The Stop E News

February 8, 2011

The Stop at Scaramouche

On February 28, Scaramouche Executive Chef Keith Froggett joins forces with The Stop's chefs Chris Brown and Scott MacNeil for a night to remember. Together, they’ll create an unforgettable four-course meal with all proceeds helping The Stop continue its mission to fight hunger, build community and inspire change.

The menu includes Dungeness crab tian, rabbit loin ballotine and much, much more. Read more...

Film Night at The Green Barn: Seed Warriors, Feb 10

The Wychwood Social Justice Group presents a screening of the 2009 documentary Seed Warriors. Going inside the first global seed bank, just 1000 kilometres from the North Pole, the film explores the difficult struggle to preserve biodiversity in the face of climate change and growing hunger. Read more...

Seedy Sunday, Feb 13

Hosted by the Toronto Community Garden Network and sponsored by The Stop, Seedy Sunday is the day when the new gardening season begins in earnest. Learn about gardening, hone and share your skills, and buy or exchange vegetable and flower seeds. Read more...

Food for Change, Feb 17

In our popular monthly dinner series, Stop Chef Chris Brown creates an intimate, five-course meal that's savoured in our beautiful greenhouse. Budding cooks who want to experience life in a professional kitchen can join Chris and the crew and help prepare the feast. This month's menu includes potato-and-toscano cheese ravioli, eggplant and lamb cotoletta, and much more! Read more…

Stop for Food (and Chef Challenge!)

Stop for Food is back this March, and we're kicking off the month with our traditional Iron Chef-style Chef Challenge. Join us at Parts & Labour on Feb. 28, where our own Chris Brown, chef Bertrand Alepee, P&L's Matt DeMille and Matty Matheson and other special guests will square off before a panel of celebrity judges. Read more...

Yes In My Back Yard Info Session, Feb 28

Want to grow your own food, but don’t have space to garden? Have a backyard that you'd like to put to use? Our Yes In My Back Yard (YIMBY) program connects people who want to garden but don’t have the space to people who have space in their yards they're willing to share. We'll be hosting a meeting/orientation session for anyone interested in getting involved in YIMBY on Monday, Feb. 28, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Read more...

People at The Stop: Marjorie Campbell

There are thousands of people who use, benefit from and work with The Stop every year—and The Stop, in turn, is greatly enriched by their involvement with us. Every month, we’ll profile one of these individuals. This month, we introduce Marjorie Campbell, member of the Bread and Bricks Social Justice Group.

As improbable as it sounds, Marjorie Campbell credits a four-year stint in the Guyanese army with her devotion to community building. Before moving to Canada in 1970, the 63-year-old grandmother flew planes and was, in her words, "a good marksman." Tough training instilled in her great resolve, but it was the occasional forays to deliver food to impoverished indigenous people that really changed her: "The army brought out the true me, my love for community. It gave me fulfillment."

In Canada, Marjorie raised two children while working for 16 years as a nurse's aide and then later as a superintendent for Toronto Community Housing. After early retirement, she took the YWCA Life Skills training and used those skills working independently in housing developments around the city. Marjorie had long been aware of The Stop; her daughter brought up two boys in the neighbourhood, she'd been a board member at neighbouring Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood Centre and a frequent visitor to our drop-in. "I came for the breakfast," Marjorie says. "Less for the food, though, than the friendship." She's since become an active member of our Bread and Bricks Social Justice Group , and represented The Stop at a recent Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault meeting. Most recently, she joined our stalwart Community Advocate team. With characteristic modesty, Marjorie says that all she's doing is "adding" to the work that we do: "I respect people. And I want to enable and encourage them to make change."

Our catering is now LFP certified!

We're very proud to announce that our catering service has been certified by Local Food Plus ! This means that, wherever possible, the food prepared by our in-house catering team comes from sustainable, local food producers who reduce or eliminate pesticide use; treat their animals well; conserve soil and water; protect wildlife habitat; provide safe and fair working conditions and reduce energy use. Read more about our catering and event services..

