food issues?

[Daniel Bida]

As Transition Toronto gets organized and begins to work with all concerned stakeholders, it would be helpful to have some input on what you think the Food subcommittee should focus on.

So please, what are your ideas to increase the resiliency of Toronto's food supply?

[Martina Rowley]

Good idea, Marisa! And always nice to involve, and work with a variety of age groups and diverse neighbours/neighbourhoods. This is an idea TTo sub-committees could work on together, i.e. the food group, as well as maybe the reskilling group. Maybe bring this up at one of the next meetings so some ideas can be thrown around! :)


Marisa Meléndez said:

In response to Heather's March 22 comment I would like to say that I completely agree. I too have been thinking a lot about the topic of many immigrants having knowledge of growing food in small spaces. In my area there are many Chinese who grow many vegetables in small spaces, as Heather mentioned about her Portuguese and Italian neighbours. The areas absolutely flourish. It is very impressive. It would be nice to set up some kind of community workshops with people in the know. It would also be a nice way to connect different ethnic groups. I live near what I think is a retirement home. People in the building have a plot of land beside the building where they grow vegetables. I always see several elderly people caring for it. If someone could come up with an organized method of carrying out workshops, I could try to contact the individuals involved in this garden to see if they would be willing help out. I have a friend that speaks Mandarin and Cantonese, so perhaps she could help as well.

Heather Posgate said:

We can all learn a lot about growing your own food from the variety of cultures in Toronto. Many of the recent immigrants to Toronto grow a lot of food in limited spaces, front and back yards. I live in a Portuguese and Italian neighbourhood and I am learning a lot about gardening and preserving from my neighbours. Toronto is already well known for the variety of restaurants that we have from different cultures ... how can we extend this to local food growth? I think a lot of the how-to knowledge already exists in Toronto but this amazing resource is being overlooked.

[Geoff Buddle]

Have you guys seen "The Garden"? Tragic but eye opening as to the native knowledge about beneficial plants.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhhfr_hIL7A
Stumbled across a few new-to-me docs on youtube, some pending release, some a few years old and now no one file sharing them. Working on getting "Food Inc." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKYyD14d_0), "Unmistaken Child" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy9AFwvzmok), "Fuel", "No Impact Man" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htL4QUCT_a8) and "Flow" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsP5EmMrTqk) I'd be happy to pass on what I have. I'll bring my laptop to "Saving Gigi" tonight if anyone one wants to grab something for their USB storage device.

Geoff

Martina Rowley said:

Good idea, Marisa! And always nice to involve, and work with a variety of age groups and diverse neighbours/neighbourhoods. This is an idea TTo sub-committees could work on together, i.e. the food group, as well as maybe the reskilling group. Maybe bring this up at one of the next meetings so some ideas can be thrown around! :)


Marisa Meléndez said:

In response to Heather's March 22 comment I would like to say that I completely agree. I too have been thinking a lot about the topic of many immigrants having knowledge of growing food in small spaces. In my area there are many Chinese who grow many vegetables in small spaces, as Heather mentioned about her Portuguese and Italian neighbours. The areas absolutely flourish. It is very impressive. It would be nice to set up some kind of community workshops with people in the know. It would also be a nice way to connect different ethnic groups. I live near what I think is a retirement home. People in the building have a plot of land beside the building where they grow vegetables. I always see several elderly people caring for it. If someone could come up with an organized method of carrying out workshops, I could try to contact the individuals involved in this garden to see if they would be willing help out. I have a friend that speaks Mandarin and Cantonese, so perhaps she could help as well.

Heather Posgate said:

We can all learn a lot about growing your own food from the variety of cultures in Toronto. Many of the recent immigrants to Toronto grow a lot of food in limited spaces, front and back yards. I live in a Portuguese and Italian neighbourhood and I am learning a lot about gardening and preserving from my neighbours. Toronto is already well known for the variety of restaurants that we have from different cultures ... how can we extend this to local food growth? I think a lot of the how-to knowledge already exists in Toronto but this amazing resource is being overlooked.

[Marisa Meléndez]

I am just throwing this idea out there, but I was thinking that maybe we could create a Food Share page on this site. What I mean is, I know that for myself and others I know, we often have much food wast. You know, you buy parsley because you need about a tablespoon of it but it comes in an enormous bunch? Or perhaps you purchase some orange juice because it is on sale, only now you have to figure out what to do with a liter of the stuff! Perhaps this is not as much of an issue for those in a family or with roommates, however for those of us whom are single and live in an apartment it is. Try as I may to use it all and to give some to friends, it is inevetable that stuff goes to waste. This could also work for people with a veggie garden and/or fruit trees where they have an abundance of something. So what I propose is a page divided by area. Then a person can find their area and list an item/s they don't need and/or search for something they do. Then people can swap or just give away if they wish. Maybe there can even be a wish list, ie., "I really need some carrots, does anyone have some?". I think this would also be great in terms of Food Security issues. I know at least one community based organization that deals in Food Security whom probably could spread the word about it. It could also be a way of getting more people on the site and involved.

