Connect Farm Seminar - Thank You!

Thank you to everyone who attended tonight's Connect Farm Seminar, especially to the wonderful panel of speakers whose insightful information motivated, inspired, and entertained us!

After the event, one participant said "It was great! I feel so much better about the world now, and so much worse about my eating habits!"

Emily VanHalem - FoodShare, Karen Campbell - Everdale Farm, Angie Koch - Fertile Grounds.

The panel featured guests from as far away as Wiarton, ON and as nearby as Dufferin and Bloor Street. Participants learned about how they can use organizations resources such as Everdale Farm's "Farmer for a Day" program and Food Share's "Field to Table Schools" initiative. We heard first hand accounts of the trials and tribulations of being a small-scale local distribution fisherman from the Akiwenzie Family (Andrew, Natasha and their three boys), and the similar struggles (and joys!) of being a small organic farmer from Angie Koch of Fertile Grounds. Arlene Stien from Hart House shared information about the University of Toronto's food service contracts (which have a mandate to source 25% of their produce locally), and Kristin Schroeder from Real Food For Real Kids told us about how similar mandates can be worked into the elementary system, but that there is much work to be done in order to make headway into the Secondary Schools cafeteria menus.


Finally, we finished off the evening with a local potluck dinner. During this time, we had the opportunity to get some feedback from our classmates and from our presenters, and the response was very positive. Many of the presenters were grateful for the chance to spread the word about their programs, and expressed the need for more opportunities such as this. As Emily VanHalem from Food Share pointed out, having informed teachers will go a long way towards making real changes in the education system, from curriculum that implements learning about food systems to changing school lunch programs and reconnecting kids to the earth. Karen Campbell from Everdale Farm echoed this opinion saying that hopefully through programs like this we can create a small army of advocates that will help re-educate Ontario's youth about food.

So now, it's up to us to continue to advocate for fresh, local produce in our schools and to promote education that incorporates learning about food -- whether it be food budgeting in Math class, nutrition in Phys. Ed., or cooking in Home Economics. As teachers, education about the economic, health and environmental benefits of supporting locally grown (or caught!) food is an important aspect of our careers that should not be overlooked.

Renegade Lunch Lady.

Having just finished our first practicum placements, I am sure that every student at OISE has had a taste (or at least a smell) of the cafeteria food that youth are consuming each day at school. Did anyone experience anything outstanding in their cafeterias? In my school, I was impressed at how hard the lunch lady worked and about the amount of food that was prepared from scratch each day -- unlike the prepackaged foods that Cooper speaks about in her presentation. From muffins to soups, to salads, the back kitchen in the cafeteria was a busy busy place. However, I am also certain that a good deal of the food being produced in that busy kitchen is still calorie laden, imported and probably not locally produced.

So what can we do about this? Some teachers, like Paul Finkelstein in Stratford, ON, are taking school lunches to a whole new level of healthy learning. His Screaming Avocado Cafe is a student-run cafe that serves up local, healthy meals to their classmates in place of a cafeteria. How can others implement programs similar to this one? Mr. Finkelstein will be a guest at the Connect Farm Seminar next Tuesday evening, so you can come out and learn for yourself.

Others, like Ann Cooper -- a "renegade lunch lady" from Berkeley, CA are pioneering the local lunch movement in schools across the United States. In this incredibly passionate and informative TED Talk, Cooper talks about the importance of not only educating youth about eating healthy, but also the bigger political issues regarding farm subsidies, government spending and health care.



From the TED site: "To help other school systems transform their own meal programs, she just launched a beta version of The Lunch Box, a website from her nonprofit F3: Food Family Farming Foundation. Inside The Lunch Box are budget models, menus and lots of recipes -- enter the number of servings you need, and the recipe page calculates how much of each ingredient you'll need. (Meatloaf for 600, anyone?)"

One of the important pieces that Cooper touches on in her talk is the idea of public-private partnerships. When I asked my colleagues at my practicum placement school about how the students were working with community groups, the teachers said that students were "very involved -- they make donations to community groups all the time." Making donations to community groups is great -- but, what about another, mutually beneficial sort of that relationship? It seems to me that many people view school-community relations as a one way street: Student Activity Councils operate fundraisers, canned food drives, or organize assemblies to benefit non-profits, or occasionally non-profits come into schools as guests to do presentations. But what about meaningful, ongoing partnerships?

