The Spice

     The Spice is a participatory cooking social promoting community-building organized through the Women's Centre at UofT. Food has always brought women and their communities together; The Spice aims to continue this tradition. Each Thursday between 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. (starting Thurs, Sept 22, 2005), The Spice invites women on campus and in the larger community to contribute their culinary ideas and skills in a fun event that quenches intellectual and social appetites.

     At noon, The Spice opens its doors and everyone joins in the food preparation. The Spice endeavours to engage women to initiate discussion on issues that are important to them in a supportive and inclusive environment. Discussion topics have ranged from parenting to experiences of racism and sexism over the course of sharing a delicious, nutritious meal. Menu ideas for the following weeks and clean up are also shared within the group as well.

     Recipes are kept with the goal of compiling of creating a special Spice recipe book. Recipes are chosen that are affordable, healthy and easy to make. The recipes are as diverse as the women participating. The Spice is a child-friendly, trans inclusive event that is also wheelchair accessible through Bancroft Street. We also make TTC tokens available.

See you every Thursday at 12 pm!!!

Welcome to Our Community Cupboard

What's it for?
     From time to time some folks may find themselves without enough food to feed themselves or their families. The Centre wants to find a way to alleviate this stress without creating a huge bureaucracy. If you need food, take what you need from the Community Cupboard, no questions asked, no need to get permission. If you wish, you may prepare a meal here at the Centre.

     When you have the ability to do so, you can add food items to the Community Cupboard. All members are encouraged to donate non-perishable food to the Cupboard, whether or not they expect that they will ever need to use it. To donate food, simply leave it in the Cupboard.

     Please help yourself!

     For regular food needs please access the U of T Food and Clothing Bank Friday from 12 to 3pm @ New College, 300 Huron St. Room 50

The Centre is also home to the GOOD FOOD BOX Program!

What is in the Good Food Box?
     With every delivery the selection of fruits and vegetables (bought directly from farmers or the Ontario Food Terminal) changes. Basic items such as potatoes, carrots, onions, apples, oranges, and bananas are included in the box. We choose the other items according to season and affordable at the time. We support Ontario farmers as much as possible.

     We select top-quality fruits and veggies which are then delivered to the Women's Centre @ U of T. You pay in advance of the delivery and then come every two weeks to collect your box.

How Much Will I Save?
     The value of the $17 box at a regular supermarket is between $25-27.

OPTIONS:
Good Food Box $17 for families
Good Food Box $12 for singles, or small families
Organic Box $32 mostly local certified organic produce
Organic Small $22 smaller portions of the Organic Box
Fruit Basket $12 just fruit
Reach for 5 $12 a week's worth of fruits/veggies cut up and measured for you.

Contact The Women's Centre womens.centre@utoronto.ca or (416) 978-8201 if you have any questions or to arrange a GFB pick-up at U of T.

The Women's Centre @ U of T
563 Spadina Ave
North Borden Building, Rm 100
(between Wilcox and College on the east side of Spadina)
Toronto, ON, M5S 2J7
416.978.8201
womens.centre@utoronto.ca
www.uoftwomenscentre.com

     Every Thursday, we put out an email newsletter that lists events happening at the Women's Centre and in the community. If you would like to be added to our email list, please send an email to womens.centre@utoronto.ca with the words 'subscribe to newsletter' in the subject line.

     We are wheelchair accessible through Bancroft Street and child friendly. We provide TTC tokens and childcare for ALL our sponsored meetings and events. Childcare is provided with advance notice. We are a trans inclusive space. The Women Centre advocates on issues of racism and anti-semitism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, classism, disability, and ageism. Specifically we work towards pushing equality for traditionally marginalized groups. We work within the University of Toronto, however, commit ourselves to making connections to other communities.

     There will be food and a discussion about "Charity vs. Obligation - The Motivation for Social Justice" led by Tania Principe, a worker and an activist in the area of women's human rights on the international scale.

     Please RSVP to james [at] wardlaw.ca or arlene.stein [at] utoronto.ca

     On March 23rd & 24th, Radical Roots will be on the SAC ballot. We are asking SAC members to consent to a levy of 15 cents per session to support Radical Roots. The levy would be charged to all full-time undergraduate students as a part of the SAC fee, beginning in the fall of 2005 session.

     The funds will be used by Radical Roots to broaden our support of fair trade initiatives and strengthen ties with local organic farmers, to meet increased demand for our services, to keep our prices low and to increase the number of free lunches and dinners we serve.

     This Thursday, March 31st, the OPIRG Environmental Collective is organizing U of T's 1st annual social and environmental justice march of solidarity. We are trying to forge a collective front of activism on campus bridging the many issues and causes that all of us believe in, but which are generally fought for separately, lessening our relative strength, and isolating what should be a united movement. Many conferences, and useful networking meetings have been held this year in an effort to forge cooperation between campus groups, but we'd like to try and start an annual tradition here at U of T, of bringing together all active activist groups for at least a day to work together and present a common front of all our inter-related issues by reaching out to U of T students to get involved, and making campus media take notice of the problems we are trying to confront.

     Make no mistake about it, our group has our own agenda in staging this march, and in addition to being an offer for future cooperation with any actions planned by your group, this is a thinly-veiled appeal for support for our cause. We have just begun a campaign this year to create car-free zones on campus, as part of a general effort not only to improve our campus environment, but to highlight the emergency that global warming is confronting mankind with, and to demand both individuals, institutions and government take immediate action to reduce our output of fossil fuels, and find a cleaner way to get around.

     But more important than our particular campaign, which will go nowhere without much more significant involvement from U of T's community, is the potential power of an interacting, yet ideologically diverse student movement on campus. Although our plans for the day so far are simply a 'reclaim the street' march onto St. George, as we did once earlier this year (and don't worry, the cops were there and they let us do it) followed hopefully by a little gathering to share some organic food, ideas and contacts, we are open and looking for more ideas for action that day, related to the issues any and all participating groups would like to highlight. In particular we're still thinking of possible ideas for a fundraiser for OXFAM, which is doing live-saving work around the globe, but in particular working as humanitarian aides and human rights observers in the conflict zone in Darfur.

     If you are interested you can get in contact with me by telephone, at (416) 569-4223, or otherwise email me carfreecity@ecologyfund.com.

     We'll be having a planning meeting a week Monday (March 20th) at the OPIRG office, which is at 563 Spadina Ave, at 6:15 P.M. if you are interested in participating, please come out, and please tell anyone and everyone else you think might care about this initiative.