Wake-Up Wednesday Wins, Round IX!
Hello, dear readers and welcome back to another round of Wednesday Wins. It’s been a minute but this weekly offering is back. Now more than ever, we need positive, uplifting stories to keep us going through our weird days. (For those reading this post five years from now, we’re still in the middle of a pandemic clusterf*ck that has shut down the world.) It’s bananas! We’re all working from home, freaked out, baking bread, connecting with our families over Zoom, and learning more about ourselves than ever before. I’m sure I’m not the only one who keeps wondering where the months of March and April went!
This week’s wins aren’t specifically about COVID, but they have all been influenced and/or borne out of the current crisis. Isn’t that funny? In times of stress, scarcity, and uncertainty, humans rise to the occasion and do some pretty cool sh*t. The stories are also mostly about food. Food is a favourite topic of mine because it directly relates to the issues of plastic pollution and global health (including those beautiful salty seas of ours). Read on for more!
Reusables In Pandemic Times
Upstream Solutions, a wonderful organization dedicated to advocating for cleaner seas and reusable options, is hosting their first live webstream Thursday, April 30 at 9AM PST/12PM EST. The theme: The Safety and Future of Reuse. With so many grocery stores disallowing the use of reusable bags and entire bulk food sections shutting down, the future of reusables feels uncertain. Are we going backwards? Will we be able to get back to our bulk-refillery ways, post-COVID?
Upstream has been sharing information on this topic over the last several weeks and tomorrow they’ll take a deep dive. Join them, along with epidemiologist & COVID-19 government policy advisor Dr. Ben Locwin, CEO & founder of TerraCycle Tom Szaky, and CEO & founder of Dispatch Goods Lindsey Hoell. Register here!
Flipping the Script on Kitchen Equipment
As more and more people join the ranks of the work-from-homers, more people are also getting acquainted with their kitchens. But it turns out, we might not have all the tools we need to bake that perfect loaf of sourdough bread. We’re also all working less so there’s less $$ coming in – making that $500 Le Creuset dutch oven likely unaffordable (for now). What’s a burgeoning gourmand to do?! Enter in the circular economy, something we’ve been hearing about well before pandemic times set in. The circular economy is probably what humans operated under before all the revolutions (industrial, technological, digital, etc). It’s what nature does best: no waste, everything has a purpose, is regenerative, and abundant.
The Kitchen Flip was borne out of this concept. They ask us to flip our idea of what it means to consume culinary equipment, services, recipes; and consider new ways of procuring our goods.
Everyone deserves to have items of iconic value, moreover, at a fraction of the cost simply by transforming the model; by sharing the wealth of that object’s utility, beyond the first buyer. What we are talking about is a circular economy.
Kitchen Flip
The vision for Kitchen Flip is to create a place where food lovers can go to buy/sell kitchen stuff, without breaking the bank. They’re also hoping to connect food friends and create community. The team at Kitchen Flip is soliciting feedback from you, the gourmands itching to bake that bread. So go ahead: tell ’em how you feel.
Food Security in BC (in pandemic times)
There is no sector that has not been impacted by the current, global pandemic, least of all the food industry. The situation is real, it’s crazy, and there are no easy answers.
A BC-based higher institution wants to get a handle on all this, particularly how BC residents are feeling about food security these days. The Institute for Sustainable Food Systems (ISFS) at Kwantlen Polytechnic University is currently soliciting feedback via a survey. The intended goal of the survey is to gain insight on food access, purchasing, and consumption behaviours; plus food-related perceptions and concerns that BC consumers might have during pandemic times. If you’re livin’ and lovin’ in BC, help them out!
Connecting Communities with Fresh Food
Communities in the Okanagan are lucky – we are surrounded by literal abundance. It is actually jaw-dropping how much beautiful, delicious, fresh produce can be produced from one region of Canada. Not to mention all the other savoury produce we’re treated to: my favourite potatoes come from a farm just north of where I live.
But during crisis times, accessing all this good food can be, well, tricky! Social/physical distancing measures have put a cramp in our shopping styles, restaurants are closed, farmer’s markets have been halted or changed, and we’re all panicked about whether or not the bag of rice we just brought back from the store is covered in COVID (not to mention whatever other bugs might have landed on it). All we want to do is eat, dammit!
That’s why I am getting so excited to see so much emphasis these days on supporting local food and farmers! As mentioned previously, my next blog post will be an ode to local potatoes with the big-picture story all about access to local foods in times of crisis.
Bringing the Food to the People
This week, a new group popped up on Facebook dedicated to solving this very problem: The Okanagan-Similkameen Food Connector.
As food producers are struggling with how to get their products to market without the usual channels, this newfound group hopes to fill that gap. Their goal is to connect food producers with consumers and keep the flow of delicious goods flowing! For folks reading this who may be in that region, consider joining the group to a) find food! or b) get the word about about your awesome product.
My Maine Squeeze
Back to my former home state for this last story (I have the power of social media to thank for this one). As I was reading about the Surfrider Foundation kicking ass in the name of our oceans (check this out!) I stumbled upon a refill shop that’s posted up in South Portland, Maine! GoGo Refill is a plastic-free refill shop offering bulk goods, resuables, and (when COVID stops being a thing) a specialty recycling program that allows customers to swap containers and keep them out of landfill.
While their shop isn’t currently open for foot traffic, they are offering online orders and curbside pickup or delivery. It makes my heart smile every time (yes, my heart is actually grinning) to hear of small businesses like this not only existing in the first place but making every effort to keep up the flow of better products and goods to its customers. That GoGo is located in one of my favourite places in the world is the icing on the proverbial cake. GoGo get ’em!
And that’s this week’s wins! Stay tuned for more small business love, stories of food in pandemic times, book reviews, and more. Lots of writing projects in the works – now, to complete them! O:-) See you next week for another round of Wake-Up Wednesday Wins.
