Canwest has launched a local food community online at 100mile.FoodTV.ca. The site supports The 100 Mile Challenge, a new series that follows six B.C. families as they consume only food and drink produced within a 100-mile radius of their home for 100 days.
The site contains a local ingredient locator tool that enables users to select a recipe from FoodTV.ca’s database and find where local ingredients can be sourced. The tool uses a Google map to pinpoint the locations of local food producers, markets, grocers and restaurants, regardless of where the user lives.
The locator also displays which foods are in season in a particular area, allows members to add and share information on vendors in their region, and comment on existing listings.
“The site provides the opportunity for users to take what they’ve watched and learned on The 100 Mile Challenge and create their own food experience online,” said Paul Burns, Canwest’s vice-president of digital media, in a release. “It connects users with their peers, farmers, grocers and experts in the local food movement, developing a community encompassing people and ideas from across the country.”
Visitors to the site can also watch episodes of The 100 Mile Challenge, as well as exclusive webisodes and outtakes and extras from the TV series. Users can also save recipes onto a personalized desktop widget.
Food Network is supporting the site through a series of five-second promo spots set to run during The 100 Mile Challenge, which debuts Sunday.
An online push includes leaderboards, skyscrapers and big boxes running across the Canwest network.
The companion website was produced with the show’s producer, Paperny Films, and designed by Vancouver-based Mod7 Communications Inc.