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| Stop It by Ivy Knight
Some names have been changed. Part One of a Two Part Series. As a cook I feed people who are hungry all the time and yet I never think about real hunger. I have no idea what it would be like to go to bed hungry, to walk away from a meal not full, to wake up in the morning and wonder how to get food. I also don’t have children so I really am clueless as to what it is like to be a single parent, pregnant, unemployed and unable to speak the language of the country I’m in. Luckily in Toronto we have The Stop Community Food Centre. Joshna Maharaj is the Community Chef at The Stop, "The number of people that we see here at The Stop leaves me with mixed emotions. On one hand, I’m happy to see that we are successfully serving some needs in this community, so when there are high numbers in the food bank or dining room I feel it’s important that we’re here. On the other hand, our high numbers are also an indication that something is not working the way it should." Joshna organizes many classes in the Stop’s Community Kitchen, there are cooking classes for kids aged 9-11 where they learn how to make and enjoy fresh, healthy foods rather than quick processed garbage. There is also the Healthy Beginnings Program which teaches participants and graduates of the Perinatal Program how to cook with a focus on infant and child nutrition. The Perinatal Program has been in place for nine years and is now run by Linor David, the program is geared to increase birth weight in babies and encourage breast-feeding. "Poor diet, smoking and stress all contribute to a low birth weight baby." Low birth weight can account for a slew of problems throughout the baby’s life, including health issues and cognitive abilities. "Breast-feeding is a cheap, secure source of food for the baby and is much healthier than formula." Says Linor "There’s a certain amount of education and support you need to be able to breastfeed so we provide that." The women come for the thirty weeks of their pregnancy, each time they come they receive two TTC tokens, a food hamper, ten dollars and some education from dietitians, midwives, literacy advocates and most importantly other mothers. A lunch is served before they go and they have the chance to talk to and learn from each other, with translators on hand to facilitate conversation. "They know they’re not going to be judged. We try to work on all the different levels of where people are willing to engage." I ask Linor if she ever gets depressed working here: "This is one of the most positive programs I’ve been involved with. People are willing to invest a lot in pregnant women. We have a 91% initiation rate for breast-feeding and 90% percent of the babies born are a normal birth weight." The Stop provided food to 14,000 people last year, a record. Isn’t that nice it was a record-breaking year! In a recent survey they found that despite the food bank and drop-in meals they offer 73% of respondents go hungry. I’ve been spending some time at The Stop over the past few weeks and I highly recommend it. I definitely recommend it to people who think welfare is a free ride. I have the luxury of working with food, of buying whatever I want to make for supper. I’m a cook: I’m constantly broke but never broke enough that I can’t feed myself. If I feel like lobster every day and I can’t satiate that craving with my skimpy pocketbook, then too bad. But imagine having to ignore any and every craving, to look in the cupboards and see rice, look in the fridge and see two carrots and then look at your kids and your shitty apartment. Would you start crying? I would. Then imagine having to take those kids down to the food bank because you don’t have a dime left until the end of the month and there’s only rice and 2 carrots to feed you and them. Try hanging out at a food bank for a little bit, it is very enlightening. My first day at The Stop I watched a woman sign up for the service for the first time. She looked tired and beaten down. Her young daughter just stared at the floor while her mother gave their information to the receptionist. The room was packed, with a half hour wait for food. You are only allowed to use the food bank once a month and they give you a three day supply. I stood at the counter and saw what was being handed out. Lots of starches and canned items, a choice of carrots or onions and little else. Linor was showing me around, "We’re never in danger of running out of food but we’re always running out of fresh produce and milk. It’s also hard for some people to get culturally appropriate food." She gave me a lot of reading material when I left The Stop after that first visit. I quickly got filled in on what a horribly ridiculous situation the poor in Toronto are dealing with. We are in Toronto in 2007; we are not in a war-torn third world country! "The fact that there are still people going to sleep hungry in this city is shameful; hunger should not be an issue at all. I feel that access to food should be a much higher priority politically than it is." Joshna wrote me recently in an email. I wouldn’t give a shit about anything if I was truly hungry and had no way to feed myself. To care about any other issues would be a luxury I could ill afford. This is a huge, prosperous city and I’m reading reports saying things like:
