Episode 19: Tara Hattangadi on Food Security and Mental Health for University Students

For many, the years spent at university can be a challenging time due to academic stressors as well as personal and emotional difficulties. During this important and liminal period, food security is crucial for health and psychological wellness, as well as academic performance and success. This week’s guest, Tara Hattangadi, is a recently defended Masters student who’s work explores the impact of food insecurity on mental health and wellness of university students.

Tara’s research sheds light on the importance of food security and demands that sufficient support during this key period be made widely available to all students – which includes university wide programs to facilitate equitable access to healthy foods. 

In this episode, we talk about her masters research and the exploratory route she took to engage in this very massive, under-researched problem of food insecurity amongst university students in Canada. She outlines what food insecurity looks like for students and why it’s important that we look at university students as an at-risk group. Poor diet has both short and long-term implications on mental health, student success, and social wellbeing, and Tara seeks to highlight how to improve access for students struggling to find healthy and affordable food. Tara’s passion for food systems and food security both in and out of the classroom has grown since the inception of her research, and she is determined to continue the dialogue about how to improve access to affordable and healthy food for university students across Canada.

Listen to the episode in the player above, or download on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play! (And if you LOVE listening, please subscribe, rate, and review!)

Resources:

• The Meal Exchange cross-campus study

• Tara’s Three Minute Thesis

• An article, published in CBC News early this year, about food insecurity among students at the University of Saskatchewan: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/40-of-u-of-s-students-face-issues-around-food-insecurity-study-shows-1.4470573

• Another really great read, published in Medium, about student food insecurity: https://medium.com/@saragoldrickrab/whos-hungry-making-sense-of-campus-food-insecurity-estimates-4b65cd1ecf2c 

Social:

Instagram: @tahrannosaurus or @sustainabindi

Episode 16: Lindsay Grenier on Food Guidelines During Pregnancy

As both a mother and anthropology student, I’ve been so fascinated by how food and pregnancy connect - and stoked to finally share a discussion on this topic! This week I’m speaking with Lindsay Grenier, a research assistant at McMaster University.

Lindsay did her Masters research as part of the Mothers2Babies study, which is a long term study on maternal nutritional health through McMaster University. She currently works as a research assistant at McMaster, where she focuses on maternal health and nutrition. Her research interests revolve around women’s health and social issues, particularly during pregnancy, along with health literacy, knowledge translation, and social determinants of health.

In this interview, we discuss food guidelines and taboos for pregnant people in Canada, and explore the ways in which social and biological factors shape access to nutritional knowledge during pregnancy. Knowledge translation is a big priority for a lot of academics in recent years, so we break down what this term means for prenatal health and nutrition research, and how cultural belief systems impact the attitudes and behaviours surrounding food consumption and avoidance during pregnancy.

Access to food and the social and cultural implications of this during pregnancy is a topic I’ve been very passionate about, particularly as a young mother who worked at a restaurant throughout my pregnancy and definitely had to hustle to make ends meet. It means a lot to share this discussion, in the hopes that it raises some awareness about the limitations and barriers some people face during their pregnancies. Enjoy in the link above, or on any major podcast platform!

Resources:

Mothers To Babies Study info:

• http://m2bstudy.wix.com/study

• https://www.facebook.com/M2BStudy/

Canada Food Guide/Pregnancy nutrition resources:

• https://www.facebook.com/HealthyFamiliesHamilton/

• https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-nutrition/healthy-eating/prenatal-nutrition.html

• https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-nutrition/canada-food-guide/choosing-foods/advice-different-ages-stages/pregnancy-breastfeeding.html

• https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-nutrition/healthy-eating/prenatal-nutrition/healthy-weight-gain-pregnancy.html

Episode 15: Brandi Bechard on Organic Food and CSA Farming

The start of October brings with it the beginning of non-GMO Month in the US and Canada, and who better a guest to kick this important discussion of than Brandi Bechard!

Brandi is an amazing CSA farmer, environmentalist, and the owner of a sustainable landscaping and garden coaching business. She originally hails from Windsor, Ontario, but has lived in cities and towns across Canada while pursuing contract work in environmental and natural resource sciences. She has worked in outdoor education, wildlife research, forestry conservation and on so many other environmentally-oriented projects! After spending a couple of years in research-heavy fields, she felt she wasn’t making a significant difference and had to compromise certain values that she held important to accommodate the career. She moved back to her hometown and started a business teaching others how to grow sustainable food amidst a desert of conventionally farmed land.

