This research updates previous estimates of vegetable and fruit prices, and estimates the cost of satisfying recommendations for adult vegetable and fruit consumption in the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

An adult on a 2,000-calorie diet could satisfy recommendations for vegetable and fruit consumption (amounts and variety) at an average cost of $2 to $2.50 per day, or approximately 50 cents per edible cup equivalent.

The lowest average price for any of the 59 fresh and processed fruits included in the study was for fresh watermelon, at 17 cents per edible cup equivalent. The highest average price was for fresh raspberries, at $2.06 per edible cup equivalent.

The lowest average price for any of the 94 fresh and processed vegetables included in the study was for dry pinto beans, at 13 cents per edible cup equivalent. The highest average price was for frozen asparagus cuts and tips, at $2.07 per edible cup equivalent.

See full report

The report collection, titled Metcalf Food Solutions, is the result of an open competition led by the Metcalf Foundation, a private family foundation that has been working behind-the-scenes for the past eight years to jumpstart a sustainable food movement in Ontario.

To download the reports, go here.

Yes in My Back Yard

There are so many benefits to growing food in backyard gardens: accessing fresh, organic vegetables for a lower cost; obtaining culturally appropriate foods that may be hard to find at the grocery store; helping the environment by reducing the chemical inputs and pollution caused by conventional farming – all while getting exercise, fresh air, and the satisfaction of watching food grow!

In fact, gardening is one of Canada’s most popular outdoor recreational activities. But here in Toronto not everyone can go right out and start digging – many people would like to garden but live in apartment buildings or do not have access to yard space suitable for growing food. And yet others have access to a yard but do not have the time, interest, or the physical ability to maintain a vegetable garden.

The Stop is launching Yes In My Back Yard (YIMBY) to connect people who have land to offer with people who would like to garden.

Wave after wave of immigrants have transformed Toronto. Their influence is everywhere – in our roads and buildings, institutions, stores and restaurants. But there is another place where this influence is felt, one many people never see. It is in the productive backyard gardens of the city, those verdant green corridors squeezed between brick and concrete, new and old.

On June 2, 2010, we will host Big Night at The Green Barn to celebrate the immigrant families who have tended these spaces, sharing their knowledge of plants and gardening techniques, passing on stories and memories, enriching the soil and the city with their passion for the earth and growing good food. This event will raise critical funds for our Backyard Garden Project, an initiative that will inspire and support members of our community to grow food in the city, building a stronger, healthier, more connected Toronto.

This special evening will be hosted by David Rocco and feature Nonna-inspired recipes prepared by Lorenzo Loseto, Ted Corrado, and The Stop’s own Chris Brown. Each course will feature a recipe drawn from each chef’s own family traditions.

The Stop is also establishing seven culturally specific garden plots, each with a unique mix of heritage/traditional vegetables and plants, which will be tended by experienced volunteers drawn from Toronto’s diverse immigrant communities.

Publisher Phil Caravaggio reviews the menu of homestyle Italian favourites -- handmade panzerotti, rabbit ravioli, eggplant parmigiana, tiramisu...

A fresh plate of rabbit ravioli, with handmade pasta

A team of volunteers hard at work on making panzerotti in The Stop's covered garden, converted into a kitchen assembly line

Guests fill the Wychwood Barn, a converted and previously run-down streetcar warehouse

Donors' names on traditional Italian-Canadian garden hardware: the hockey stick tomato stake.

Videographer Alex (left) and cover photographer Jason celebrate the first course

The fig tree, a classic symbol of Italian gardens. Carefully tended and babied in Canada's harsh climate by tenacious Italian gardeners.

Some neighborhoods in the United States, particularly those in low-income areas, have been dubbed “food deserts” because residents do not live near supermarkets or other food retailers that carry affordable and nutritious food. Low-income residents of these neighborhoods and those who lack transportation rely more on smaller neighborhood stores that may not carry healthy foods or may offer them only at higher prices.

A lack of healthy options could lead to poor diets and to diet-related conditions such as obesity or diabetes. If low-income households in food deserts can only purchase food at higher prices, they may be more prone to food insecurity—not having enough food for active, healthy living.

Full report from the USDA, March 2010.

Thanks to folks like you, who support us with your Spezzatino subscriptions and Healthy Food Bank donations, we were able to present The Stop with our first donation of $15,000.

Above: Spezzatino editor Krista Scott-Dixon, The Stop’s ED Nick Saul, and Spezzatino publisher Phil Caravaggio

If you want to know more about what The Stop does, please see: TheStop.org

It’s an amazing organization, and we’re thrilled to be able to support them.

Thank you again for helping us make that possible… and for enabling publisher Phil Caravaggio to live his dream of presenting someone with a giant novelty cheque.

At the event, we did a unusual kind of potluck — a potluck of meaning. We asked guests to bring a dish that was meaningful or significant to them, and to tell the story of that dish. We snapped each person’s photo, and immortalized their story with place cards.

Above: The “potluck of meaning”: participants brought a dish that was meaningful to them, and told their food stories

Above: Guests listen to speakers amidst overflowing tables of potlucky goodness

Other food was provided by The Stop’s chef, Chris Brown (who made us a spezzatino!) and the Afghan Women’s Catering Organization (whom we profiled in Vol 4). Mark Trealout from Kawartha Ecological Growers treated us to delicious, tender, fresh-picked greens.

