Please take a moment to read this mes­sage. It’s about a great oppor­tu­nity that exists for us to shape the way our city engages with food, and it’s some­thing I believe in quite strongly. I send this mes­sage to all of you in the sup­port­ive and col­lab­o­ra­tive spirit that exists among our kitchens. — Joshna Maharaj

(This mes­sage was orig­i­nally sent to city chefs, but due to con­sid­er­able enthu­si­asm from oth­ers, I’d like to extend this invi­ta­tion to any­one who cares about food.  Please join us at city hall next Tuesday and lend your sup­port to a great new vision for food in our city.  Also, you can show sol­i­dar­ity with chefs in their whites by wear­ing an apron to the meeting.)

There is a new food strat­egy being planned for our city. The Toronto Food Policy Council, in part­ner­ship with the Medical Officer of Health has cre­ated a bril­liant 6-point strat­egy for food sys­tem renewal in this city. The goal of this strat­egy is to “unlock food’s poten­tial to con­tribute to per­sonal health, vibrant neigh­bour­hoods and a great city.”

You are all food indus­try pro­fes­sion­als, who have cho­sen Toronto as your home. You under­stand the glory of the diver­sity and authen­tic­ity avail­able to us in this city, and I’m sure, have your favourite spots for dumplings, brunch & burg­ers. Food is the city’s num­ber one ser­vice and indus­trial sup­plier, boast­ing annual sales of $7 bil­lion. This strat­egy rec­og­nizes the holis­tic nature of food…that every one of our chal­lenges have food connections.

This food strat­egy also offers a great oppor­tu­nity to strengthen our city and raise its pro­file. Our diverse restau­rant sec­tor alone is a sig­na­ture of Toronto’s cre­ative edge, and tak­ing these next steps in food lead­er­ship can help Toronto reach its social, eco­nomic and envi­ron­men­tal goals. This is about the untapped poten­tial of food to address a wide range of urban priorities.

For a while now, I’ve been going on about the role that chefs can play in advo­cat­ing for social change. Now, more than ever, food needs a cham­pion, an advo­cate, and I am con­vinced that chefs are the per­fect peo­ple to answer this call. In some way, we all work in the ser­vice of food, and we under­stand its power. The first rea­son for peo­ple to col­lect around a fire was to share a meal, and as chefs, we have the respon­si­bil­ity of nur­tur­ing and pre­serv­ing this very pri­mal human tradition.

On Tuesday June 1, this food strat­egy will be pre­sented to the Board of Health. As with all city gov­ern­ment meet­ings, the pub­lic is wel­come to both attend and address the com­mit­tee regard­ing the issues they’re about to con­sider. This is where you all come in: I am going to speak to the com­mit­tee, urg­ing them to endorse and fully sup­port this food strat­egy, on behalf of the food and hos­pi­tal­ity indus­try. The dream is that we could fill that meet­ing room with as many chefs in their whites as pos­si­ble, every­one there to lend their sup­port to this plan and vision for food in our city. This is a very vis­i­ble way for us to col­lect and voice our opin­ions to our gov­ern­ment on one day at a meet­ing, but our celebrity and pro­file can also draw atten­tion to food and make it a cen­tral elec­tion issue in the fall.

Here’s what I’m ask­ing for:

Your sup­port for a more sus­tain­able, engaged and cel­e­brated food culture.

One hour of your time, at 12:45pm on Tuesday June 1. Deputations are lim­ited to 5 min­utes, and you’re free to leave after­ward, though you’re also wel­come to stay. The meet­ing is held at City Hall, 100 Queen Street West, in City Hall Committee Room One. We are first in line, and dep­u­ta­tions are given at the begin­ning of the meet­ing, which starts at 1pm. Though you are not com­pelled to speak, and this is sim­ply a request for your pres­ence and sup­port, every­one is enti­tled to some time at the micro­phone, if they wish.

I know you’re all busy peo­ple, but I wouldn’t ask if this wasn’t so impor­tant. If you’ve ever wanted to say some­thing about the way our food sys­tem works, or if you’ve ever wished that gov­ern­ment would take more lead­er­ship in pro­mot­ing good food, this is your chance to speak and be heard. Please con­sider this, talk to me if you have any ques­tions, and hope­fully join us next Tuesday as we start the con­ver­sa­tion that could recon­nect every­one in our city to good food.

Please feel free to dis­trib­ute this to other peeps in the indus­try, this is totally both a front and back of house issue, and we need all the sup­port we can get. Here’s the link to the city’s web­site on the strat­egy, and i’ve attached a pdf of the food strat­egy to this mes­sage as well: http://wx.toronto.ca/inter/health/food.nsf

With my sin­cer­est thanks and warm regards,

Joshna