How often do you find yourself hungry and stuck on St. George Campus with nowhere to go? Finding an affordable and healthy meal on campus is a challenge we struggle with all too often. Given that campus is almost as large as a small town, one would think healthy, affordable food would be readily available to students. Instead we are confronted with the usual limited choices: Second Cup, Tim Horton’s, and Starbucks for coffee and snacks, and for lunch, Subway, Pizza Pizza, street vendors selling junk food, and cafeterias. Unless you can afford to spend an average of eight dollars a meal at Hart House or a cafeteria, or you bring your own food to campus, you’re stuck with a diet of fast food and coffee. I came to the conclusion in my first year that the answer to the question of where to buy affordable healthy food on campus was a resounding “no-where!”
Aside from obvious health concerns associated with a diet comprised primarily of sugars and fat, there are a myriad of environmental and ethical problems with the corporate food system in place. These concerns are largely symptomatic of having lost touch with the life cycle of our meals and the people that make them possible. Do you know who grows the food you eat, who picks it, and who cooks it? If you buy your meals from Sodexo (the main operator of U of T’s campus cafeterias), you can’t possibly know. This multinational corporation present on 33,900 sites in 80 countries embodies the opposite of the principles driving the food justice movement, which are based on a system of consumption that puts people and communities before free trade and corporations. The food justice movement aims to bring about a local system of trade in which farmers receive livable wages and consumers’ dietary habits become more sustainable.
Why does knowing the people who make your food bring you closer to a sustainable diet? First, it localizes your diet as you eliminate processing and packaging factories, middle men, supermarkets, and all the transportation associated with these, enabling you to cut down on transport and waste-related emissions in your diet, thereby reducing your ecological footprint. Second, buying your food from local farmers allows you to help sustain local economies, making sure that the people who grow the ecologically sustainable food will be able to do so in the future.
But back to the question of where to buy affordable, healthy food on U of T’s St. George campus: Over time I have learned that a few dedicated people in the campus community are busy sowing the seeds of change in the food desert we find ourselves in. A few days a week there are alternative possibilities for students to access both healthy and ethical food.
Every Wednesday afternoon from 2 to 5, local farmers sell goods at a small farmers market at University College. Every Thursday from 12 to 2, Hot Yam serves the most delicious local vegan organic meal in town for only four dollars at the International Student Centre on St. George Street. Thursdays from 12 to 3 you can also join “The Spice,” a free participatory cooking social promoting community-building organized through the Centre for Women and Trans People.
Another way you can get involved is by joining U of T’s Urban Agriculture Project and learn how to grow your own food. And while you are snooping around U of T’s alternative food options, don’t forget to keep an eye on Hart House, which regularly does five buck lunches and hosts interesting food-related events.
What are your options during the rest of the week? Cafeterias have committed to purchasing 10 per cent of their produce from sources approved by Local Food Plus, ensuring the produce comes from certified local sustainable agriculture. So next time you’re in the cafeteria, look for the sticker that ensures you’re supporting local farmers.
And last but not least, there are the student-run initiatives at the individual colleges that are always there with coffee, snacks, and sandwiches to tide you over. These include Diabolos in University College’s Junior Common Room, Caffiends in Victoria College, and New College’s Coffee Shed in Wetmore Hall, which provides progressive and equitable employment for persons with intellectual disabilities.
So if you look in the right places, eating consciously and sustainably at U of T isn’t that hard. You can feel better about you choices, save a few bucks, and be healthier too. So fight that urge to grab the commercial stuff, and get a bit creative.
