Biography

Amberley T. Ruetz has been working nationally and internationally to advance school food and farm-to-school programming since 2015. She is the Canadian delegate to the Global Research Consortium for School Health and Nutrition, and Co-Chair of the Canadian Association for Food Studies’ School Food Working Group.

Amberley's work is cited as playing a pivotal role in shaping Canada's National School Food Program, beginning with her invitation to the first national consultation in 2019 and culminating when her research was recognized as a key factor in the Government of Canada’s decision to allocate $1 billion to the program in 2024.

Amberley continues to consult the government on school food in her new capacity as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Saskatchewan where she is coordinating the largest evaluation of school food program implementation models with Dr. Rachel Engler-Stringer and academic partners across Canada.

As a community-engaged researcher, Amberley is actively involved in supporting the work of a number of non-governmental organizations advancing school food in Canada. Amberley has been supporting the work of the Canadian Coalition for Healthy School Food since 2018, in 2021 she contributed to the development of Canada’s Farm-to-School Evaluation Framework and was appointed to Farm to Cafeteria Canada’s Advisory Council.