[Martina Rowley]

I totally feel your pain, Marisa! All those healthy vegetables in my fridge often end up shriveled and/or limp by the time I eat my way to the last one! LOL.
In principle I like your idea of some kind of "food share & swap" page. Off the top of my head I'm concerned though about putting too much detail and hundreds upon hundreds of back-and-forth messages onto our main website. That seems like something that might serve everyone better if we can create a link to a separate site, e.g. a forum for food itself. I will try and remember to discuss this at our next steering committee meeting and see what others think. Our I.T. person, or someone else?, might have some suggestions on a site that would be better suited for such a page.
If anyone reading this has some ideas, please share them!

Marisa Meléndez said:

I am just throwing this idea out there, but I was thinking that maybe we could create a Food Share page on this site. What I mean is, I know that for myself and others I know, we often have much food wast. You know, you buy parsley because you need about a tablespoon of it but it comes in an enormous bunch? Or perhaps you purchase some orange juice because it is on sale, only now you have to figure out what to do with a liter of the stuff! Perhaps this is not as much of an issue for those in a family or with roommates, however for those of us whom are single and live in an apartment it is. Try as I may to use it all and to give some to friends, it is inevetable that stuff goes to waste. This could also work for people with a veggie garden and/or fruit trees where they have an abundance of something. So what I propose is a page divided by area. Then a person can find their area and list an item/s they don't need and/or search for something they do. Then people can swap or just give away if they wish. Maybe there can even be a wish list, ie., "I really need some carrots, does anyone have some?". I think this would also be great in terms of Food Security issues. I know at least one community based organization that deals in Food Security whom probably could spread the word about it. It could also be a way of getting more people on the site and involved.

[Marisa Meléndez]

Thanks for your input Martina. I talked to an IT guy about it and apparently a web page like that will be a lot of work, as well as there being liability issues with people posting their emails or phone numbers. I asked about anonymizing emails like on Craigslist, but the problem again is that it is a lot of work. Perhaps we could get more than one person to work on the task in order to lighten the load?

Martina Rowley said:

I totally feel your pain, Marisa! All those healthy vegetables in my fridge often end up shriveled and/or limp by the time I eat my way to the last one! LOL.
In principle I like your idea of some kind of "food share & swap" page. Off the top of my head I'm concerned though about putting too much detail and hundreds upon hundreds of back-and-forth messages onto our main website. That seems like something that might serve everyone better if we can create a link to a separate site, e.g. a forum for food itself. I will try and remember to discuss this at our next steering committee meeting and see what others think. Our I.T. person, or someone else?, might have some suggestions on a site that would be better suited for such a page.
If anyone reading this has some ideas, please share them!

Marisa Meléndez said:

I am just throwing this idea out there, but I was thinking that maybe we could create a Food Share page on this site. What I mean is, I know that for myself and others I know, we often have much food wast. You know, you buy parsley because you need about a tablespoon of it but it comes in an enormous bunch? Or perhaps you purchase some orange juice because it is on sale, only now you have to figure out what to do with a liter of the stuff! Perhaps this is not as much of an issue for those in a family or with roommates, however for those of us whom are single and live in an apartment it is. Try as I may to use it all and to give some to friends, it is inevetable that stuff goes to waste. This could also work for people with a veggie garden and/or fruit trees where they have an abundance of something. So what I propose is a page divided by area. Then a person can find their area and list an item/s they don't need and/or search for something they do. Then people can swap or just give away if they wish. Maybe there can even be a wish list, ie., "I really need some carrots, does anyone have some?". I think this would also be great in terms of Food Security issues. I know at least one community based organization that deals in Food Security whom probably could spread the word about it. It could also be a way of getting more people on the site and involved.

[Geoff Buddle]

Are there other TTown examples of these things? If we find them and put up the links for all to see, then we can leverage all the footwork already done, someone may have a template site ready for customizing already.

Geoff

Marisa Meléndez said:

Thanks for your input Martina. I talked to an IT guy about it and apparently a web page like that will be a lot of work, as well as there being liability issues with people posting their emails or phone numbers. I asked about anonymizing emails like on Craigslist, but the problem again is that it is a lot of work. Perhaps we could get more than one person to work on the task in order to lighten the load?

