FOODSHARE NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE - AUGUST 2002

Downtown project grows more than food
Want to eat well? Despite what you hear, it’s not that hard...
Foodnotes: Farmers tour downtown ethnic markets, Healthy food frenzy hits schools, Garden tourists learn to eat their weedies, Someone's in the Field to Table Kitchen, FoodLink interns sought

Downtown garden grows more than food

Food is growing again on the site of the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health (CAMH)-- no chickens or cows in the modern version, but a 7,000 square foot patch of herbs and vegetables planted and tended by participants in the Growing Green Jobs project, a partnership between FoodShare and CAMH.

Growing food in the city used to be commonplace-- it still is in many places around the world-- but dense development, high property values and a loss of the knowledge of the possibilities have largely deprived city-dwellers of the benefits of growing food close to home. Yet there remain many patches of land, such as the grounds of CAMH, that can sustain food production.

For the Growing Green Jobs participants, men and women coping with mental health and addiction issues, the program is about much more than producing food. The garden work is a unique form of therapy. Some participants get involved because they have gardened before and love it, others start out viewing it as simply a job that pays $7.50 an hour, says Helene May, CAMH project coach. “It is neat to see how, as they work through the initial grunt work like pulling up concrete, they get into the spirit of teamwork, and begin to get intrigued by the garden itself. People start asking ‘when do we plant’?”

Most of the food grown at the garden will be distributed through the Good Food Box, but each participant also receives an 8-foot plot to grow what they choose. These plots have become a source of great excitement and pride. “Going through the seed catalogues it was like a candy store,” says Helene. “When we’d planted everything, people started getting competitive about whose would come up first. Mine came up last.” One participant decided to grow only corn on his plot, a crop he had grown at home in Jamaica and was familiar with; another chose okra for nostalgic reasons, someone else five different salad greens. Now people have begun to trade items, and to tend and weed each others’ plots if someone is absent.

Working in the garden is the perfect way for participants to build self-esteem, get re-integrated into the job market and make a bit of money, says Helene. Participants can develop transferable job skills and a strong work ethic, she says. “Cashing a cheque that has a deduction is so important. It’s normalization-- they feel like everyone else now. They’ve set up new bank accounts, and it’s given them such a feeling of independence.” There have been other, less tangible benefits too: from improved negotiation and social skills gained though the group organizational process to label-reading skills and new nutrition awareness from cooking classes that participants swear have improved their health.

Helene credits FoodShare staff for being open to learning about mental health issues, and having worked to ensure that participants are not “segregated by attitude.” Participants work alongside staff and youth in FoodShare’s Focus on Food project. “At first, the youth and Green Jobs participants looked at each other, like ‘what’s your problem?” she says, but as they got to know one another and to share work and stories, respect and friendship started to grow. Future plans for the garden include sales of produce in the community-- to CAMH staff, an on-site farm stand and potentially through a new farmers market in Parkdale-- as well as an onsite bake oven. The Growing Green Jobs program has been made possible by grants from the United Way, Toronto Heart Health Partnership and the Urban Issues Program of the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation.

As FoodShare sees it...by Debbie Field, Executive Director

Want to eat well? Despite what you hear, it’s not that hard...
Link to text of Globe & Mail commentary piece written by Debbie in response to a series by the paper on food and nutrition

Foodnotes

Farmers Tour Ethnic Markets

How much coriander could Ontario farmers be growing for the Toronto market? Field to Table Centre Manager Mary Lou Morgan and a delegation of farmers from Catholic Rural Life Organization pondered this and other provocative questions during a late-July visit to Toronto shopping neighbourhoods patronized by immigrant communities.

Mary Lou and colleagues have long suspected that Ontario farmers are missing out on a huge Toronto market of shoppers who are forced to buy high-priced imported produce to satisfy their desire for foods that “taste like home”-- think calalloo, okra, chiles, beans, all products that could easily be grown locally. After chewing over their experience visiting businesses in Chinatown East and Little India, the farmers have committed to follow up by looking into forming a co-operative of Ontario farmers to grow for this market.