In this issue

The Stop at Scaramouche
Film Night at The Green Barn: Seed Warriors, Feb 10
Seedy Sunday, Feb 13
Food for Change, Feb 17
Stop for Food (and Chef Challenge!)
Yes In My Back Yard Info Session, Feb 28
People at The Stop: Marjorie Campbell
Our catering is now LFP certified!

PROGRAM UPDATES

By Kathryn Scharf, Program Director

Seeds are beginning to quiver in their packets—if only slightly and, possibly, from the cold—in anticipation of a new year and new gardens to inseminate. The first workshops of the year have taken place, seed catalogues are under perusal, and a new intern, Soon-Hee, has been hired to help us make it through the early stages of the season before any of our summer students get started. New initiatives for this year of possible interest: a community seed library and swap, an intergenerational project at Hillcrest Park involving facilitated sessions with local seniors and families, and stretching the YIMBY program to incorporate the Davenport West neighborhood. Building out of the Global Roots program, we're hoping to help some of our Chinese seniors selling their dumplings at the Farmer’s Market. Talk about your vertical integration.

We’ve hired two new staff: Mark Woodnutt as the new Community Engagement Coordinator and Meredith Davis as Research and Evaluation Coordinator. Mark will be working with our advocates and community members to support them to find effective ways to speak out on hunger and poverty. Meredith will be joining the replication team to help figure out how to measure and tell the story of the difference we’re making in our pilot communities.

Our Twitter followers may have already heard about our Very Busy Kitchen Day, but I feel that it's worth dwelling on because it's so gratifying to see how the cooking program has grown—to the point that it's nearly impossible to wedge anything else into the kitchen space. So, a slice of life at 1884 Davenport: The day starts at 7:30 a.m. with Lorna and the drop-in team making breakfast. Volunteer Carlos and Hussein then slide into action with a food bank demo with 25 people in attendance. Positive Parenting with Food has a busy session with Elle and moms in the kitchen around lunch time. The gung-ho volunteer snack team thn prepares a full-on lunch for snack, and, just as that’s wrapping up, in comes Kamla with her FLY girls to do some baking and run a workshop, after which it all shuts down at about 6:00 p.m. Every day is nearly that full, especially when you account for Chris and the catering crew deking in and out whenever there’s a vacant moment.

More cooking success with the first seniors drop-in kitchen over at the Green Barn, organized by Wei—16 seniors attended and, with the gusto we have come to associate with seniors, cooked and danced up a storm. Yes, danced; somehow a rousing cooking session seems to get the blood moving in such a way that a craving is created for a good dance! For those who get to be around this happy energy, it’s pretty fun.

Finally, to complete the cooking theme: it was delightful to see the kids who come over from the after school program at Davenport-Perth so excited to be back in the kitchen with Scott; they were deprived of his tutelage for two weeks when he was on vacation. And, well, they were just so excited in general. And yet, possessed great concentration and exactitude, slicing perfect polenta slices to make polenta "fries," with giant knives (and only the occasional safety infraction).

Which reminds me: can anyone suggest a name for our Kids Programs and/or after school cooking and gardening program? It has to be dignified and not too babyish or the kids will hate it. The knives made me think of it because I keep suggesting “Kids with Knives” and not getting much uptake. All ideas will be thoughtfully considered.

FARMERS' MARKET UPDATES

By Cookie Roscoe Handford,
Market Manager

The Stop Farmers’ Market welcomes Whole Circle Farm and Ontario's Own ! Every week, Whole Circle's Abhi brings a couple of heaping tables of winter storage produce, fresh greenhouse kale, and Ontario garlic. As well as lots of beets, onions and potatoes. Some potatoes are yellow on the outside and purple on the inside; some are just purple and some are more yellow. It's a really nice display, not to mention delicious. Ontario's Own is a bold experiment in bringing back to Ontario some of the lost art of “putting food by.” Hillary buys Ontario produce at peak of season—peaches, raspberries, apples, carrots, beets, you get the idea—and puts these into jars to keep the winter market interesting and help feed farm families year-round. Music is back at the market again too, now that there's a little room after the holiday rush.

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