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August 20, 2004
Vancouver gets new food boss
Jewish members aim to build a better society through policy council.
PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Like many Jewish families, when Devorah Kahn's mishpachah
gets together, it's all about food.
"Our family motto is that we'll travel any distance for a free
meal," said the American-born Kahn, who has just been appointed
the city of Vancouver's new food policy co-ordinator. "Maybe
like many other Jewish families, we're always talking about the
next meal when we're eating the one that's right in front of us."
From an early age, the significance of food was impressed upon Kahn.
"My father was a green grocer, so I grew up getting a lot of
fresh food," she said. "He grew up on an orchard in eastern
Europe so he understood fresh food and he wanted to make sure there
was fresh food in his life and in our life."
Kahn's mother and grandmother kept the house filled with the evocative
aromas of European-inspired baking.
Though Kahn was the only one of her siblings not to work in the
grocery – her father sold the business when Devorah, who was
the youngest, was in her early teens – she is the only one
who has carried the mantle of food production into the next generation.
The Bulletin interviewed Kahn at the East Vancouver farmer's
market she runs on Wednesday afternoons outside Nat Bailey Stadium.
Kahn's involvement in food stems from her work as a public health
educator and reflects her value of the importance of food to society.
"For me, a healthy community involves social health, economic
health, community health," she said. "The market was one
way to bring the community together, an opportunity for people to
meet their neighbors and slow down."
On this particular Wednesday afternoon, a couple of dozen food producers
have their diverse wares spread across the parking lot of the park,
which abuts Ontario Street. Organic carrots and weird-shaped squash,
natural smoothie drinks and even Okanagan beef are on offer.
Kahn has been the director of the nonprofit group Your Local Farmer's
Market, which runs three hugely successful markets, including two
on Saturdays – one at Trout Lake Park on East 15th Avenue and
Victoria, the other in the West End's Nelson Park.
This month, Kahn was appointed the city's food policy co-ordinator
and she will help guide the city's new Food Policy Council. The
council is a response to concerns related to the existing food system,
and aims to take advantage of an opportunity. Vancouver has to become
a leader in the development of sustainable food policies and practices,
according to the city-proscribed mandate.
A council dedicated exclusively to food is not a novel concept in
itself. Kamloops, Ottawa and Toronto each have a similar body. But
Vancouver's is expected to take a decidedly holistic approach to
food, though the specifics of the group's agenda will be determined
at its inaugural meeting next month.
"We're looking at access, distribution, consumption, how food
is accessed, where it's coming from," Kahn explained. "Are
we relying on food that comes from far away because it's cheap?
And, in the long run, what cost does that have to us? Will we want
to implement a policy that says that public institutions need to
buy B.C. first? Here's a way of supporting our farmers [if] the
cafeteria at City Hall, for example, looks at buying B.C. first
before it buys from California or from Mexico. These are just ideas."
Food closer to home
As an example of a direct impact the council could have on everyday
life in the city is Kahn's desire to look further into the purveying
of junk food to kids.
"Personally, I really want to look at what kids are being fed,"
she said. "I really want to look at the whole reliance on junk
food in schools, why this has come about, how we can pull the plug
on this sort of thing. I think we need to look at that addiction
and see how we can break the schools of it."
Not that the Food Policy Council plans to be trendy, but local food
is the hot new phenom, according to Kahn. Time was, high-end restaurants
prided themselves in importing exotic ingredients from exotic locales.
Now the attitude is the closer to home the better. It's an approach
Kahn takes at her own dinner table.
"We love looking at our dinner plate and knowing who has grown
what and saying, these are Susan's salad greens and these are Judd's
carrots," she said. "It's more than it tastes good. Anything
that's picked closer to home is picked closer to ripeness. As a
result, it has more nutritional value, it's healthier, it's better
for you."
Locally produced food has an economic impact as well, Kahn noted.
"We're supporting our own economy, so we're buying from people
who will spend money closer to home," she said. It may also
be safer.
"As long as we can keep our local producers growing stuff,
we know that our growing methods are some of the safest in North
America," said Kahn. "Even some of the conventional growers
in B.C. use a lot less chemicals than conventional growers in the
United States."
Kahn's new role with the Food Policy Council will continue her efforts
with the farmers' markets, which have a strong element of education.
"People come here thinking the food's going to be cheap, but
it costs the same as at the specialty food stores," she acknowledged.
"We've spent our time educating people that farmers deserve
to make a living. We've basically been cheating farmers for a long
time by buying food from them cheap."
Involving the public
Appropriately enough, Kahn is not the only Jewish member of the
council. Herb Barbolet has been on the local food scene for years.
He was a founder and, for a decade, served as director of Farm Folk,
City Folk, a nonprofit organization that Barbolet describes as concerned
with all aspects of food from local to global, including its health,
environmental, social justice and international development implications.
He seeks to increase people's involvement in decisions that affect
the production, distribution, consumption, processing, safety and
ingredients of food.
His work in the field, so to speak, began with an Aldergrove farm
that produced organic exotic salad greens and herbs for the local
restaurant industry. Though both Kahn and Barbolet stressed that
the direction of the council will be determined by the group, beginning
at its first meeting, they both have ideas growing from their long
experience.
"By organizing a local, self-sustaining food economy, we can
save money, we can create healthier, more environmentally appropriate
means of feeding ourselves and more equitable means of feeding ourselves,
as in reducing the number of people who go hungry or who are malnourished
either through not enough food or too much of the wrong kinds of
food," said Barbolet.
Personally, he would like to see the expansion of farmers' markets,
community kitchens and community gardens, while improving the viability
of existing city programs, like composting.
Like Kahn, Barbolet makes a direct connection between his Jewish
tradition and his approach to food.
"Food has always been very important in my life and I've understood
from an early age its ceremonial value, its spiritual value, its
communal value, as well as its health and nutritional value,"
said Barbolet. "Being Jewish has been a fundamental part of
my worldview and a significant reason why I chose food as a means
of expressing my lifelong occupation, which is community development
– to build community and a better society."
Pat Johnson is a Vancouver journalist and commentator.
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