Meghan - Friday, November 25th - Foodie Friday at UBCO

Today was the first Foodie Friday at UBCO. What is Foodie Friday you ask? Well it's an event put on by the Food Action Committee (FAC) at UBCO to increase awareness of food related issues and services on campus. The farmer's market that I attended back in Oct was organized by the Food Action Committee as well as hopefully many other both small and big events on campus around food issues. 

Foodie Friday at UBCO

Luckily for me having just completed by 100 mile diet, I had lots of resources (from having contacted local farms) as to where to find local dairy, vegetables and meat which we wanted to share with the campus community at our booth. Our goal was to increase the awareness of what local foods is at the very basic level which I personally feel we achieved. The Foodie Friday coordinator put together this great poster (right) where we listed what was in season when, so that people can become a bit more conscious of hopefully food choices they can make. We also used the great map that Amy created to help us defining the local area on a larger map so that we could show people our 100 mile diet radius and used this to tell people about the many possible food options within this area. We knew that although food is an important topic, we had to find a way to get people to come up to our booth and engage, so what better way then by offering food! We had wonderful food that was kindly donated by Urban Harvest, consisting of multicoloured carrots, different radishes (white, watermelon, and daikon), also some kale and we made a yogurt dip from local natural yogurt, garlic, salt and pepper. We also were partnered with the UBCO Preservation Farms project as we were collecting contact info of interested people in either a future CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and those interested in the FAC. 


Although this was a three hour event, the time flew by as many people were interested in both tasting the local food, hearing about where and how to access it but also lots of talk about how do we prepare this or what do we eat it with. I was so pleasantly surprised that so many students especially were concerned about food and are making choices to consume organic food when possible. This is the first steps but we would also explain how the consideration and incorporation of local food purchasing results in a positive impact and investment in our own community. Many had not thought of that but liked the idea. So many people came by and said how supportive they were of working towards better food options and access on campus and for those people we make sure to collect their names because we need more student like that when it come time for future events like this one but also the Farmer's Market. 


I must not forget to say that although many of the same messages came up in this experience as did the Farmer's Market booth I felt that many people were not hearing this for the first time. This was very exciting and a positive result giving hope to the fact that we are making progress and through increased events and discussion the importance of local food was starting to set in. Of course different locations will generate interest from different people but those that I saw at the Farmer's Market day chose to come out to that event, where as with our Foodie Friday we were located in the UNC at lunch time so our exposure was greater, which I felt made a difference.


I really enjoy doing these booths because I feel that I never give myself enough credit for what I know about local food. Through these experiences I see that I have the knowledge and can apply it in a way that can be explained to someone that is not familiar with the topic. I feel this is the best way to learn but also a great way to demonstrate your knowledge. I hope that in the future I can continue to engage our community on this issue as I feel strongly about local food and do feel that simple, basic changes can made a difference.