Food for thought
Over 100 people met recently in a series of workshops and discussions on the seventh floor of the Henry F. Hall Building to discuss how food gets from farm to consumer and what campus and community members can do to facilitate that process.
Moving Forward: An Inter-Community Discussion was the first of three university/community conferences planned at Concordia. The conference, held March 3 and 4, brought together students from Concordia, Université du Québec à Montréal and McGill along with campus food providers like the student-run Frigo Vert and People’s Potato, Chartwells cafeteria services, community representatives from groups such as the NDG Food Depot, and professors.
“There are a lot of people working on food issues, food security, growing food and food sustainability,” remarked Elizabeth Hunt, coordinator of the University of the Streets Café. She led a “world café” discussion (which is set up to encourage dialogue) on March 4 as part of the conference. “This was a way to connect a whole bunch of people so they realize that we’re all in this together. I think they got a lot of energy connecting with each other.”
Arlene Throness of the Concordia greenhouse helped organize the event. She summed up a lot of the discussion as identifying “what stands between us and local farmers” and was very pleased with the outcome. “People came and stayed and were engaged,” she said. “It was really positive that we had this opportunity to get together and talk. We need to do it more.”
Related links:
• Moving Forward program
• University of the Streets Café
• “Sowing Academic/Community Collaboration” – February 14, 2011