Martina Rowley said:

I totally feel your pain, Marisa! All those healthy vegetables in my fridge often end up shriveled and/or limp by the time I eat my way to the last one! LOL.
In principle I like your idea of some kind of "food share & swap" page. Off the top of my head I'm concerned though about putting too much detail and hundreds upon hundreds of back-and-forth messages onto our main website. That seems like something that might serve everyone better if we can create a link to a separate site, e.g. a forum for food itself. I will try and remember to discuss this at our next steering committee meeting and see what others think. Our I.T. person, or someone else?, might have some suggestions on a site that would be better suited for such a page.
If anyone reading this has some ideas, please share them!

Marisa Meléndez said:

I am just throwing this idea out there, but I was thinking that maybe we could create a Food Share page on this site. What I mean is, I know that for myself and others I know, we often have much food wast. You know, you buy parsley because you need about a tablespoon of it but it comes in an enormous bunch? Or perhaps you purchase some orange juice because it is on sale, only now you have to figure out what to do with a liter of the stuff! Perhaps this is not as much of an issue for those in a family or with roommates, however for those of us whom are single and live in an apartment it is. Try as I may to use it all and to give some to friends, it is inevetable that stuff goes to waste. This could also work for people with a veggie garden and/or fruit trees where they have an abundance of something. So what I propose is a page divided by area. Then a person can find their area and list an item/s they don't need and/or search for something they do. Then people can swap or just give away if they wish. Maybe there can even be a wish list, ie., "I really need some carrots, does anyone have some?". I think this would also be great in terms of Food Security issues. I know at least one community based organization that deals in Food Security whom probably could spread the word about it. It could also be a way of getting more people on the site and involved.

[Jen Lalonde]

There is a freecycle group uses Yahoo Groups for a very similar-sounding purpose.

It could be done very simply by members putting what their offering and their location in the subject line (e.g. Bloor/Spadina - tons of zucchini from my garden to give away) and then the offer goes out to everyone in the list. To reply, you click a link in the email and you're directed to the yahoogroup page to sign in, and reply.





Geoff Buddle said:

Are there other TTown examples of these things? If we find them and put up the links for all to see, then we can leverage all the footwork already done, someone may have a template site ready for customizing already.

Geoff

Marisa Meléndez said:

Thanks for your input Martina. I talked to an IT guy about it and apparently a web page like that will be a lot of work, as well as there being liability issues with people posting their emails or phone numbers. I asked about anonymizing emails like on Craigslist, but the problem again is that it is a lot of work. Perhaps we could get more than one person to work on the task in order to lighten the load?

Martina Rowley said:

I totally feel your pain, Marisa! All those healthy vegetables in my fridge often end up shriveled and/or limp by the time I eat my way to the last one! LOL.
In principle I like your idea of some kind of "food share & swap" page. Off the top of my head I'm concerned though about putting too much detail and hundreds upon hundreds of back-and-forth messages onto our main website. That seems like something that might serve everyone better if we can create a link to a separate site, e.g. a forum for food itself. I will try and remember to discuss this at our next steering committee meeting and see what others think. Our I.T. person, or someone else?, might have some suggestions on a site that would be better suited for such a page.
If anyone reading this has some ideas, please share them!

Marisa Meléndez said:

I am just throwing this idea out there, but I was thinking that maybe we could create a Food Share page on this site. What I mean is, I know that for myself and others I know, we often have much food wast. You know, you buy parsley because you need about a tablespoon of it but it comes in an enormous bunch? Or perhaps you purchase some orange juice because it is on sale, only now you have to figure out what to do with a liter of the stuff! Perhaps this is not as much of an issue for those in a family or with roommates, however for those of us whom are single and live in an apartment it is. Try as I may to use it all and to give some to friends, it is inevetable that stuff goes to waste. This could also work for people with a veggie garden and/or fruit trees where they have an abundance of something. So what I propose is a page divided by area. Then a person can find their area and list an item/s they don't need and/or search for something they do. Then people can swap or just give away if they wish. Maybe there can even be a wish list, ie., "I really need some carrots, does anyone have some?". I think this would also be great in terms of Food Security issues. I know at least one community based organization that deals in Food Security whom probably could spread the word about it. It could also be a way of getting more people on the site and involved.

[Marisa Meléndez]

Thanks Jen. I just heard about http://www.freecycle.org/ as well. I think it might be a good way to go. We could create our own "foodcycle" group on there so that people don't have to sift through beds, boxes, and chicken wire in order to find food (no pun intended). However, we would need to create several groups by area. For example, The Riverdale Food Cycle Group, The Annex Food Cycle Group, etc. I just signed up but don't know the ins and outs just yet. I will give an update when I do.

