“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” -Mahatma Gandhi.

For the past few years I’ve been rethinking our relationships with food. I, like many around me, love food and love to eat but I’ve noticed a real disconnect between people and their food. Somehow, there’s a whole generation of my peers, if not more, who has lost the ability or the will to cook. Why cook when we’re convinced that it takes too much time and energy, when marketers are seducing us with prepared foods, when the latest meal-in-a-box is deceivingly “cheap”? When cooking has become a spectator sport and when kids think macaroni and cheese comes from a box and bagged carrots are naturally mini?

I’ve been fueling a passion for food literacy, the ability to understand all facets of our food: its origins, how to grow or produce food, how to cook and eat it, its nutritional value, its social values, how our food choices affect the bigger picture. There’s no doubt that this evolution has been influenced by having a child and my desire to help him connect to food in a broader context. I knew from day 1 that one of my roles was to educate him about as much about our food world as I could, if not to give him basic life skills but to give him the knowledge to become an informed consumer.

Can I effectively change the next generation? Am I able to influence those around me to understand the food they eat and make healthy choices? I have to.

I started devising a plan, albeit a small one, to help me get my message out there. Start with my own child. Begin a dialogue about food, use all our senses, encourage him to cook and explore, grow food, read about food. Then work on his peers: take the Kid’s classmates on a fieldtrip to the community garden, host cookover playdates, talk about food. Small change but I felt that I was making a difference.

Then the potential vector for bigger change came my way. The posting for a job as a food coordinator at our local neighbourhood house landed on my proverbial plate. They were looking for someone who would work with different groups to build dialogue about food, to build capacity to feed themselves, to help revitalize an edible garden, to work with care providers of school aged kids to provide more nutritious snacks. And the job would be in my own community.

Gratefully I got hired for the position and I’m immersed in a warm, embracing atmosphere with supportive, inspiring colleagues and even more inspiring participants of all ages. I had worked in non-profit, community service environments for years before dabbling in other food related fields. When you’ve worked in the community, there’s a part of your heart that’s always rooted there. And when you leave the field, there’s a voice calling you and reminding you of what is important. I feel like I’ve come home. I feel like I can finally be the change I want to see.