One such partnership that has had great success in teaching kids about food is the organization Added Value in Brooklyn, NY. Founded by Youth Worker Ian Marvey on the premise of creating leadership amongst at-risk youth, Added Value is a farm located in the most unlikely of places -- on an old concrete baseball diamond in a low income neighborhood. The farm is run almost entirely by teenagers, who take home not only valuable income to their families, but also the fruits of their labour. Additional produce from the farm is also sold to local restaurants such as home/made, and the funds go towards creating education programs for youth. Added Value works in partnership with local schools during a 26 week Farm-to-Classroom program, in which "first graders at Red Hook’s PS 15 participate in weekly farm-based lessons, coupled with weekly cooking lessons. By taking part in farm activities, the students develop a working knowledge of plant biology, plant cycles, and a farmer’s work to grow food. Not to mention, an excitement for fruits and vegetables!" This program is much more than a one day field trip to a farm -- students become deeply invovled with the farm, community members, local businesses and each other, making connections between their actions on the farm, their health, the earth and their future.

In our readings for the School and Society Course, we read about Paulo Freire's Praxis process for education, which consists of five parts: identifying a problem, analysing the problem, developing a plan of action to address the problem, implementing the plan of action, and analysing that action. I've found that when it comes to student's reaching out into the community, the piece that is often missing the action and then reflection on that action. Often students learn about problems in the neighborhood and figure out a way to raise funds or awareness, but they don't often interact in a meaningful way with those involved in the actual problem or community group.

Overall, when thinking about how school lunches can be changed for the better, I believe that the solution needs to be student-driven, teacher facilitated, parent supported and include some sort of meaningful partnership with a community organization, such as the Stop or Food Share.

To find out more about these organizations, and how they can help you provide meaningful praxis oriented learning opportunities for your students, join us on Tuesday for the Connect Farm Seminar.

Seminar - Only 3 Days Away!

Only three days until the Connect Farm Seminar!

We're excited to announce that we have added additional speakers to the lineup for our seminar on Tuesday at OISE. Meredith Hayes from Foodshare and Kristen Schroeder from Real Food for Real Kids will be joining our panel of experts on Tuesday night.

See the Seminar Information page for more information on these great panelists, who will have incredible knowledge to share with you about their work in local farming and education.

This event is shaping up to be something that you won't want to miss! The event is free and open to the public as well as OISE Students, so please feel free to pass the word. We have created a facebook event and U of T Students should remember to register through SUPO's website, so that you can receive your certificate of completion for this workshop.

We look forward to seeing you on Tuesday at 5:15pm in Room 5-250!

Connect Farm Seminar - Details Announced!

We are pleased to announce some details for the upcoming Connect Farm professional development seminar featuring a panel discussion with local experts in farming, food policy, creative education, nutrition and sustainability.
Connect Farm Seminar
December 8th, 2009
5:15pm - 8:00pm
OISE Room 5-250.

The Seminar will be about 90 minutes and it will be followed by a communal potluck dinner featuring locally produced foods -- if you attend, we invite you to bring something to eat or drink to share.

U of T Students can reserve their spot for the event by registering through SUPO's website. Non-Students are also welcome to attend and can RSVP to oiseconnectfarm@gmail.com before December 6th.

We are currently finalizing the list of speakers for this event, but to date we are honored to have the following three speakers confirmed:

Chris Brown, Food Enterprise Coordinator at The Stop.
"Located in Toronto’s west end, The Stop works to increase access to food in a manner that maintains dignity, builds health and community and challenges inequality.
From its origins as one of Canada’s first food banks, The Stop has blossomed into a thriving community hub where neighbours participate in a broad range of programs that provide healthy food, as well as foster social connections, build food skills and promote engagement in civic issues. "

Paul Finkelstein, Teacher and Culinary Club Leader
Paul is a secondary school teacher in Stratford who started a Culinary Club for his students, which turned into not only an opportunity to teach students about healthy eating, but also to improve the meals served at the school through the creation of the Screaming Avocado Cafe in his school. A profile of this project was featured in the Fall 2009 OSSTF Education Forum magazine. See page 22 of the publication for more details.

Meredith Hayes, Field to Table Schools Coordinator at Foodshare
FoodShare Toronto is a non-profit community organization whose vision is Good Healthy Food for All. They take a multifaceted, innovative, and long-term approach to hunger and food issues, working on food issues "from field to table" - meaning that we focus on the entire system that puts food on our tables: from the growing, processing and distribution of food to its purchasing, cooking and consumption. Public education on food security issues is a big part of Food Share's mandate: they create and distribute resources, organize training workshops and facilitate networks and coalitions.

Ivy Knight, Chef and Food Writer
When not working on the grill station at one of Toronto’s hottest restaurants or organizing culinary competitions between the city’s best chefs, Ivy Knight writes about the food scene for various publications, among them the Globe and Mail, Toronto Life, City Bites, the Toronto Star www.egullet.org and www.gremolata.com. Her latest project, a food radio show called "Swallow" has wrapped and you can now listen to the episodes here.

