 | RecentChanges - |
Good morning G-Spot lovers ! You’re tuned into the G-Spot Slice, the Garden Spot’s weekly radio segment. Fruit comes in segments, and as they say, you are what you eat, so I guess that makes me segmented. But really we are united in one sphere, one planet earth. In the earth our food grows, and it’s food that brings us together. So we’ll be bringing together info on food to share with you.
Oh, I should probably introduce myself too. My name is Justin, but I’m also know as The Wikinator on the G-Spot mailing list because I am also the creator of the G-Spot wiki. You too can be a creator of the G-Spot wiki. In case you don’t know, a wiki is collection of web pages where every page is a word or phrase. With a wiki, anyone can contribute to the content on the site just like on wikipedia, which is one of the most outstanding example of the power of wikis to harness collaborative efforts on the net. So, yeah, that’s me, I’ll be your host for the Slice. Today I will introduce the G-Spot and my ideas for The Slice to get you warmed up, a little foreplay as they say. So, though I’m pleased to be just be here , I’d love to have a co-host for the show, or even many, so if you’re interested in coming on, turning on, tuning in, or dropping in, give me a shout at g.spot.slice@gmail.com.
So, for those of you who don’t know, The Garden Spot, aka the G-Spot is a pay-what you can food service run out of the Unicentre here at Carleton. We started up in the Winter semester 5 years ago now. The reason why we started this was to fill a need that wasn’t being met by the corporate food service providers at the time: the need for healthy, affordable, and vegan meals on campus. So, with inspiration from the People’s Potato, a similar service that was running out of Concordia University, we erected the G-Spot.
The Garden Spot cooked our meals at a church off campus in the morning and then brought it back to school to serve lunch. We were able to serve about 200 students per day on a shoestring budget thanks to food donations from local grocers and money donations from students. A donations we received from grocers could not be sold anyway, with a little bruise here, and a little nick there. But the G-Spot was able to take this food, work our way around the bad spots, still create food that was nutritious and delicious.
Our first servings were happening in the space that is now Roosters’ computer lab area. We threw down a table that would have been right behind those side doors of Roosters, and we ate in a little room that was just behind the table. I really liked that space as a dining room for the G-Spot because it was so out in the open. The serving and dining was in clear view of the Baker’s Lounge traffic, so we really got people’s attention.
Our first year of serving was going great UNTIL… the health inspector showed up. Sometimes I wonder if it was the administrator that said “sic ‘em” to the health inspection agency (pun intented) because they have a vested interest in their contract with the corporate food service providers. Now would be the perfect time for a rant about the evils of Charwells, Aramark, and other mega-corporations that serve food to campuses worldwide but, I really don’t want to get into too much mudslinging on this show.
I like to say: Less dissin’ and more props Like utensils to feed the chops.
Well, I guess exposing the dark side of food has it’s role.
But aaaaaanyway…. . just to let you know, concerning our shut down by the health inspector: the Garden Spot food didn’t make anyone violently ill, and we weren’t caught putting boogers into the food. ***Grossssss, you put boogers in the food *** No silly, of course we don’t put boogers in the food. The Garden Spot does follow proper protocol for food preparation. And, since our meals have no meat or dairy products in them, there’s much less chance of our food spoiling. BUT, according to health standards, we have to keep our food out of “the danger zone” the range of temperatures between “refridgerator cold” and “right out-o-the-pot hot” and we wern’t heating our food on campus, so that was not kosher with Mr. Health Inspector. Another thing is that, although the tasty food was flowing well, our huge line-ups were creating “safety issues” with the Baker’s lounge hallway. Another thing, and this is the kicker, the health inspector insisted that we needed to cook the food on campus. And so there we were, deprived of our G-Spot. Oh we were sad. And mad !
So what did we do ? FOOD FIGHT !!! We put on a big campaign to get people’s attention about our untimely end. We wrote proposal after proposal to try to get space on campus for a kitchen. Ah, the red tape. The sea of papers. Trying to navigate the beurocracy that is Carleton administration can be like trying to swim in molasses ! But we we’rnt swimming in the stew that was the vibrant G-Spot community that used to exist. We really ran ourselves dry !
To be honest, I didn’t play a strong role in all that administrative stuff, and I even left Carleton for a year during that struggle, so I’m not much for a historical account of it all (maybe I can get some help with that in a subsequent slice).
When I returned to Carleton after my year-long sabbatical last September I received news that made me feel soooooooo gooood. I learned that the G-Spot had found a way to serve on campus without building a kitchen and still meet health codes, and we had even had our own serving room. Boooyeahhhhh !!!
So, now would be the perfect time to say to all of those folks who struggled hard to get the G-Spot up and stimulating tastebuds again (you know who you are): my most heartfelt thanks for not giving up through all the crazy quagmire. OH ! And of course also a huge thanks to all of those that helped to make this year’s serving a grand success… ah, well … at least considering our lagging volunteer base. Oh, do you hear that, IT’S A PLUG ! CALLING ALL FOODIES. HELP US MAKE OUR GOODIES. The Garden Spot is seeking new volunteers for our servings that will resume in the Fall. To get involved, e-mail g-spot.slice@gmail.com.
So, now it’s time to talk about what the G-Spot is all about. As much as our immediate goals -- to bring healthy, affordable meals on campus – were quite pragmatic, we also have some grand ideals to live up to. Food raises a lot of issues, especially in this crazy world of ours. So, now it’s time to tell you folks about the issues that the G-Spot raises. We haven’t been focusing too much on the politics of food this year in passing, but hopefully we’ll be **scare quote** propagandizing more next year. With that, here’s my rant on our issues. Remember, they’re not just the G-Spot’s issues, they’re anyone who eats’ issues. And that’s EVERYONE !!!
You know we’ve gone from our roots. We’re so disconnected to the source of our wealth, the earth, and FOOD. The common attitude towards food production, distribution and consumption MUST change if we are to sustain ourselves, as individual physical bodies, and also collectively as a the human race. It seems we’re racing towards our own destruction. And the “food chains” have a lot to do with this oppression and degradation of humans and of the earth. What we do to ourselves, we do to our planet. And what we do to our planet we do to ourselves. Frankly, I want to make in love, not in screwing.
Screwing up we are. We’re poisoning and sterilizing our soils, our food, and our selves. We’ve got GMO genes floating around all over the planet; it’s a potential biological disaster waiting to happen. We’ve got most of our food being shipped halfway around the world, burning huge amounts of petroleum, fueling global warming and war. Most of our food is in the form of highly processed, low nutrition, highly toxic waste. Yes, that’s what it is, it’s a waste. We are wasting away. Every day, with every bite I say. In the G-Spot slice, I’ll show you “the food chains” for the world to see.
Ahhh, sorry if that makes you depressed. No, wait a minute, I’m not sorry. Maybe if you’re depressed about the state of the world and the state of food, it will make you want to change it. Just like the small but potent group of individuals who are working dillegently every day to escape “the food chains”. Every farmer who’s refused to use pesticides. Every grower who’s taken painstaking efforts to certify their food as organic. Every consumer who chose local, whole foods over the processed, refined, and poisonous junk that’s so prevalent out there. Every food security activist who’s raged against the injustice that is starving humans and our planet. In the G-Spot slice, I will show these shining examples for the world to see. Yes, I’ll hold them up in plain view. Props from the G-Spot. Props. Yes, this is a hold-up. It’s a show. It’s a show of hands, hands working to break the food chains. So with that, I leave you. With a bite ! Good day. Good night. Until next time… eat right !
