The Staples: What's in Your Snacks?

It sounds mundane, but in order to be cost effective and receive the most nutrients from easily transportable and conveniently stored school snacks (i.e. granola bars), I have been purchasing the same products since September. These food products include, Quaker Chewy Chocolate Bars, Fruit-to-go strips, Nutrigrain Bars and President’s Choice/Compliments Applesauce—the former being less packed with nutrition, and all the products containing significant amounts of sugar. However, they have been my snack staples this year, and kept me going at even the most crucial times. When our SJS group decided to focus on food security, and food sovereignty, I thought it would be appropriate to look a little more critically at these sources of energy. I decided I would do this by making phone calls to the companies that produce my favourite snacks.

All the companies provide explicitly either on the product, or the product packaging a number or website that they can be reached at. This started off as a good sign.

Cycle of Weeds, Permaculture Opportunities, UVIC Environmental Restoration, Wwoof and Soil Apprenticeships, UVIC Food Courses, Gaia College and SOUL

March 27, 2011
I spent most of yesterday pulling weeds out two flower beds around the house. It was an activity not directly related to food production, but related to yard maintenance (by way of showing that neglecting the yard for a year does not yield good results). The soil was disturbed and bare, allowing early successional, colonizing plants (weeds) to take over. Pulling them up, further disturbs the soil and the seed bank, which leads to further weeds and more pulling...it is an endless cycle.

What's 4 Dinner, UVIC Sustainable Food, UVIC Anniversary of Guerilla Gardening, Campus Community Garden, CUAC

March 24, 2011

I discovered I live only a couple of blocks away from an innovative food-related business in Victoria: What's 4 Dinner (http://www.whats4dinner.ca/ ).What's 4 Dinner is a new concept in food services which helps people to prepare affordable family-sizing meals by providing a menu of meals each month that customers can select from, and schedule a time to come to the What's 4 Dinner and use the ready-to-use fresh ingredients to make the two meals (12 serving), leaving the dishes for the staff to deal with. It's just an interesting new split between public-private, profit-low-cost kind of cooking, which the website says results in meals that cost $4-6 per servicing.

I walked through the UVIC cafeteria today and noticed a big sign up that spoke about the amount of locally grown food UVIC uses, the food waste it composts,etc. I thought it was interesting to see how much work has been done on campus around food security issues while I wasn't looking (http://web.uvic.ca/sustainability/Food.htm ).

Weeding Back Garden, Planting Seeds, Transition Town, Springridge Commons

March 7, 2011

Ate a date square at UVIC, and myroommate's leftover eggplant curry. For the last few days I have been spending at least an hour in the big back garden trying to rescue it by digging out the weeds: grass, dandelion, pop weeds and creeping buttercup. It is enjoyable to get out and take some ownership of this garden, but the weeds are going to be an ongoing project.

I wanted to get seeds from Seeds of Victoria or Two Wings Farm as local is awesome, but I can't get out to them, and I have no credit card to order online (http://www.earthfuture.com/gardenpath/Seeds_Catalogue.htm and http://www.twowingsfarm.com/ ). I went to the Big Barn by the Root Cellar today to buy gardening supplies at it turned out to be $40: a bag of potting soil ($5), 6 trays ($12), and 8 bags of various open-pollinated, organic seeds ($18). It was more expensive than I thought it would be, but I didn't dare try to germinate the seeds straight into heavy clay soil here, particularly not with the hard frost we had this morning.

"Food Security:It's In Your Hands" Screening & Discussion w/Director!

Food Security - It's In Your Hands (2011)

Join us Thursday March 24th for a screening of Nick Versteeg's Documentary "Food Security: It's In Your Hands". Stick around after the screening for an open dialogue with Nick and broader discussion of food security on Vancouver Island. If you missed the premier at the Victoria Film Festival, you won't want to miss this!

Where:

•  ECS Building, Room 104

When

• Thursday, March 24th at 4:30 PM

Trailer

The Martlet | Growing local food produces security

Great to see support on campus and interest in the subject!

 The Martlet | Growing local food produces security