Angie Koch, Farmer at Fertile Grounds CSA
Fertile Grounds is an organic farm located just west of Waterloo, ON. They distribute direct to embers & customers within 2 days of harvest and sell all of their produce locally because they believe in the economic & political sustainability of local food systems. Fertile Grounds grows organically because they believe that is the best way to nourish ourselves, our customers & the earth, for years to come.

Kristen Schroeder from Real Food for Real Kids.
Real Food for Real Kids has a mission that as educators we should all strive to meet:
- Change the way children eat and understand food.
- Provide children with delicious, healthy, all-natural meals and snacks.
- Reconnect children and families to real food.
- Inspire future generations to make healthier choices, every day.
- Support local farmers and producers who are as committed to responsible and sustainable business practices as we are.

Arlene Stein Co-Leader of Slow Food Toronto; chair of Terroir, and World Food Week

Slow Food Toronto aims to build food community networks; to ensure biodiversity in our local agriculture systems; to support local, small-scale sustainable farm operations and oppose government support of corporate-controlled industrial farming; to create sustainable, local food economies that support just wages for producers; to reconnect people with the pleasure of good food of authentic origin and flavour through taste education; and, to share traditional and ethnic food cultures to ensure their preservation for future generations.

Terroir is Toronto's premier food professional conference. Now in it's second year, Terroir pulls together the cream of the dining, food and wine worlds with an emphasis on excellence and sustainability.

World Food Week 2009 was from October 16-23 at Hart House at the University of Toronto. A week of events designed to heighten awareness and taste buds, exploring relationships with food and what that means for our health and communities.

100 Mile Finds

Today as I was checking out my usual weekly blog reads, I came across this call for vendors on Toronto Craft Alert. It seems that the buy local movement is rapidly spreading beyond food to incorporate hand crafted or locally produced clothing and household items. 100milefinds.com sounds like it's going to be a localized version of Etsy.com, which has taken off in the past several years to be the e-bay of the crafting world.

Supporting locally made goods is just as important as supporting locally grown produce, for all the same reasons: saving in fuel and transportation costs (both economical and environmental) and supporting local economies. Therefore, when we are teaching our students about the importance of buying locally, we should not overlook the possibilities for these items.

As individuals, we should strive to support these local artisans and remember that a dollar spent on their goods is a dollar that stays local and helps strengthen our local economy. Not to mention your product will be unique and more interesting than something mass produced! For example, rather than buying your next greeting card at Shopper's Drug Mart, where it was probably printed in some far off place and shipped half way around the world, check out a local Etsy.com seller -- or the soon to come 100milefinds.com -- and pick up something special.

Finally, if you know any local Toronto crafters or artisans that might want to list their goods on 100milefinds.com, spread the word!

Local Kitchen, Yes Please!

As my first exploration of Toronto's local and slowfood restaurant community, tonight I had the incredible pleasure of dining at Local Kitchen Wine Bar & Restaurant in Parkdale. This cozy eatery has only been open for five weeks, but they're already making their mark on the Parkdale neighborhood and they are setting the bar high for my expectations of Toronto restaurants supporting local farmers.

Local Kitchen is a member and supporter of Slow Food Toronto, whose mission is to "create sustainable, local food economies that support just wages for producers while ensuring that we still provide access to good, clean, fair food at a reasonable price to all."

Keeping in line with these ideals, Local Kitchen cures all of their own locally sourced meats (mostly from just outside of Stratford); they acquire some incredible Ontario cheese and dairy products (such as Bufala Burrata - a non-churned version of butter that melts in your mouth); the chef selects fine cuts of meat from Kerr Farms which are prepared using seasonal ingredients; and the pasta is also made in house. The wine lists consists of what our server, Michael Sangregorio, describes as three levels of local: "truly local" Ontario; "almost local" British Colombia, and "local for our ancestors" Southern Italy. While they take creative liberties with this categorization, I can't deny that the glass I enjoyed from Puglia was worth the transatlantic journey.

Perhaps the most impressive elements of Local Kitchen's approach to supporting local farmers are their efforts to serve local all year long through the wonders of canning and preserving, and their willingness to get their hands dirty -- they have a plot of land north of the city where they cultivate their own produce. The arugula salad with Niagara peaches brought my taste buds to life with delicately preserved peaches that were far from the mushy over sweetened canned peaches I was accustomed to. And the fact that my server was possibly responsible for growing that arugula made the salad twice as delightful to enjoy.

Overall, if my impending foray into local eating tastes and smells as good as my meal this evening at Local Kitchen, then I say sign me up as a locavore!

Local Kitchen is located at 1710 Queen Street West, just east of Roncesvalles Avenue. They're open Tues-Sunday for dinner, which I have to add is reasonably priced for the quality of food and service they provide.

