City Hall puts youth-food issues on the front burner

It’s Monday night at City Hall and the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council has descended on committee room two.

Within minutes, they turn the room from serious to cozy. Snacks, colourful markers and reading material cover the tables. Even the chairs get dragged into a circle.

Since the group formed last September, they’ve done more than just rearrange the furniture. Designed to address the food concerns of Toronto youth, they’ve worked by both reaching out to the community and attempting to influence municipal policy.

Acting chair Tracy Phillippi said both strategies are necessary to create change.

“I think the two really go hand-in-hand and both just come down to youth being seen as legitimate,” she said.

As North America’s first youth food policy council, the group works in connection with the Toronto Food Policy Council to address the food concerns of young people.

Since their inception, they’ve held events like the Food Systems Fair on March 25 at the University of Toronto and the So You(th) Think You Can Cook cooking contest at the Royal Winter Fair.

Policy-wise, they’ve also made recommendations regarding the Toronto Food Strategy report.

Jessica Thornton, co-leader of the research and policy committee, worked on those recommendations.

“Working on the Food Strategy has been a great way to start off because we’re finding out about the most important and recurring issues that youth are interested in or involved in,” she said.

Some of the issues they outlined included lack of food literacy and low income. Phillippi said it’s important to take food issues that affect youth seriously.

“The Toronto Food Policy Council, for all their successes over the past 20 years, doesn’t currently have anybody around the table that’s under the age of 35,” Phillippi said. “It’s not necessarily interests that differ… It’s more the youth food experience that’s different.”

Phillippi said that young people often don’t have the time, money or knowledge available to make healthy food choices.

“What makes them different is the place they’re at in their life. They’re often moving away from home for the first time so they have a budget. And they have less money to spend on public transportation which influences their food availability,” Phillippi said.

The TYFPC hopes to combat some of these problems by providing educational opportunities. In addition to bi-monthly community meetings, they also speak at high schools about food issues. But Phillippi said it’s going to be a long road towards change.

“Our year is winding down, we want the summer months to be a time of reflection,” she said. “Changes are going to be incremental, but even the fact that we exist, that’s huge and exciting.”

About this article

By: Jaclyn Desforges
Posted: Apr 14 2010 10:06 am
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Filed under: Arts & Life News

1 Comment on "City Hall puts youth-food issues on the front burner"

  1. Lisa Kates | May 4, 2010 at 1:23 pm |

    I founded a program called Foodmatters at Operation Come Home in Ottawa.

    I am so proud to be cooking healthy delicious food with our clients who are mostly homeless or who are living in shelters or rooming houses.

    I have been a caterer for many years and turned all my knowledge about food outward and into this community.

    I am delighted to read about the youth oriented food initiative and hope when I move back to Toronto this July that I can be involved.It is so vital that all youth are committed to eating healthfully no matter what their budgets or food experiences are.

    The following is an excerpt from the most recent OHC newsletter about Foodmatters:

    OCH has developed a culinary program called Food Matters for our youth. Food Matters is based on the premise that EVERYONE should have access to healthy food. So many youth who come to OCH are homeless and having a delicious healthy meal is not often an option for them. Food Matters engages with youth Monday – Thursday 1 – 3:30 pm, in the kitchen at OCH. The “Breakfast in the Schools” programme contributes to funding for delivering nutritions food to youth at OCH. The youth help prepare and cook a meal under the guidance of an experienced chef. So far they have cooked vegetarian soups, hearty stews, pasta sauces and other substantial meals. Sometimes there is even baking such as date squares or breakfast carrot squares. In the kitchen they learn new cooking skills, budgeting, nutrition and team building. At the end of the sessions, youth who prepared the meal sit down at the table and eat together. Whatever is left over is served to these who come in the next morning. As in every house, OCH’s kitchen is an important focus for socializing and also now for eating healthy tasty food cooked by the youth themselves. Food Matters is featured in the December edition of HealthWise. Thanks to Metro in the Glebe, C.A. Paradis and Breakfast in the Schools for their contribution to Food Matters! For more information, please email Lisa Kates at [email protected] or call 613-230-4663.

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