Meal exchange and the CSA Food Bank raise awareness about hunger in Guelph
Written by Nicole Elsasser
From March 22 to 28 on the University of Guelph campus, Meal Exchange is partnering with the Central Student Association (CSA) Food bank for Hunger Awareness Week. Hoping to spread understanding about poverty and hunger issues on campus and in the wider community, the weeklong campaign features a diversity of events, each addressing a different hunger issue.
According to Yvonne Su, the education and promotion coordinator for Meal Exchange, many people still don’t realize that hunger is an issue facing students at the University of Guelph.
“A lot of times you’ll hear about international hunger but not about hunger locally or in students,” said Su. “A lot of students are running out on their meal cards right now. It’s kind of a way to link onto that and make them realize that food is precious, that not everybody has money to buy food.”
Among the events taking place was a screening on March 23 of the documentary Food Inc, a film that deals with the politics of food production. Another much-anticipated event is “Cooking on a Budget” where the manager of the Bullring, Kristina Lindsay, will hold a cooking workshop in Lambton Hall residence on March 25, teaching students how to make meals without breaking the bank. Krista Kermer, the coordinator for the CSA Foodbank, is particularly excited about this event because of her knowledge of what the average student is working with when it comes to kitchen appliances.
“The idea [of the workshop] is using as little pots and pans that we can because not everyone can afford a crock-pot or a slow cooker or something like that,” said Kermer. “They use like a basic pot or a basic pan and make something that can be altered to fit all different diet needs. It can be vegan, it can be vegetarian, and if you add some ground beef you can make something that’s omnivorous. But also it’s fairly nutritious as well. She’ll be making a stew, or more like a chili, and a stir-fry using stuff that is readily available and fairly cheap to use.”
Kermer explained that at the workshop, attendees will be given recipes for foods they can easily and cheaply prepare, as well as the estimated costs for the dish and the best ways to buy ingredients.
“With [something like] spices, it’s really easy to pick them up for a couple of cents at the Bulk Barn. If you’re a good shopper, you can,” said Kermer.
Kermer advises visitors to the Food Bank to make large batches with simple ingredients, rather than spending all of their money on individual and often overpriced microwaveable dinners.
“Sometimes I’ll have students who come into the Foodbank and say, ‘there’s nothing here,’ [because] often people are very addicted to the fast, one-minute Michelina’s servings that you can pop in the microwave and leave,” said Kermer. “However there’s some points where I see that we have lentils, we have beans, we have rice. You could make a chili right now…If you do have time, like a couple of hours, you can always freeze it later and it can be a quick instant meal and a lot of times something like a stew contains quite a bit of protein and it will keep you full more than a small [microwave meal] will.”
If there remains skepticism about whether hunger is a problem in Guelph, Su points out that one in five people in the community deal with hunger related issues, and because of the nature of poverty, most people suffer silently.
“I think hunger is usually an invisible issue. If you can’t eat lunch or dinner, you’re not going to go around telling your friends about it,” said Su. “Asking your friends to buy food is not a very socially acceptable thing to do, so hunger is usually something that is under the radar. A lot of times there’s a stigma attached to hunger.”
With files from Daniel Bitonti and Greg Beneteau
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