Lesson Plans

We are pleased to share with you our first lesson plan, created for your use in the classroom. This lesson plan is designed for a Grade 11 World History classes, but could be adapted to suit your needs. Please feel free to use this resource and share it with your colleagues!

CHW3M Lesson Plan.

Check back soon for more lesson plans that are applicable to other classes!

Links and Resources

Below are some of the resources and organizations that we have discovered in our research. We hope you will find them useful, and if you have any suggestions for additions, please leave us a comment!

Food Cycles
- Urban Farming and composting in TO
- Website is rich with resources
- They post ideas for action (ie hosting a 30 mile food party)
- Possible field trip to learn more?

Added Value
- An urban farm in NYC that has been very successful
- Currently working on a project in partnership with the organization that I worked for in NYC, the Design Trust (http://designtrust.org/projects/project_09farm.html) -- this project will result in a how-to manual for urban farming and also it will address city policy in regards to urban agriculture (currently there is not city zoning law that addresses urban agriculture).

Food Share
- An organization that takes a "multifaceted, innovative, and long-term approach to hunger and food issues.At FoodShare we work on food issues "from field to table" - meaning that we focus on the entire system that puts food on our tables: from the growing, processing and distribution of food to its purchasing, cooking and consumption."
- Their website includes a 'toolbox' of ideas for action.
- Specifically, they are interested in connecting local farmers to economically disadvantaged communities where 'food deserts' exist.

Food Jammers
- A television show in which Micah Donovan, Christopher Martin and Nobu Adilman come up with brilliant designs for culinary contraptions.

Canadian Organic Growers Association
- Includes a database of where to buy organic in Canada.

Green Enterprise Toronto
- They have a list of places consumers can buy local in Toronto.
- They support local, green businesses.

The Center for Social Innovation
- An organization that brings together a variety of non-profits to promote collaboration and social change.

Food Inc
- A movie about the industrial food system. The website also includes a reading list and other resources.

Canadian Policy Research Network
- A resource for researching food policy in Canada.

Ontario EcoSchools
- Education programs (including curriculum resources) based on the environment

The Toronto Food Policy Council
- Partners with businesses and community groups to develop policies promoting food security -- equitable food access, nutrition, community and environmental health.

GTA Local Food
- This website is primarily about where to get local food, but if you go to the agricultural profile section, it provides statistics on the current status of farming in the GTA.

Whitmore's Farm
- A local farm.

Foodland Ontario
- This is an official program from the Ontario government that is very active and yet still highly overlooked.
- The website has a growing season index, recipes, kids activities and traveling events. Perhaps some co-ordination with this group might make our job easier.

Ontario Greenbelt Alliance
As a part of the company Enviromental Defence, Ontario Greenbelt Alliance acts as a researcher and defender of the Ontario Greenbelt. They protect try to protect the enviroment of the greenbelt while advoacating its conservation and established use as farmland. They combat the sale and industrial development of the greenbelt when ever possible. They have many credible organizations as supporting members. They call local farmers the "Stewards" of the Greenbelt.

Jamie Kennedy's restaurants.
He cooks "locally" (Canada is local in this context). He is also a strong advocate of Ontario wines, which is one of the more profitable farming opportunities in Ontario.

World Wildlife Fund Localicious
The World Wildlife Fund has a campaign going on right now called Localicioius and it promotes eating locally at participating restaurants. Although this campaign only runs from Oct2-18, this is a good idea to promote local eating to restaurants in our community, even if they just have one dish. Restaurants are also distributors of food. So that's an idea. Restaurants having at least one local dish may feel proud about it and advertise their restaurant as a locally runned restaurant, therefore that might attract customers to try and also mabye they will consider locally grown in their home too. Just a few strands that can lead to differnt places with this idea that I totally stole from wwf.

Harvest Wednesdays
Chef Marc Breton at the Gladstone Hotel prepares a meal from food produced by local farmers every Wednesday.

The Farm Show (play)
A collective creation based on an ensemble who spent 6 weeks in rural ontario living and working on a farm in order to create a show. This play is from the early '70s but there are some pertinent monologues in there.

Ministry of Agriculture: Food and Rural Affairs - Pick Ontario Campaign

Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance

November 22 is Buy Local Day!

Ontario Agri-Food Education
Working to increase awareness of the agri-food industry by providing educational programs and resources. Many links to other great resources.

The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair

This annual event showcases some of the new innovations in agricultural policy and technological development including enviromental awareness, community involvement, health and energy. It is running November 8-16 2009 at the Exibition Place. Adult tickets are $16.

Canaidan International Farm Show

This event connects farmers from all across Canada to discuss major issues in farming such as local support, environment and innovation.

It is running Feb 16-19 2010 at the Toronto International Centre.