HNAF is a partnership between The Helderleigh Foundation and the food innovation and research studio (FIRSt) in George Brown College’s (GBC) Centre for Hospitality & Culinary Arts (CHCA). HNAF exists to advance applied nutrition and healthy eating in Ontario and, when possible, also benefit other parts of Canada.

The Foundation has committed $400,000 to be disbursed between 2015 and 2018 for nutrition and innovative health-related applied research projects. HNAF supports these studies in partnerships with health agencies, hospitals, universities, colleges, schools and municipalities. We fund between four and six grants of $15,000 to $30,000 annually, and will even consider larger projects that could have a significant impact.

What Sorts of Projects?

Potential projects will stimulate public interest, in particular for targeted audiences with chronic illnesses that can benefit from specific diets. The funding also provides opportunity for GBC faculty, technicians and students to participate in applied research work and generate measureable results to advance nutrition.

Successful applicants will be able to access state-of-the-art facilities at FIRSt, working with GBC staff and students to create and test healthy and tasty recipes, provide theoretical nutritional analysis, develop products, conduct consumer sensory evaluations, engage in product scaling and commercialization, carry out shelf-life testing and provide custom training.

Projects are expected to engage in knowledge dissemination, such that outcomes or results are made available within the public domain for others to utilize, multiplying the impact of the project. See What HNAF Funds and Projects to Date.