This post originally appeared on my blog Folks Gotta Eat.
I run a charity. It's a fabulous charity. It's radical in all the right ways, and has an amazing history of facilitating transformation in the lives of youth. However, due to budget constraints, we have to make on-going tough choices around food - we go local and/or organic where we can, but it's hard. In an attempt to further my own thinking on this issue, I'm going to name the key challenges we face in hopes that our readers will weigh in with some creative solutions.
Challenges
The overarching challenge is that we have to buy an enormous amount of non-local, non-organic food from a food distribution company. Here's why.
- Location: The basecamp for our summer programs is located in Temagami. On a good day, it takes about 6 hours to drive there from Toronto, or 7 hours on the train. The location is amazing in most ways, except for the rising costs of fuel that contribute to our high transportation and food costs.
- Local Availability: There is a grocery store in Temagami that comes and goes. The selection is, um, limited. There is a weekly farmers' market in the summer, but due to our program schedule and staff resources, it is often impossible for us to hit that. Obviously, we have to set menus in advance for healthy, long canoe trip-appropriate food that youth will actually eat. This means we can't just wing it with whatever is available at the weekly farmers' market even if we can get to it.
- Local Farm Access: The Temagami Region is not farm country, so it would be time and transport intensive for us to make individual deals with the nearest farmers. We do procure local honey and local cheese. We've had great success with generous discounts and donations from these producers.
- Staples vs. Fresh Goods: We can obviously front load orders of dry good staples, but fresh items have to be sourced on a regular basis to match the numbers of youth coming on the various scheduled trips, and to limit waste.
- Youth: Like most youth programs, we have an on-going challenge getting youth to want to eat whole grains and fresh fruits and veggies instead of processed foods and white bread. They're generally shocked and dismayed that we run a vegetarian operation. Though real magic occurs over the course of a trip when youth start digging on the veggies, fruits and grains. We've pretty much adopted the philosophy that if you provide only whole grains, fruits and veggies, youth will eventually get hungry enough from paddling and portaging that they will eat it, and sometimes, even like it.
Possible solutions
As a food policy/food security junkie, I have spent some time thinking about how we can address the challenges. However, I could use some feedback, ideas and support.
- Regional Network: I would love to work with other camps in the region to support a regional network for purchasing Ontario farm goods. In my mind, Local Food Plus is the place to go to make this happen. I am guilty of repeatedly contacting them and then playing a massive game of phone tag that led to nothing.
- Train: The train to Temagami from Toronto used to arrive and leave at weird times in the night. Now there is a daily train (except Saturdays) that drops off and picks up in Temagami at a more reasonable time. I rode it for the first time the other day, and had a wonderful experience. I'm wondering if we couldn't make a deal with the Northland train to make regular drops of goods that I procure from the GreenBelt. Given that the ticket clerk chased after me the other morning to give me his phone number, I might be able to make this happen.
Dreams
The magic of my job is that I work with creative, inspiring people, and have no end to the amount of positive change I can imagine and initiate.
- Organic Garden: Our summer staff rock. Each year, one or more of our canoe trippers takes our basecamp's organic garden a step or two further. With a little planning and cultivation, we could provide much more of our fresh veggies from our own garden. In the process, we'll continue to lead by example, as well as educate, our youth about self-sufficiency and healthy practices.
- Food Education: My co-blogger, Shana, sent me a link this morning to an organization called "Terra Summer." The mission of Terra Summer is to give children a glimpse into the story behind what we eat; to introduce them to the beauty and magic of food as well as the urgent and fundamental economic, environmental, social, and political issues related to the world of food and its production. Wouldn't it be fabulous to continue to infuse Project Canoe's programming with this type of insight while staying true to the mission? Though I just had an out-loud chuckle thinking about The Simpsons episode when Lisa's class watches the film about the slaughterhouse. My goal is to steer clear of scarring the youth for life.
I'll look forward to your ideas. For now, I'll leave you with the video clip I refer to above. Enjoy.
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