U of G’s Arrell Food Institute hires former local food bank admin

The longtime administrator of the Guelph Food Bank has found herself in a new role with the University of Guelph.

Pauline Cripps has been hired as the community food lead after spending almost a decade as the administrator at the local food bank.

Her goals include supporting food initiatives within Wellington County as well as making food accessible, particularly for students.

She said she’s looking forward to bringing to the university her external knowledge and on-the-ground experience she gained working in her previous job.

“I truly believe that when we share resources and build more collaborative structures and networks, we grossly increase our capacity and our sustainability and I think that’s really important, and I look forward to contributing to that,” Cripps said.

The role will support connection and coordination between food organizations in the region, lead existing food projects and support fundraising activities.

Cripps will continue some of work she started while employed at the food bank, including with the Our Food Future project and the Nutritious Foods Workstream.

Although the new job comes with a learning curve, Cripps said her previous role helped prepare her for this gig.

“It was in that role and having the opportunity through that role to meet with people working in that sector or adjacent sectors and food systems overall, that really helped me kind of shape that understanding and to learn a lot more about what those systems entail,” she said.

She said the shift has been pretty big coming from the front line of a food access organization.

Cripps added she’ll still able to retain her connections from the food bank in order to help them and vice versa.

While with Arrell Food Institute (AFI), she said she hopes to also continue building on those networks and relationships she’s been able to establish in the last number of years, along with seeing the county’s expansions while it becomes more connected to Guelph and build upon their shared resources.

So far, Cripps said the new role has been incredible.

“The team at AFI has been amazing,” she said.

“I couldn’t ask for better colleagues. I feel very privileged to be spending this time with them and having these people to work with and bounce ideas off of.”

Cripps started as a volunteer with the food bank before becoming a full-time employee. Her job with AFI is a two-year contract.