08

Oct

2024

Connecting to Culture Through School Food Webinar

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Canada, Community connectedness, Cooking, Eating, Growing, Hands-on food literacy, Local food, webinar

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October 23rd, 3:30 pm-4:30 pm PST

This event was part of Farm to School Month in Canada. Farm to School Month happens each October and is a time to showcase the many ways farm to school, also called local food to school, activities come to life. It’s an opportunity to celebrate the impacts of comprehensive school food programs and the people who make them possible and to explore an important theme related to school food. Since 2022 we’ve been celebrating the theme of Food Connects: The power of food to connect us to so much of the world around us. This year, we were especially excited to celebrate the power of food to provide connections to different cultures.

Thanks you for joining us on Wednesday, October 23 at 3:30 pm PT for the inspiring conversation that explored how teaching about, serving and celebrating diverse cultural foods in schools offers opportunities for students to make meaningful connections to their own families and cultures as well as their peers, to curriculum and to the world around them.

Hosted by CBC Food & Wine Columnist, Shiva Reddy, the event guest speakers were from both elementary and high school programs shared how they are celebrating cultural foods in their school food programs. This webinar shared inspiring stories, thoughtful considerations and practical tips that a wide range of educators and school food practitioners can apply in their own school communities.

This event was hosted in English and was recorded.
A recording with French subtitles has been made available here:

Webinar Recap

Meet the Speakers

ShivaReddy

Shiva Reddy

Guest host

An accomplished food and wine expert, Shiva is the food and wine columnist for CBC Vancouver, where you can find her every Monday afternoon on Reddy to Dine. Shiva also hosts a new four-part TELUS original docuseries, Not Your Butter Chicken, which celebrates untold stories of South Asians in Western Canada.

Panel of Speakers:

Avni-Soma-bigger-scaled-e1623625886369

Avni Soma

A longtime advocate for just and sustainable food systems, Avni is the Vice-President of both the Bow Valley Food Alliance and Alberta Food Matters, and is a member of the Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council. She is also a parent volunteer and driving force, along with Chef Damian Liengme of Mountain Fire Foods, behind the school food program at École Nôtre Dame des Monts in Canmore, Alberta.

Watch Un lien avec la nourriture, un repas scolaire à la fois on Youtube!

Rob

Brent Mansfield

As an educator Brent Mansfield teaches Edible Education as a specialist teacher at Lord Roberts Elementary in the Vancouver School Board. He is a co-founder of LunchLAB, along with Chef TJ Conwi and Growing Chefs. LunchLAB is an educational lunch program that provides Grade 6 and 7 student leaders with hands-on, cross-curricular learning around food literacy. Brent is an advocate for school food programs and has worked as part of the Coalition for Healthy School Food, both nationally and in co-founding the BC Chapter. This past year he undertook a number of runs, around his elementary school and at Parliament in Ottawa, as publicity stunts to help ensure the federal investment of $1 Billion over 5 years in a National School Food Program.

Nimmi Erasmus

Chef Nimmi Erasmus

Chef Nimmi Erasmus is the Chef Educator at Guilford Park Secondary (Surrey, BC) whose passion for culinary arts and sustainable food systems is infectious. She is especially well known for making elevated cuisine accessible and central to the overall culture in the schools where she works. With roots in a rich Indian culinary tradition, Nimmi’s love for cooking began when she was young, growing up in a family where food and culture were central to home life. This passion fueled Nimmi to become an accomplished Red Seal chef, having studied at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) as well as an educator. Nimmi has transformed the culinary arts programs she has led in high schools in BC’s Interior and Lower Mainland to emphasize a farm-to-table approach, using local ingredients to not only teach students essential cooking skills, but to respect the land they’re on, the ingredients it provides, and to make meaningful connections to culture through food.

Chef TJ Conwi

Chef TJ Conwi

Chef TJ Conwi has a passion for both West Coast and Asian cuisine. His culinary curiosity began with his roots in the Philippines and has taken him as far away as kitchens in Taiwan and Chile. Organic, local and sustainable ingredients are the highlight of his dishes. After training under French chefs at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts, TJ honed his skills in the hotel industry, most recently as executive chef at Delta Hotels Vancouver Downtown Suites by Marriott. TJ has executed hotel functions of up to 600 people as well as elaborate galas for the Japanese, Korean, Filipino and French Consulate. He now owns and operates Ono Vancouver, a kitchen consulting company that helps small to medium-scale business food programs. Clients range from school food programs, nonprofits and local restaurants; to startups and charities providing community meals in the Downtown Eastside and the downtown core. Chef TJ’s proudest community endeavour is as a cofounder of LunchLAB, which he started with Brent Mansfield and other community partners. LunchLAB is an innovative school meal program that serves students accessible, nourishing, culturally relevant lunches prepared by students with mentorship from chefs. It was recently acknowledged by the federal government during an announcement of the National School Food Program rollout in June 2024 as an example of what school food could look like in Canada.

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