Healthy Food Frenzy Hits Schools

The adult spectators looked on in awe: what perverse impulse could be driving these kids to gobble up fruit, veggies, nuts and salads? This healthy, balanced menu was offered children at two pilot sites as part of the Salad Bar Pilot in the spring, helping to confirm what only a few optimists had suspected: when food is served in an appealing way, kids will eat more than french fries, cheese and chocolate. A modified version of the pilot will be extended to more schools this fall, which will work with the existing capacity of student nutrition programs to prepare food, offering them training in the salad bar concept, as well as menus, equipment loans and wholesale prices for the raw food materials for the meals. If you are interested in starting a student nutrition or salad bar project, call Joanne Porter at 392-1658.

Someone’s in the Field to Table Kitchen

What works better for your community kitchen, the “sen sei” model, “chaos theory” or “iron chef”? (Translation, respectively: facilitator-driven, de-centralized, working within the boundaries of the food available). Chef Gabrielle Bright and organizer Jennifer Reynolds introduced 30 community kitchen organizers to these and other useful cooking and food security topics during two six-week “Cooking out of the Box” series aimed at community cooking program facilitators and volunteers.

Conversation and instruction were wide-reaching, as participants themselves began to feel a part of a community kitchen of sorts. Topics covered included: knife skills, group dynamics, program funding, cooking with grains and beans, Asian cooking, working with food bank donations, building a pantry, incorporating more fresh produce in menus and introductions to other community food security projects.

In their evaluations, participants especially noted that they had widened their horizons in the area of using and appreciating fresh fruit and vegetables-- music to the ears of FoodShare ‘Reach for 5’ produce promoters. A new round of classes will start soon: call 363-6441 xt.21 if you are interested in improving your cooking program facilitation skills.

The cooking class segment of the Good Food at Home project met with similar acclaim. The nine women who participated, all of whom had recently been through treatment for breast cancer, gave instructor Akemi Kobayashi rave reviews for her overview of healthy eating and cooking techniques. But organizers continue to struggle with the complexity of the role of food in cancer: though everyone knows that diet is very important, no one can say what exactly is the right “prescription.” In light of this, a reasonable approach seems to be to facilitate the sharing of participant knowledge (many of whom have done extensive research themselves), while seeking to introduce general healthy eating guidelines and the fostering of the skills necessary to follow them.

If you or someone you know is in active treatment for breast cancer (or has recently finished treatment) and you are interested in finding out more about healthy food home delivery and cooking classes, contact Kate Sigurdson at 416-363-6441 xt. 30.

Garden tourists learn to eat their weedies

The annual Toronto Community Garden Network tour gives community gardeners and interested others a chance to get to know each other and explore similarities and differences between their gardens. Participants in the tour this year got a taste of the incredible mix of sites, people, plants and gardening practices within Toronto community gardens. They were intrigued to realize how one culture’s weed--- for example, purslane or amaranth, in fact eaten by almost every culture outside North America-- can be another’s nutritious staple food.

Sites for gardens are also diverse: a city park, church property, private apartment complex, community centre and a back yard were all featured sites hosting gardens. In Etobicoke, the Riverside Garden must protect itself against marauding deer. The garden at the North Toronto Memorial Community Centre focuses on seed saving and preserving heritage plant varieties. The Shamba garden grows produce for sale in the Afri-Can Food Basket. But similarities abound as well: amaranth grows in one of its many varieties in all the gardens, everyone struggles with water access and vandalism, all sites liven up their food gardens with ornamentals. Oh, and every single gardener loves to talk about their garden.

FoodLink Interns Sought

Are you empathetic, non-judgmental, resilient, computer-literate and knowledgeable (or willing to learn) about Toronto’s social service sector? The FoodLink Hotline is a telephone referral service operated by a partnership between FoodShare and Community Information Toronto that refers callers to food programs in the city. We are looking for student interns who can spend a minimum of 3 hours per week from September to December. Interns will receive all necessary training, and will also be involved in research projects connected to the hotline. Please contact Jennifer at 392-6653 for more info.