Special thanks to the incredible generosity of J. Cipelli Wines and Spirits and Martin Jordan (whom we interviewed in Vol 2), which enabled us to have a fun, unusual wine bar in The Stop’s greenhouse (!); and to Ryan Smolkin of Smoke’s Poutinerie, whose mobile poutine unit brought much joy to the huddled masses.

“Hmmm… give me one of everything.”

Eighty-five percent of American households were food secure throughout the entire year in 2008, meaning that they had access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household members.

The remaining households (14.6 percent) were food insecure at least some time during the year, including 5.7 percent with very low food security—meaning that the food intake of one or more household members was reduced and their eating patterns were disrupted at times during the year because the household lacked money and other resources for food.

Prevalence rates of food insecurity and very low food security were up from 11.1 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively, in 2007, and were the highest recorded since 1995, when the first national food security survey was conducted.

The typical food-secure household spent 31 percent more on food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and household composition. Fifty-five percent of all food-insecure households participated in one or more of the three largest Federal food and nutrition assistance programs during the month prior to the 2008 survey.

Link to full report

A week on the dollar-store diet leaves me queasy

Dave McGinn

Here’s the sad state of affairs I found myself in last week: I had to go to the dollar store to see if it sold knock-off Pepto-Bismol because the stew I bought there the day before was making me queasy. Living on dollar-store bargains was turning out to be literally stomach-turning.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

A few weeks ago, I was walking through the aisles of the dollar store near my house when I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff for sale, everything from household cleaning items to dishware to stationery to toys.

Then I hit the food aisle – yes, the food aisle – and the thought struck me: Could I live out of the dollar store, and save a bundle doing so?

After a week immersed in this experiment, I can say without any doubt that you do indeed save plenty of cash shopping only at the dollar store. You also risk becoming malnourished.

Let’s do a little price comparing.

On the first day, I bought two small bags of chips, four cups of inferior-brand pudding, a can of chick peas, four drinking boxes of apple juice, one can of tuna, a bag of Butter’n Cream candies, a can of Chef Boyardee Mini-Bites and the aforementioned can of stew. Total cost, with tax: $10.19. The cost of the same basket of items at my local grocery store? $18.78.

Frankly, I was amazed. I seriously considered dropping $20 for an entire cupboard full of chocolate pudding. I would never have to worry about my pudding needs again.

But when you’re living out of the dollar store, the initial glow of saving so much money soon gives way – for me it was day 3 – to the realization of just how much stuff you can’t buy there: fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, cheese, food that doesn’t come in a can or a box, baby food, diapers (oh, how I wish it sold diapers!) or, unfortunately, anything to relieve an upset stomach.

You also realize that while you can technically survive on the dollar-store diet, at least for a week, making it your only food source would probably kill you in a month or two. Bargain-basement beans and stew aren’t exactly a great source for all your daily vitamins and minerals.

Living out of the dollar store also makes you realize there are a few things worth paying a few extra bucks for. Have you tasted dollar-store coffee? While it isn’t bad enough to make you do a spit-take or gag, nor is it all that great. Starting the day with a crappy cup of coffee makes for a crappy day.

It’s a full plate: a good nosh, a gallery show of food photography, and a collection of food stories.

Break bread with us. Help us celebrate our birthday and our first donation. And help bring healthy food to the table.

Thursday November 26

6:30 pm
The Stop Green Barn
601 Christie Street, Barn #4
(St. Clair West and Christie)
Toronto, ON

Suggested donation $15 or PWYC. Proceeds support the Healthy Food Bank foundation.

More information and registration

The number of Canadians needing aid from food banks swelled in March to almost 800,000, an increase of almost 120,000 from the same month the previous year.

The year-over-year increase of 17. 6 per cent was the largest increase since 1997, said Food Banks Canada’s executive director, Katharine Schmidt.

The recession was seen as the primary culprit for the rise in food bank reliance, the group said. In total 794,738 people turned to food banks in March, representing about 2.4 per cent of Canada’s population. About nine per cent — or 72,321 people — were first-time users.

“Food banks have unfortunately seen first-hand the effects of three recessions in three decades,” said Schmidt in a statement from Ottawa on Tuesday.

“It is crucially important that, as we rebuild the economy, we begin to better address the barriers that prevent too many Canadians from sharing in the national prosperity,” she said.

Schmidt said the groups’ findings show both unemployment and underemployment are issues for Canadians that need to be addressed.

The group found 19 per cent of those assisted by food banks each month are living on income from current or recent employment.

The report also found:

• Alberta had the highest increase in food bank usage, with 61 per cent more Albertans relying on the assistance compared to last year.
• Food banks assisted about 5.7 per cent of the population of Newfoundland and Labrador, making the province the most reliant on the assistance.
• Canadians under 18 years old make up 37 per cent of those assisted by food banks.
• Of assisted households, 6.3 per cent reported some type of pension as their primary source of income.

Food Banks Canada called on the federal government to:

• Maintain planned levels of transfers to provincial, territorial and First Nations governments.
• Implement a national poverty prevention strategy.
• Increase use of the guaranteed income supplement (GIS) among low income seniors.
• Ensure post-recession plans take into account low-income Canadians.

The CBC site carries an interactive map to show the breakdown by province.