In our interview, we speak about her roots and what lead her to farming, break down some of the language surrounding organic and local foods, speak to issues of food security and access in Canada, and she shares more about edible landscaping and tips to help cultivate (heh…) a stronger relationship with sustainable food sources for beginners. Brandi has so much knowledge and experience to share, and is so peaceful to listen to, so I hope you learn as much as I did from this interview! Listen in the playbox above or on your favourite listening platform :)

Love Brandi Bechard’s episode and want to learn more about her? Check her out online!

Instagram: @borealbrandi

Facebook: @BrandiBechard

Resources:

• Wendell Berry: learn more about the agrarian and writer in this excellent interview by Yale e360 (which references some books of his as well)

• The 3rd Plate by Dan Barber

Episode 10: Trina Moyles on Farming, Feminism, and the Fight to Feed the World

This week I had the great fortune to discuss feminism and farming with Trina Moyles! 

Trina is an award winning freelance writer, journalist, and author with a passion for telling stories about social justice and environmental issues. Her first book, Women Who Dig: Farming, Feminism, and the Fight to Feed the World (University of Regina Press) was released in early March 2018. The book is receiving critical praise from authors, scholars, and publications, including Raj Patel (author of Stuffed and Starved) who calls the book "haunting, powerful, and important".

Her journalism and narrative non-fiction work have been published extensively in newspapers, magazines, and online platforms, including The Globe and Mail, Alberta Views, Maisonneuve, Swerve, Vela Magazine, Motherboard, Briarpatch Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Vue Weekly, GUTS Canadian Feminist Magazine, Modern Farmer, Yes! Magazine, Permaculture Magazine, and Narratively.

Over the past ten years, Moyles has worked intimately with rural organizations and communities in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, Canada, and East Africa on human rights and grassroots development projects. With an academic background in Cultural Anthropology and International Development, she focuses much of her research and writing on human rights education, food security, sustainable agriculture, and gender equality.

In this interview, we explore the ways in which feminism and farming intersect, and the research that inspired her book. Trina discusses what it means to be a farmer - particularly who has or hasn’t been traditionally viewed as a farmer in different cultural contexts. We speak about the varied ways in which feminism has shaped farming in day to day life for women, and the ways resiliency may help shape the future of farming with increasing threats of climate change across the world. It’s a truly fascinating interview with an inspiring and passionate writer! 

Listen to the episode in the audio player above, or download on Spotify, iTunes, or Castbox!

Want to learn more about Trina and her book? Check the links below! 

Personal website: www.trinamoyles.com  
Book website: www.womenwhodig.com 
Facebook: @trinamoyles
Instagram: @womenwhodig
Twitter: @trinamoyles

Photograph by Trina Moyles

Photograph by Trina Moyles 

Episode 7: Owen Campbell on Gender and Food Security for Winnipeg Youth

So excited to share today's interview with Owen Campbell! Ok, I probably say I'm ridiculously excited for every episode of AnthroDish, but I really do mean it! 

Owen is a trans man with a passion for cooking, baking, and za'atar spice. He currently works in Food Skills and Education at Food Matters Manitoba. Owen started his culinary journey with a small fib in order to get a job at a soon-to-be-open restaurant on the west coast. After landing it and working his way up, he left the restaurant industry to cook for a housing program in Vancouver’s downtown east side, where he remained until he and his husband decided to move to Manitoba. After a brief “retirement” from the food industry (to start and finish a BA and then a Masters in Linguistics), he came back to the food world to find a career in food security at Food Matters Manitoba.

Today we talk about his experiences working with youth in Winnipeg at Food Matters Manitoba, exploring some of the barriers they face when accessing food and creating meals, and who is most at risk for food insecurity in Winnipeg. We speak about the gendering that goes on in different food realms, and how these impact queer and trans youth particularly. We also look at the food landscape in Winnipeg and discuss some of the challenges and creative ways he teaches youth to overcome these barriers.

Check out the episode above, or download on iTunes and Spotify! 

Resources: 

You can find the Dan Jurafsky lecture he was referring to here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_tceXVOcls 

Want to learn more about Owen? Contact him here: owenrcampbell@gmail.com or check out some of his work with Food Matters Manitoba here:  http://www.foodmattersmanitoba.ca/2018/07/a-queer-cook-off/