Tag Archives: community food

Bring Food Home: Connecting Ontario Farm and Food Networks

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So by writing this post I am breaking my (self imposed) rule of not writing two food related posts in a row. But late last week I attended an inspiring conference, “Bring Food Home“, organized by Sustain Ontario: the alliance for healthy food and farming.  I discovered so much community building going on that I couldn’t resist sharing the highlights and I promise my next post will reinstate the balance.

Sustain Ontario is a province-wide, cross-sectoral alliance that promotes healthy food and farming.  The organization is only a year old and was inspired by the UK’s Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming and the Metcalf Foundation‘s work on exploring opportunities for collaborative, cross-sectoral work related to food and agriculture  (see Food Connects Us All). 

Sustain Ontario is an umbrella organization that aims to bringing together all of the players in the food system from farm to fork and beyond.  They are working to build a community between the players in the food system to encourage collaboration and idea sharing with the end goal of a food system that is economically, environmentally and socially sustainable.  They spent their first year talking to many of the players in the food system one-on-one.  The conference Bring Food Home was the first time that Sustain Ontario tried to bring these players together.

As I already said, the event was inspiring.  There are so many people and organizations passionate about food and there is so much going on in Ontario that wasn’t going on just a few years ago.  Here are a few of my highlights from the conference of the food system/community building activities.

Planting Urban Ontario: An Urban Agriculture Network

There are so many types of urban agriculture, including back/front yard gardens, community gardens, rooftop gardens, urban hens, yard-sharing programs, SPIN farming and urban farms.  Sustain Ontario initiated a network during the conference to help “urban aggies” learn from each other.  A half day session was held just for introductions since so much is going on all over Ontario.  The next steps for the new network is to use Sustain Ontario’s website to continue the conversation and to share ideas from across the province.

Food Policy Councils/Community-based Food System Planning:

There are groups springing up all over Ontario that are bringing together key sectors and interests from their food systems to examine the big picture of the food system and identify the changes that are needed.  The Toronto Food Policy Council has been around since the 1990s, but there are also a lot of new players on the scene that have shared their models including the Waterloo Region Foodsystem Roundtable, JustFood (Ottawa), Halton Food Council, Toronto Youth Food Policy Council, and Sudbury Food Connections Network.  These groups shared both how they went about building community within the food system and how they are using the food system to build community.

Community Food Centres:

The Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto (see my favourite communities in my profile) is now working to spread the Community Food Centre model throughout Ontario (also with help from the Metcalf Foundation).  A Community Food Centre goes beyond the food bank model to deliver a range of food security programming in a manner that maintains dignity, builds health and community and challenges inequality.  They started as one of Canada’s first local food banks and now also have community kitchens, community gardens, cooking classes, drop-in meals, peri-natal support, outdoor bake ovens, food markets and community advocacy campaigns.  They also run the Green Barn, a sustainable food production and education centre.  I think their model has the potential to transform food banks across the province and can’t wait to see their pilot projects.

Diversity and the Food System:

One of the most immediate observations from the conference was the demographic of those of us that showed up.  We were primarily white and women. But there was an immediate recognition of the need to bring more players to the table and to find ways to be more representative of the residents of Ontario in both the next conference and in the programs that we are delivering in our own communities.  During the Action Planning session at the end of the conference a working group was formed, that I’m a part of, which will focus on diversity in the food system so that we can expand our new community to be more inclusive and representative.

A Whole Self-Contained Foodie Community

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The Greatest Grocery Store Ever?

The Greatest Grocery Store Ever?

A few weeks ago I visited Whole Foods’ new store  on Cambie and Broadway. It was the first time I’d been there.

For months I’d been hearing the place was like the “Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory” of luxury food.

The rumours were true and the Whole Foods “experience” certainly didn’t disappoint. Through its crystal clear glass doors, it seemed they’d jammed just about every luxury food item known to man.

Their cheese selection alone would give Vancouver’s famous fromagerie  Les Amis du Fromage a run for their money. The dessert area stretched for over a hundred meters (maybe I’m exaggerating a little, but that’s what it felt like) bedecked with everything from sumptuous chocolate mousse to gourmet creme brulet. Over on the other side of the market was a terrific fresh seafood section sporting candied salmon, over half a dozen different types of fresh fillets and of course fresh BC oysters that the incredibly friendly staff offered cheerfully to shell for you on the spot. Then there was the store’s salad bar – a mini restaurant in itself along with dozens of entree choices ranging from Chicken Kiev to gourmet-looking seared trout in lemon sauce. I could go on, but I won’t.

The bounty available led my friend to remark that she rarely cooks at home anymore. Why bother, she muses, when one can get better cooking for cheaper a few minutes from home. That certainly seemed to be the feeling of many of the well heeled professionals that brushed by us in and out of the shop while we toured about.

In addition to a ridiculous amount of selection, the new grocery store also appears to be doing its best to support their community of shoppers.  They’ve got a community calendar with a host of company sponsored events that patrons can take part in (everything from cooking for kids workshops to nutrition seminars). And they have a bag donation program that donates the 5 cents in proceeds for every bag saved to the customer’s choice of one of three local charities.

These are all pretty neat things. But as I left the store, I was left befuddled about how I really felt about it all. My confusion sprang from a number of issues surrounding the store.

1) The Price: It ain’t cheap to shop at Whole Foods. In fact, a close look at the prices offered means that many, if not most items, are three or four dollars more expensive than they would be at Safeway. The effect of this makes this luxury store relatively out of reach of the middle and lower-middle class. That’s probably part of the reason the owners landed their first store in West Vancouver and their latest one in yuppie ground zero – Cambie St and Broadway (post Canada-line Constructiongetton of course).

the Anti-Whole Foods campaign

The Anti-Whole Foods campaign!

2) The Little Guy: I mentioned Les Amis. Their likely to be one of dozens of small niche shops that contribute every day to the neighbourhood community who are forced out of business because of a gradual shift of shoppers away from them. It’s this sort of Walmart effect that has been responsible for the death of Main St. USA. I’d hate to see the big box effect knock out some of my favorite boutique grocery vendors.

3) The CEO: Well, word on the internet is the guy is dead set against Health Care reform. It’s caused over 22,000 people to rally against him on facebook and has incited a widespread boycott campaign. Here’s a couple of the  more controversial quotes:

“Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care—to equal access to doctors, medicines and hospitals. While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter?”

and

“While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment.”

While the words of the top-dog don’t necessarily mirror those of the corporation they lead, its tricky to swear loyalty to the Whole Foods creed when the leader is so against a tenant that (most) Canadians swear by.