‘Teaching cooking is a vehicle to teach food literacy.’
— BC chef Barbara Finley tells the room.
Notes from this week
This week, I’m reporting back on the Farm to Cafeteria/Farm to School conference held in Montreal on November 12-14. It was Canada’s first nation-wide Farm to School and was mainly organized by two groups, Farm to Cafeteria based in Vancouver and Equiterre, based in Montreal. The attendance — 450 people — as well as the prominent participation of the widely-respected Heart and Stroke Foundation made it a great success. I believe the next major step taken by Canadian food activists will be connected to themes raised here.
I had the chance to give the keynote address on Saturday, and then do the cat-herding and wrap up of a discussion session, where attendees worked at small tables to plan next steps of working together with new allies. One inspiring side aspect of the conference is that it was held at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, which hires a full-time gardener to manage the hotel’s green roof, home to 300,000 bees that provide honey to guests.
Insights
The school meals movement is an exciting and buoyant example of what makes food politics unique. A typical coalition from pre-food movement days included people from across the political, cultural and social spectrum who were united on one goal — be it ending a war in Vietnam or winning reproductive choice for women or going on strike for better working conditions.
Food movements generally, and the school meal movement in particular, also include people from all over the social, political, health, environmental and educational spectrum — a very wide spectrum indeed — and also people who have very different perspectives on school meals. Some see it as a great educational experiment, introducing students to experiential learning. Some see it as providing stigma-free meals for children who don’t have enough food at home. Some see it as a way to promote public sector purchasing of local and sustainable food. Some see it as an assured market for local farmers. Some see it as a way to turn schools into community hubs. And first and foremost, some see it as a way to prevent chronic disease by promoting access to and enjoyment of whole and nutritious foods. That’s a huge spectrum by any movement’s standards. As those among you who have followed me for some time will know, that is why I promote what’s called a “big tent” view of food organizing. I should probably say “Big Table.” Everyone is welcome at the table to bring something and share something in this diverse movement!! ( I outline the full argument for this in my e-book, most easily available through Amazon, called Food for City Building, which I published in partnership with my friends at Hypenotic, who are also helping me get this newsletter off the ground.( http://www.amazon.ca/Food-City-Building-Actionists-Entrepreneurs-ebook/dp/B00J3BJ5W6 )
The ideas I’m most interested in make the case that school meals need to be provided on a universal basis, because they are needed by kids from all kinds of families and income levels, and because they are an essential element of dynamic school curriculum and learning activity. They are so positive in terms of reducing chronic disease and improving school performance that the cost should be seen and judged as an investment, not an expenditure.
A big thank you
Before closing on this edition of the newsletter, I want to acknowledge my debt to FoodShare (I served on their board for many years) for introducing me to and teaching me about the wonderful world of school meals. I am looking forward to helping build the leadership of the school meals movement by participating as a new board member at Farm to Cafeteria.
Coming next
I look forward to chatting with you next week about the unprecedented opportunity provided by Canada’s new government — the chance to develop a national food policy. Feel free to email me in the meantime; if you don’t have my email, write me at the address provided in the contact section of my blog (http://wayneroberts.ca/ ) and we can then connect directly.
Cheers,
Wayne Roberts