Geoff Buddle said:

Are there other TTown examples of these things? If we find them and put up the links for all to see, then we can leverage all the footwork already done, someone may have a template site ready for customizing already.

Geoff

Marisa Meléndez said:

Thanks for your input Martina. I talked to an IT guy about it and apparently a web page like that will be a lot of work, as well as there being liability issues with people posting their emails or phone numbers. I asked about anonymizing emails like on Craigslist, but the problem again is that it is a lot of work. Perhaps we could get more than one person to work on the task in order to lighten the load?

Martina Rowley said:

I totally feel your pain, Marisa! All those healthy vegetables in my fridge often end up shriveled and/or limp by the time I eat my way to the last one! LOL.
In principle I like your idea of some kind of "food share & swap" page. Off the top of my head I'm concerned though about putting too much detail and hundreds upon hundreds of back-and-forth messages onto our main website. That seems like something that might serve everyone better if we can create a link to a separate site, e.g. a forum for food itself. I will try and remember to discuss this at our next steering committee meeting and see what others think. Our I.T. person, or someone else?, might have some suggestions on a site that would be better suited for such a page.
If anyone reading this has some ideas, please share them!

Marisa Meléndez said:

I am just throwing this idea out there, but I was thinking that maybe we could create a Food Share page on this site. What I mean is, I know that for myself and others I know, we often have much food wast. You know, you buy parsley because you need about a tablespoon of it but it comes in an enormous bunch? Or perhaps you purchase some orange juice because it is on sale, only now you have to figure out what to do with a liter of the stuff! Perhaps this is not as much of an issue for those in a family or with roommates, however for those of us whom are single and live in an apartment it is. Try as I may to use it all and to give some to friends, it is inevetable that stuff goes to waste. This could also work for people with a veggie garden and/or fruit trees where they have an abundance of something. So what I propose is a page divided by area. Then a person can find their area and list an item/s they don't need and/or search for something they do. Then people can swap or just give away if they wish. Maybe there can even be a wish list, ie., "I really need some carrots, does anyone have some?". I think this would also be great in terms of Food Security issues. I know at least one community based organization that deals in Food Security whom probably could spread the word about it. It could also be a way of getting more people on the site and involved.

[Marisa Meléndez]

Hmm... Okay, well what I have found so far is that the site is painfully slow for one thing. For another, I can't for the life of me figure out how to create a group. I can only see how to join pre-existing ones. Specific contact info is nil, but I went ahead and emailed what seemed to be the best department to get some info. Please, if anyone has better success, let me know.

Jen Lalonde said:

There is a freecycle group uses Yahoo Groups for a very similar-sounding purpose.

It could be done very simply by members putting what their offering and their location in the subject line (e.g. Bloor/Spadina - tons of zucchini from my garden to give away) and then the offer goes out to everyone in the list. To reply, you click a link in the email and you're directed to the yahoogroup page to sign in, and reply.





Geoff Buddle said:

Are there other TTown examples of these things? If we find them and put up the links for all to see, then we can leverage all the footwork already done, someone may have a template site ready for customizing already.

Geoff

Marisa Meléndez said:

Thanks for your input Martina. I talked to an IT guy about it and apparently a web page like that will be a lot of work, as well as there being liability issues with people posting their emails or phone numbers. I asked about anonymizing emails like on Craigslist, but the problem again is that it is a lot of work. Perhaps we could get more than one person to work on the task in order to lighten the load?

Martina Rowley said:

I totally feel your pain, Marisa! All those healthy vegetables in my fridge often end up shriveled and/or limp by the time I eat my way to the last one! LOL.
In principle I like your idea of some kind of "food share & swap" page. Off the top of my head I'm concerned though about putting too much detail and hundreds upon hundreds of back-and-forth messages onto our main website. That seems like something that might serve everyone better if we can create a link to a separate site, e.g. a forum for food itself. I will try and remember to discuss this at our next steering committee meeting and see what others think. Our I.T. person, or someone else?, might have some suggestions on a site that would be better suited for such a page.
If anyone reading this has some ideas, please share them!

