Food For Thought: Day 4
8:00am comes bright and early following a 4:00am bed time. Today was good though, all things considered. I had a quick breakfast which was, oddly enough, leftover soup from last night, packed a lunch, and headed to campus. Once there, the day started slowly with a few meetings and some class, and I “enjoyed” a couple of relatively bland sandwiches for lunch.
After another hour of class and some meetings, I took time to grab a quick “dinner” on campus to tide me over until I got home. I don’t have much left in the budget this week, so I just had a small serving of carrots and some potato wedges. After dinner I had a few interviews and discussion, at which time we picked some new executive members for one of the groups I work with on campus (which is extremely exciting).
I sauntered in the door around 9:15 or so, and put together a quick second dinner, so to speak, of salad and some soup. I washed it all down with a big glass of orange juice (which I watered down a bit earlier this week to make it last longer), and a glass of milk for good measure.
The campaign has been really interesting so far for a number of reasons; whether it’s the interview calls we get at various times during the day, or the interesting feedback students across campus give us. A lot of people seem to think living on $7.50 a day is impossible, while others seem to think that $5.00 would be more than generous. From my perspective, it’s just great to hear that we’re having these conversations, and actually discussing the issue. Personally, I wouldn’t want to try and do this for less than $7.50, that’s for sure.
A few times this week, I’ve been stopped while walking across campus by a student I’ve never met before, and they asked me about the campaign. They recognized my photo and the story from our campus paper’s coverage this past Tuesday. It’s funny to hear the things these people have to say, the ones I’ve never met before and may never speak to again. Of course, there’s value in all the discourse that happens.
It’s still far too early to tell what the outcome will be, but this experiment has certainly been interesting. No matter how it all ends, it’s definitely given me and my campus some Food For Thought.
Meal Breakdown:
Breakfast: leftover soup from last night and a glass of milk
Lunch: two ham sandwiches
Dinner: serving of carrots and some potato wedges
Evening Snack: salad with ranch dressing, some soup, a glass of milk and a glass of orange juice
Estimate on Food Guide Servings:
Vegetables and Fruit: 4-5
Grains: 6-7
Milk and Alternatives: 1-2
Meat and Alternatives: 1-2
Unbelievable!!
Is it enough for you to support whole day energy?
Hi Andrew,
I put a note on Rachel’s blogpost #4, because I read her’s first.
Have you, or are you going to, ask around UWO to find out if it offers real, practical courses for students that have to do with shopping, cooking, expenses sharing, and real nutrition? Also, start asking them about using some of their space for community gardens. If you want to ask about gardens, get in touch and come visit my garden. Right now I’ve got lettuce, swiss chard, kale and spinach coming up (these vegetables winter over).
I used that phrase real nutrition because, for example, volume-wise, pasta may give 6 servings of cereal, but nutrition-wise you are only eating partial grain because pasta is so refined.
I’m not lecturing. My own diet could be improved on many fronts! And I sure don’t know all the venues around London for community kitchens (London Community Resource Centre, Middlesex London Health Unit (MLHU) have some, and aren’t there courses taught out of the Loblaws Superstores? And there might just be something out of the Intercommunity Health Centre and/or that centre on Dundas Street just past Adelaide that has so many wonderful immigrant services. And what programs does the food bank know about? What discussion goes into the food quality/preparation at the various churches dinner programs? I think the MLHU has a chart on-line that shows all the ‘out of the cold’ dinners during a week)
I do know that the City of London is working on a food charter and Ross Fair, General Manager of Community Services has had two meetings with people from many community agencies (rfair@london.ca), and a few individuals who are interested.
And thinking back to UWO, I know that the head of Western’s food services was at a Local Food for Local Tables conference in November 2008 talking about the efforts UWO was making to buy local and have healthy food options. I got the distinct impression from his presentation that the efforts for this were coming from himself and his staff and that – at the time – there was no student organization on campus that was involved in food-related issues. I don’t know if that has changed. But, you are in the place to track down this information.
As I said to Rachel, I heard a young woman on Ontario Morning earlier this week. I knew from what she said that she would be criticized up, down and sideways, and I didn’t want to get into criticism. Anyone going to university/college has such a debt load these days! It boggles me. What I’m hoping is that you and your fellows come out of this exercise more knowledgeable about food and food issues … go way beyond just a protest about the OSAP allowance you are given.
I’m involved with a local group concerned with the development of community gardens, and also with Transition London Ontario, which is having an Open space event on March 17, 7:00 p.m. at the Central Library on Dundas Street (discussion topic is localizing food).
Please do get in touch if you want to.
Best personal regards,
Maureen