Day 2 Dandelion Whine

“Can we forage? It’s dandelion season. They’re young and fresh right now. We should be taking advantage of that.”

May 8, 2012 | | Blogs | Community | Hunger Awareness Week

For some people, surviving on eight dollars and a box of food for a week just isn’t hard enough. My Food Box Challenge colleague Karen Hutchinson had to take it a step further. As executive director of Eat Local and a Caledon farmer, she has made sure that all her edibles are Ontario grown.

While I admire the effort involved in that, I began to feel she was taking the whole local lunch thing just a tad too far when, at our Monday launch event, she said “Can we forage? It’s dandelion season. They’re young and fresh right now. We should be taking advantage of that.”

I’m all for supporting the cause, and call me a food snob if you will, but somehow I’m just not ready to go there. Who knows, though? Maybe by the end of a week without fresh greens I’ll be thinking those little yellow rascals on the front lawn are starting to look pretty tasty.

Also at yesterday’s launch, CCS executive director Monty Laskin sketched out the agency’s plans for some big changes to how Caledon’s food bank operates. Later this year they will be moving to a 3,600 square foot building in Bolton which will provide space for a refrigerator and freezer, allowing the program to include fresh produce. More important, the new facility will be home to an array of programs that extend well beyond the traditional food bank model, including employment skills training, nutrition classes, family cooking classes, senior’s jarring activities, partnerships with farmers and food sales overseen by a youth enterprise. The initiative will be run by the community. As a result, CCS is looking for 25 new volunteers to serve in a variety of capacities – everything from sitting on committees to sorting food. If you’re interested, contact Kim D’Eri, CCS Manager, Poverty Reduction Partnerships at 905.584.2300 Ext. 202 or email [email protected].

The Food Box Challenge is all about raising awareness. Caledon Community Services has set a target of 5,000 visits to the daily blog all participants are posting on the CCS Food Box Challenge website. Please take a moment and give it a look.

About the Author More by Jeff Rollings

Jeff Rollings is a freelance writer living in Caledon.

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