Marisa Meléndez said:

I am just throwing this idea out there, but I was thinking that maybe we could create a Food Share page on this site. What I mean is, I know that for myself and others I know, we often have much food wast. You know, you buy parsley because you need about a tablespoon of it but it comes in an enormous bunch? Or perhaps you purchase some orange juice because it is on sale, only now you have to figure out what to do with a liter of the stuff! Perhaps this is not as much of an issue for those in a family or with roommates, however for those of us whom are single and live in an apartment it is. Try as I may to use it all and to give some to friends, it is inevetable that stuff goes to waste. This could also work for people with a veggie garden and/or fruit trees where they have an abundance of something. So what I propose is a page divided by area. Then a person can find their area and list an item/s they don't need and/or search for something they do. Then people can swap or just give away if they wish. Maybe there can even be a wish list, ie., "I really need some carrots, does anyone have some?". I think this would also be great in terms of Food Security issues. I know at least one community based organization that deals in Food Security whom probably could spread the word about it. It could also be a way of getting more people on the site and involved.

[Marisa Meléndez]

It's a little out of the way, but these kinds of workshops could be held up at Downsview park. I volunteer with Food Cycles and spoke to Ashlee who runs it. I mentioned the potential for holding cultural gardening workshops, and she was thrilled.

Martina Rowley said:

My first thoughts are they could:
- promote personal food gardening in front-/backyard, or containers (on the ground, or balconies)
- promote community food gardens
- hold information/education sessions on these

Several established food gardening and community food kitchen NGOs across the City could help provide the info sessions, e.g. Toronto Community Garden Network, FoodShare, The Stop.

[Jen Lalonde]

This is what I found:

http://groups.yahoo.com/

Below the search bar there is an icon that says "Start your own group".

ttfn :-)



Marisa Meléndez said:

Hmm... Okay, well what I have found so far is that the site is painfully slow for one thing. For another, I can't for the life of me figure out how to create a group. I can only see how to join pre-existing ones. Specific contact info is nil, but I went ahead and emailed what seemed to be the best department to get some info. Please, if anyone has better success, let me know.

Jen Lalonde said:

There is a freecycle group uses Yahoo Groups for a very similar-sounding purpose.

It could be done very simply by members putting what their offering and their location in the subject line (e.g. Bloor/Spadina - tons of zucchini from my garden to give away) and then the offer goes out to everyone in the list. To reply, you click a link in the email and you're directed to the yahoogroup page to sign in, and reply.





Geoff Buddle said:

Are there other TTown examples of these things? If we find them and put up the links for all to see, then we can leverage all the footwork already done, someone may have a template site ready for customizing already.

Geoff

Marisa Meléndez said:

Thanks for your input Martina. I talked to an IT guy about it and apparently a web page like that will be a lot of work, as well as there being liability issues with people posting their emails or phone numbers. I asked about anonymizing emails like on Craigslist, but the problem again is that it is a lot of work. Perhaps we could get more than one person to work on the task in order to lighten the load?

Martina Rowley said:

I totally feel your pain, Marisa! All those healthy vegetables in my fridge often end up shriveled and/or limp by the time I eat my way to the last one! LOL.
In principle I like your idea of some kind of "food share & swap" page. Off the top of my head I'm concerned though about putting too much detail and hundreds upon hundreds of back-and-forth messages onto our main website. That seems like something that might serve everyone better if we can create a link to a separate site, e.g. a forum for food itself. I will try and remember to discuss this at our next steering committee meeting and see what others think. Our I.T. person, or someone else?, might have some suggestions on a site that would be better suited for such a page.
If anyone reading this has some ideas, please share them!

Marisa Meléndez said:

I am just throwing this idea out there, but I was thinking that maybe we could create a Food Share page on this site. What I mean is, I know that for myself and others I know, we often have much food wast. You know, you buy parsley because you need about a tablespoon of it but it comes in an enormous bunch? Or perhaps you purchase some orange juice because it is on sale, only now you have to figure out what to do with a liter of the stuff! Perhaps this is not as much of an issue for those in a family or with roommates, however for those of us whom are single and live in an apartment it is. Try as I may to use it all and to give some to friends, it is inevetable that stuff goes to waste. This could also work for people with a veggie garden and/or fruit trees where they have an abundance of something. So what I propose is a page divided by area. Then a person can find their area and list an item/s they don't need and/or search for something they do. Then people can swap or just give away if they wish. Maybe there can even be a wish list, ie., "I really need some carrots, does anyone have some?". I think this would also be great in terms of Food Security issues. I know at least one community based organization that deals in Food Security whom probably could spread the word about it. It could also be a way of getting more people on the site and involved.

[John Fleming]

Beekeeping?
http://www.torontobees.ca/ - these guys offer an intro to beekeeping, but unfortunately it has just been held Apr 10th.
http://www.torontobeekeepers.org/

Ontario Bees Act: "bees are not to be kept within thirty metres of a property line". So that would need to be challenged, or creative locations found.

I've seen some recent articles about urban beekeeping in the news, mainly New York loosening their restrictions.
http://torontoist.com/2010/04/torontos_blooming_buzztropolis.php