Georgian health care, food accessibility projects receive $720K in NSERC funding  

Nov. 2, 2026

Georgian College students will tackle the future of food accessibility and physical and social health services in the region, thanks to $720,000 in grant funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).  

The new funding, announced Friday, will be split between two projects that will both run for three years, and it will provide students from several program areas with hands-on, experiential learning opportunities that could help shape local social services and health care.  

One project will run out of Georgian’s Research and Innovation department with Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) as a partner. The other project will be led by the college’s Social Innovation department in partnership with The Sharing Place food centre in Orillia. 

We’re grateful to receive this new funding, which is critical for helping us advance our work on these important issues, as well as for continuing our innovative and collaborative research to strengthen the well-being of our communities.

– Dr. Mira Ray, Executive Director, Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Georgian

Each project will receive $360,000 from NSERC’s College and Community Social Innovation Fund:  

1. The project from Georgian’s Research and Innovation department will pilot a nurse-led social prescribing model for adults living with obesity. Partnering with RVH and its Barrie Family Medicine Teaching Unit (FMTU), the project will connect adults living with obesity or related metabolic health risks to community-based resources and services. Through personalized assessments, coordinated referrals, and ongoing support, the program aims to reduce barriers to accessing services and address the social factors that determine a person’s health. The project will evaluate patient engagement, access to community services and integration within primary care – impacting the future expansion of social prescribing across Canadian health-care settings. 
   
   Led by Georgian faculty Jennifer Ethier (principal investigator) and Dr. Stephanie Atthill (co-investigator), along with Dr. Matt Orava, family doctor at RVH’s FMTU (co-investigator), the project will also provide paid student research positions and experiential learning opportunities for students in nursing, Fitness and Health Promotion, and Food and Nutrition Management programs. Students will contribute to research, program implementation and evaluation, with opportunities for supervised, patient-facing experiences aligned with their areas of study.

2. The Food 4 Thought? project will see Georgian’s Social Innovation department work with The Sharing Place and students on field placements from the Social Service Worker and Child and Youth Care programs. Participants will volunteer, design educational games and develop ideas to improve how food is grown, shared and accessed. The aim of the project is to help inform local food planning and provide other community food centres with practical tools to inspire youth to get involved in food issues and discover food-related careers. 

The projects have already begun, with the social prescribing hub expected to be operational in the fall of 2027.