By Elaine Smith 

To prove the University鈥檚 commitment to addressing food insecurity, the requirement to produce a daily value meal was written into the contract for its food services request for proposals in 2022. 

鈥淎nyone who has attended university has likely eaten macaroni and cheese for a week straight at some time during their studies, so they understand the concept of food insecurity,鈥� said Tom Watt, Interim AVP, Ancillary Services at 91亚色. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important that our contracted food service partners help us to combat hunger and food insecurity, so we have created value meals to make nutritious eating affordable.鈥� 

In addition to this, 鈥渋t shows our contractor how important this issue this is to us,鈥� said Watt, 鈥渁nd gives us a mechanism for ensuring they are accountable.鈥�  

The University rolled out the value meals in dining halls on each campus in spring 2023, and they will be available in Glendon, Stong and Winters dining halls beginning in Sept. 2023 for $5.99. 

With inflation affecting food prices, data from the National Survey of Student Engagement reveals that increasing numbers of students are experiencing food insecurity. The Vice-Provost, Students established a working group to tackle the issue, and value meals are an important piece of the puzzle. 

鈥淲e have a different meal daily and it鈥檚 a nutritionally complete meal with grain, protein and vegetable components,鈥� said Heath. 鈥淥ur Registered Dietitian vets all the menu offerings, like the Masala butter squash curry and turmeric rice with a side salad and the local roasted Ontario veggie and bean bowl.鈥� 

Based on feedback from the Food Insecurity Roundtable, chaired by the Vice-Provost, Students, meals for the 2023-24 academic year will be 鈥減lant forward鈥� 鈥� or vegetarian and vegan. 鈥淰egetarian and vegan meals are better received because more people can eat them. Acceptance is more limited when there鈥檚 a meat offering.鈥� 

This year, all the snack vending machines on campus will also offer a value item, keeping student budgets in mind.   

Food and Vending Services will also continue hosting monthly student-oriented Teaching Kitchen sessions, complete with a cooking component. A Registered Dietitian leads sessions touching on topics ranging from meal planning and budgeting to nutrition.  

YU Eats is also focused on sustainable and diverse approaches to managing food and they source food locally when possible, while reducing food waste. Menus include global food items, recognizing the diversity of 91亚色鈥檚 student population. 

Click on the icons below to learn how 91亚色 is contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

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Pictured here: Brazilian students Nane Vieitas and Thais Chilinque and Hemispheric Encounters postdoctoral fellow Juma Pariri of the Indigenous women's collective Mujeres de la Tierra participate in a workshop led by the community kitchen project as part of the Visualizing Foodways Field School.聽

Visualizing Foodways: Field School Offers Hemispheric Perspectives

By Elaine Smith 

Mexico City served as a home base in Feb. 2023 for the Visualizing Foodways Field School 鈥� a weeklong exploration of the ways that artists can partner with activists to further food justice and sustainable food systems. 

Ten graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from across the Americas were invited to participate in the field school to learn how different parts of the hemisphere can become more connected through questions about food justice. Site visits, meals, workshops, lectures, performances, and artist talks allowed the students, professors, and other participating artists and activists to explore how the arts can help individuals imagine and work to achieve food security, sovereignty, and justice. 

Visualizing Foodways grew out of a seven-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council partnership grant titled Hemispheric Encounters. It was awarded to Laura Levin, associate professor and director of the Sensorium organized research unit in 91亚色鈥檚 School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD).  Zo毛 Heyn-Jones, Levin鈥檚 former PhD student and post-doctoral fellow at 91亚色, curated the field school as part of her work as a Hemispheric Encounters Network (HEN) collaborator, with the Centre for Sustainable Curating at Western University. Heyn-Jones worked with Levin, Tracy Tidgwell a Hemispheric Encounters Network Project Manager and Producer and 91亚色 PhD student Hurmat Ain to co-produce the event.  