The good news is that lots of people are working towards an increase in food allowance for those on assistance and an increase in the minimum wage. I read a lot about Dr. David McKeown, the city’s Medical Officer of Health, in the literature Linor gave me. He’s been taken a real stand on this issue and is quoted in one pamphlet as saying "If you’re going to give people money to help them live, you have to give them enough so they can live a healthy life." I return to The Stop for a Healthy Beginnings cooking class led by dietitian Kelly Gordon. She has printouts of the two recipes we will be cooking today for lunch and for the participants to take home. Sandra, a participant in the prenatal program is very pregnant (due in 2 weeks) and has brought her two adolescent daughters to the class with her, her toddler son is in the daycare with Ashley’s (a graduate of the perinatal program) daughter and 10 month old baby boy. Today the class will be making vegetarian lasagne and fruit and nut muffins. Kelly quickly assigns jobs and while everyone chops and peels she gives a little talk about each ingredient and its nutritional value. She emphasizes the importance of cooking with real food and staying away from processed. While we assemble two large lasagnes in hotel pans Sandra tells me a bit about herself. "I grew up in Toronto and my family was never really big on cooking from scratch so I never learned. Then I met my husband who came from a family where everything was cooked from scratch. He’s been teaching me." We put the lasagnes in the oven and start making the muffins. Kelly explains why she chose whole wheat flour for the recipe. "It has more fibre, reduces blood sugar, reduces cholesterol and fills you up more." She gets Sandra to grate some zucchini and talks about how much better for you dark coloured vegetables are. Then she instructs the girls to measure out spices explaining that cinnamon contains antioxidants and what they do for your body. Cooked pumpkin (dark orange vegetable) is added along with blackstrap molasses (high iron content). By the time the muffins are in the oven and lasagnes are out resting we’ve had a crash course in nutrition. Kelly grabs plates and cutlery, dishes out the lasagne filled with mushrooms and broccoli, and we all sit down to lunch. Over lunch with the toddlers and the daycare workers Kelly asks what people would like to learn to cook in future classes. Ashley wants to learn more about flour and baking so she asks that they make a cake. Another woman mentions couscous saying she’s never made it before. They continue to throw out ideas for future classes while I head back to the kitchen to talk with the women who are portioning lunch plates for the drop-in centre. Laura came to Canada from Uruguay in 1998, she first came to The Stop three years ago joining the perinatal program. She enjoyed it so much she began volunteering here for two years and is now a relief worker in the drop-in and the food bank. She tosses a huge bowl of salad and hands it off to a volunteer to plate then garnish with tomato concasse and grated cheddar. Kelly bustles in and begins portioning the cooled muffins into paper bags for the mother’s to take home. "I’ve made these muffins before and people called them ‘Health Bombs’ because they’re pretty heavy on the fibre." She laughs, "When you come here you get to cook food, eat food and take food home. It’s nice for busy moms to go home and have a healthy meal already made." I ask how she chooses the recipes for each class, "A community kitchen is run by the participants so it’s geared to what they want, but our recipes are always budget conscious as well as nutritious." Later I meet Anne who moved here from Guinea in West Africa. She’s been in Canada just over two years and is expecting her first baby. When she moved here a West African friend showed her where to buy the ingredients she was used to cooking with. "I cook everything from scratch, no processed food for me." Last year they harvested 2,400 pounds of food to be used in the food bank and the community kitchen. "That was actually down from the year before." Says Rhonda. Gardening is another tool in teaching nutrition, with the added benefits of building community and promoting exercise. While researching The Stop, I was constantly amazed by the people working there and the programs they were offering. I had to agree with Joshna’s earlier statement though; it’s too bad that we need The Stop at all. Joshna had one more thing to add: ""The number one message about food that I would like to spread is that our food security is not just a low income issue. Food security is a human issue and one to which we all should pay much closer attention. We all should be able to eat healthy, wholesome food. Every parent wants their child to grow and be strong and healthy regardless of the neighbourhood they live in. We, as a society, have become far too distanced from our food supply, which has made us dangerously reliant on an unsustainable food system. I urge everyone to get into the kitchen or start a small garden. Get connected with where your food comes from, it may be one of the most important things you do for your own health." Oh, and if you found any of this tough to read, wait for the next installment... Find out more about The Stop at www.thestop.org Email Ivy at ladyslenderlegs@gmail.com |   |
 When not writing about food for eGullet and Gremolata or pillow fighting as 'Vic Payback', Ivy Knight works for a living as a cook in Toronto.READ MORE IVY AT GREMOLATA: The Big Smoke: Ivy Does BBQ Hot & Sour Hangover Cure: Ivy finds the best liquid lunch The Acadian Feast: Ivy learns how to really cook from her grandmamman Gone Vegan: Ivy eschews meat on a donkey farm Staff Meals: Ivy reveals what the cooks eat. Why Would You Do This? Ivy wonders why anyone would work in a kitchen. Quebec City Here I Come: Ivy mange tout! Sketch: Ivy visits a unique program for street kids Island Heat: Ivy eats her way through Caribana Sausage Party: Ivy discovers Berkshire pork Fill My Bowl: Ivy attends a gourmet fundraiser Brunch Bites: Ivy does not like brunch Apple of the Earth: Ivy makes potato salad Photo: Chris Blanchenot
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