Beggars SHOULD Be Choosers

This week marks a small victory for the Right to Food movement in the DTES or at least the tiny wave of food activism that reverberates within the walls of where I work: we successfully got Food Runner  (the principle link between food donors, the food bank and non-profit organizations) to stop giving us bag loads of day old pastries! Yes, two weeks after we made a bold request, they showed up sans those big clear bags of stale poverty-diet-staples for us to sort.

Hell did not break loose, the apocalypse did not happen (yet), and we did not piss the FR off enough for them to stop delivering the food we actually need. Our clients will not starve as a result of our impudent requests (though it is fucked up that they could without the help of charity.) Nor did any of the other fears that keep organizations from telling donors what they do and do not need materialize--though we were afraid...

Email Revolution:

All it took was a simple email, one manager to another,  politely reiterating the health concerns that prevail among the population we serve and courteously requesting (if it is not too much trouble)  that they please keep those refined sugars and flours AWAY! It's probably a good thing that I didn't write the email, I do have a tendency to get a wee bit militant. Some clients refer to me as the food police--yes I am, so?--and I got in trouble in an interview setting with two managers once when I stated that I rather have clients starve to death than have them eat day old pastries every morning--its true though! Well at least theoretically.

Now my coworker Jess and I no longer have to cringe as we watch clients eating handfuls of donuts and cakes that we were forced to put out on the counter when we ran out of garbage space--a regular occurrence that completely reduced all our efforts to serve the most tasty and nutritious food possible to crumbs. We are still not able to do everything that we would like in the kitchen (the revolution is not funded!), but at least we can help our clients start the day off a little less toxically. 

Wants versus Needs and for Whom?

What we do deal with now though, even more profoundly, is the reality that it is very difficult to create a healthy meal with what tends to get donated and that pastries really filled a void (filler in the fullest sense of the word) where proper funding ought to be. 

We also deal with backlash from some clients who want the sweets, which raises ethical questions around speaking on behalf of individuals who seldom have the opportunity to speak for themselves and who don't have access to choice of any kind including in the basic realm of what to eat for breakfast today? 

It is important to think about the huge discrepancy between workers and the clients we are representing (and to always remember that it is pretty messed up that we are employed to "represent," at least ostensibly). Yes beggars can't be choosers in our society, but that's not just an old cliche, its a pervasive ideology that is self serving.

And it is so easy for me to take on the role of food Nazi when I can satisfy both wants and needs (i.e I can spend some of my paycheck on some tasty craft beer and overindulge with no critical--or pitying-- gazes monitoring and discussing my every move. I can also easily knock back some of my expensive supplements and organic foods the next day to bring the rosiness back to my sallow cheeks. )

Of course it is not me the individual who is robbing people from their right to choose (but maybe me as part of a collective); it is the charitable system itself (donor driven!) which is also a symptom of an inequitable society. Charity does not even allow us to secure basic needs and all the sugar in the world can't coat that truth.

The position I am in allows me two limited choices: to be a highly limited spokesperson (as  utterly problematic as that is) or to say nothing at all and carry on with business as usual.

I pick the lesser of two evils, that is my only choice. 

A Different Type of Creepy, a Different Kind of Meal

Halloween has always been my favourite celebration. I even went trick or treating last year much to the amusement (or pity?) of my neighbours.

This year my Halloween has been extra special since I got to take part in throwing down an amazing feast at my work with my awesome coworkers and the participants of my weekly community kitchen in honour of all things creepy and crawly. Well maybe not the usual creepy crawlers around here (aka bed bugs, roaches and other things best left unmentioned.)


Community Kitchen: A Different Kind of Meal

Once a week I run a community kitchen and we make amazing food that we eat together around the table, family style. While community kitchens come in all shapes and forms they generally are reformist  by design. They are a form of small scale yet powerful food activism that deliberately operates in stark contrast to the prevailing soup kitchen type arrangement low-income people are expected to feed themselves with.

For my program I purchase all the food that we prepare as opposed to using donations, unless something truly amazing comes in that I would buy if my budget permitted it. I tailor the menus to fit the nutritional needs of the participants present rather than basing my meal planning on what the food bank brings for the week. The group fosters a sense of community by working together, sharing our diverse knowledge (and some laughs--usually at my expense) over the stove and the table.

The meals we make are healthy, tasty, whole, and inspired by dishes from all corners of the world. They are also budget conscious as I only have 25$ each week which typically feeds 12-15 people.

 I look forward to sharing many of our fabulous recipes in this blog.

Mega-CK-funtastic!

On the last Monday of every month with the help of my fabulous kitchen coworker Jessica,  the group opens its circle to create a meal for the whole drop-in (about 100 people!) that we serve buffet style so that we can engage with everyone in a cheerful, personalised way while giving people the rare opportunity to tell us what they would like on their plate.

We always pick a theme such as Mexican fiesta, spring bounty, or fall harvest (just to name a few). The staff dress up, we select the appropriate music to play and decorate the space. It's kind of like having a Halloween party every month, which is awesome for me and secretly my main motivation to do the theme dinners (I'm half joking). Personally I am looking forward to a space theme, though I don't know yet quite what that would entail.

Its only natural that we would really go all out for the actual All Hallows Eve! For a week we centred the activities of the drop-in around decorating the space, for example by having a hyped-up pumpkin carving contest for the members a few days prior. We even got the pumpkins from a local farm thanks to one of Lookout's outreach workers--how folk activist is that! My coworker Devon who runs a comfort-food based seniors community kitchen ( I like to say mine is west-coast fusion weird) got her group to hand roll 700 meatballs the day before, a rad contribution to the event.

Outside of the kitchen all the staff and many volunteers were abuzz with decorating, testing out creepy music, tinkering with lighting and trying to find costumes from the donations for any one interested in dressing up. In the hours leading up to the actual feast the kitchen was also in full swing working on an our Halloween themed offerings.

The menu consisted of:

1. A harvest curried squash and chickpea stew
2. Raw coconut date balls (we rolled 100 of those puppies!)
3. Brown basmati rice 
4. Garlicky meat balls which we decorated to look like eyes
5. Green salad

The turnout was fabulous and we had so much fun, despite the fact that at one point I thought I might pass out under my mask! 

Once again I was reminded of how great the people I work with are and of how fortunate I am to have a job where I am encouraged to let my creativity flow full force!

the food was NOT donated, but the costumes were!