鈥淭he field school was an experiential learning opportunity for doctoral and post-doctoral researchers,鈥� said Levin. 鈥淚t supported the research students are undertaking at their home institutions and served as a site for research exchange.鈥� 

For example, the group was offered a workshop from Cocina CoLaboratorio (CoLaboratory Kitchen) focussed on growing food on a chinampa (a floating island built on freshwater swampland), which is a Mesoamerican agricultural technique. They visited a chinampa garden, made salad together and engaged in collective creative storytelling about their own connection to food and place.鈥�� 

鈥淭his was an opportunity to see farming as a creative action for re-engaging with Indigenous and situated ways of knowing and sustaining community,鈥� said Levin. 鈥淚t was a way of trying to understand the action of sitting down to a meal as a creative space where community knowledge can be shared.鈥�  

鈥淐ollaborative, local acts of growing and making food are also an example of resistance to industrial food systems that discourage people from approaching their food in an intentional way and rely on external sources for production and transport. There is a growing movement in both agriculture and cooking to imagine the future of food differently.鈥� 

The artists visited by the group included Sof铆a Olascoaga, a Mexican curator who sees assembling in the kitchen as a creative practice -- gathering as performance -- that allows people to envision new ways of building relations and engaging in political dialogue. 

A professional photographer documented the field school experiences and Levin is working with the Hemispheric Encounters Network to create a digital resource to share acquired knowledge with a wider audience. . 

Click on the icons below to learn how 91亚色 is contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The post SDG 2: Zero Hunger appeared first on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Pictured here: Sarah Rotz

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The post Virtual technology connects students to the front lines of food production appeared first on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Pictured here: Ronan Smith, Brianne Dove and Claire Morson

Mexico City served as a home base in Feb. 2023 for the Visualizing Foodways Field School 鈥� a weeklong exploration of the ways that artists can partner with activists to further food justice and sustainable food systems. 

Ten graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from across the Americas were invited to participate in the field school to learn how different parts of the hemisphere can become more connected through questions about food justice. Site visits, meals, workshops, lectures, performances, and artist talks allowed the students, professors, and other participating artists and activists to explore how the arts can help individuals imagine and work to achieve food security, sovereignty, and justice. 

Visualizing Foodways grew out of a seven-year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council partnership grant titled Hemispheric Encounters. It was awarded to Laura Levin, associate professor and director of the Sensorium organized research unit in 91亚色鈥檚 School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD).  Zo毛 Heyn-Jones, Levin鈥檚 former PhD student and post-doctoral fellow at 91亚色, curated the field school as part of her work as a Hemispheric Encounters Network (HEN) collaborator, with the Centre for Sustainable Curating at Western University. Heyn-Jones worked with Levin, Tracy Tidgwell a Hemispheric Encounters Network Project Manager and Producer and 91亚色 PhD student Hurmat Ain to co-produce the event.  

鈥淭he field school was an experiential learning opportunity for doctoral and post-doctoral researchers,鈥� said Levin. 鈥淚t supported the research students are undertaking at their home institutions and served as a site for research exchange.鈥� 

For example, the group was offered a workshop from Cocina CoLaboratorio (CoLaboratory Kitchen) focussed on growing food on a chinampa (a floating island built on freshwater swampland), which is a Mesoamerican agricultural technique. They visited a chinampa garden, made salad together and engaged in collective creative storytelling about their own connection to food and place.鈥�� 

鈥淭his was an opportunity to see farming as a creative action for re-engaging with Indigenous and situated ways of knowing and sustaining community,鈥� said Levin. 鈥淚t was a way of trying to understand the action of sitting down to a meal as a creative space where community knowledge can be shared.鈥�  

鈥淐ollaborative, local acts of growing and making food are also an example of resistance to industrial food systems that discourage people from approaching their food in an intentional way and rely on external sources for production and transport. There is a growing movement in both agriculture and cooking to imagine the future of food differently.鈥� 

The artists visited by the group included Sof铆a Olascoaga, a Mexican curator who sees assembling in the kitchen as a creative practice -- gathering as performance -- that allows people to envision new ways of building relations and engaging in political dialogue. 

A professional photographer documented the field school experiences and Levin is working with the Hemispheric Encounters Network to create a digital resource to share acquired knowledge with a wider audience. . 

Submit an idea or story

Click on the icons below to learn how 91亚色 is contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The post SDG 2: Zero Hunger appeared first on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.