With tomorrow’s municipal elections in mind, I just came across an interesting reminder by Debbie Field, Executive Director of FoodShare Toronto, about the important role food plays in our communities:
www.foodshare.net/foodpolicy-cityagenda.htm.

Let’s make good food more accessible, not less.

Great Big Crunch apple
The Great Big Crunch is when 700 students gather on the front lawn of Queen’s Park and simultaneously bite into a fresh, local apple. And it’s happing this Friday at 2pm, Oct. 8.

The Great Big Crunch is part of a province-wide Eat-In Ontario fall harvest celebration, which aims to teach students of all ages the joys of cooking, growing and tasting good, healthy food.

Eat-In Ontario is part of FoodShare’s Recipe for Change initiative, which is working hard to improve food literacy across Ontario.

So pack an apple and come on down to show your support! It’ll be worth the trip just to see 700 kids do anything simultaneously.

Who: Students, JK-12 and anyone else who eats food
Where: Front lawn Queen’s Park
When: Fri, 8 Oct. 2 pm
Why: Because good healthy food matters, and not just for kids

I have a confession to make. In the last federal election, I voted for the Green Party because Elizabeth May, like her or not, was the only candidate who mentioned food quality as a concern. Needless to say, she didn’t get in. But now in the run up to Ontario’s municipal elections in October, it looks like food might be back on the table.

Tomorrow morning in Toronto, the Canadian Urban Institute in collaboration with the Cities Centre at the University of Toronto is putting on a breakfast seminar on how and why food fits in the election agenda.

“How should we think about food? … We need to think and act very differently about how we grow, process, distribute and consume our food. Improved access to healthy and abundant locally-produced food is a worthy goal shared by the City of Toronto’s Board of Health…”

I should say so.