Saskatoon Food Basket Challenge

Category Archives: Lesia Payne

Posts by Lesia Payne

Bridging the Gaps (*GUEST EDITORIAL, Pt. 2*)

September 19, 2011 by Lesia Payne | 13 Comments

The conclusion of our Guest Editorial, Part 1: The Great Divide. I urge everyone to please read this one as it’s extremely inspiring. Thanks again Tina for your awesome contributions and support for the Challenge.

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Bridging the Gaps: Creating food systems for ourselves.
By Tina Thorsteinson, B.S.Ag

The Food Bank Challenge is such a great opportunity to bring people together around the issues of food and I hope that the challengers will rise up as strong (and loud) advocates for change in these issues around Saskatoon.  Hopefully we can maintain some momentum after the challenge ends.  I think that a number of people looking to the Challenge will be looking for things that they can do in their regular life, without making unrealistic reforms.  The good news is that if people make small choices consistently, they will collectively add up.  First the hard truth.

The only way to keep people from going hungry here and around the world is to put a great deal more energy and money into local food systems.  I understand that buying local organic from the farmers’ market might seem expensive, however if there were more people with disposable income doing so, then the farms could develop efficiencies and scale which brings costs down.  Focusing on what we can buy locally also takes pressure off of developing countries, reducing the hold of North American owned food giants on Sub tropical lands, which allows those local people to get back onto their own lands and provide food for themselves first, in their traditional ways.  This is also much more sustainable environmentally.   Aid does not work, allowing people to feed themselves does.

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So we’ve had to bow out…..

September 18, 2011 by Lesia Payne | 4 Comments

I’m writing this right now from a hotel in Regina.

At the hospital. Glad we could be there.

Chris’ uncle, as previously mentioned, is imminently due for surgery and is 83. He had just lost his aunt/his uncle’s sister, due to a related incident. We weren’t going to miss this opportunity to visit, as you never know what life is going to bring.

As many commenters have said on this very blog, sometimes the rug can be pulled out from under you when you least expect it.

So due to the added stress along with the complexities and pretty much impossibility of continuing this diet without any cooking facilities (in a hotel), we had decided to bow out. This morning, on our way out of town, we enjoyed and appreciated a real breakfast like we never have before. Same goes for lunch, and most recently, dinner.

Once we had to be out, I cherished breakfast.

Both Chris and I definitely have a new appreciation for food and the food choices we are _able_ to make. Especially when it comes to our son, Liam.   This might be TMI for some but for those moms out there, read the next sentence:

Liam used to be a regular every  morning pooper. But after only 2 days on the Food Bank diet, he had become constipated. Just today the poor guy finally relieved himself after we were able to provide him with adequate fiber, fruit, veggies, for a few days now.

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Mechanically Separated Chicken in Mystery Pork Sausage!

September 16, 2011 by Lesia Payne | 3 Comments

An update for day 4: I made my soup. It was quite tasty, actually, considering, even though my husband, Chris, has been eating it all week in sandwiches, I’ve been dreading eating the giant no-name Garlic Sausage. Now I’m going to try to word this as to not sound grateful for the protein. I am, .. I am… but, I have to say, after recently watching  Earthlings  (NOT for the faint of heart; but good if you are considering turning into a vegetarian) it’s hard to stomach because I know darn well how and what kind of treatment and quality is involved in this grade of meat.

“Mechanically separated chicken”? What is that? Well, according to wikipedia:

Mechanically separated meat (MSM), a product also known as mechanically recovered/reclaimed meat (MRM) or mechanically deboned meat (MDM), is a paste-like meat product produced by forcing beef, pork, turkey or chicken bones, with attached edible meat, under high pressure through a sieve or similar device to separate the bone from the edible meat tissue.
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Fogginess and mostly withdrawing Liam

September 15, 2011 by Lesia Payne | 5 Comments

Overall, we are tired and managing with hunger, but mentally, the diet is taking it’s toll on both my husband and I. I am taking longer to understand concepts, taking longer to finish tasks, and generally am not as happy and full of energy. It’s causing additional stress in my husband and I’s relationship and makes being a good mother harder. This seems to be the general consensus among participants. I am gathering a little bit more understanding every day of the many different challenges that families living in poverty face. The hunger and lack of nutrition makes everything more difficult. Take your day to day ‘issues’ and multiply that by ten, combine it the overall feeling of being on sleeping pills at all times, and maybe you can begin to scratch the surface of what it might feel like to be hungry and struggling with poverty.

Cookies I did NOT cheat with but was oh so tempted

I have to come clean here that Liam is pretty much not on the challenge anymore as I have “cheated” quite a few times today.

We went to a play date and there was a beautiful plate of fruit (along with some DELICIOUS home-made cookies I did NOT have but oh boy I wanted it. Even the Tim Bits that were there with literally 10 wasps crawling on them made my mouth water).

He saw the strawberries.

There was no turning back.

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Food Bank Veggie Burgers

September 15, 2011 by Lesia Payne | 7 Comments

Veggie burgers made with lentils, egg, rice crispies, and potatoes

I was a bit creative with my rations and have whipped up some very cheap to make, fairly nutritious veggie burgers!  I’m not lying, it was actually 100% delicious. Even my husband gave a big emphatic “MMmmmm”.

For the Burgers:

  • About 1.5 cups of Cooked Lentils
  • 3/4 cup or so Shredded raw Potatoes
  •  2 egg whites (that I had saved from my home-made mayonnaise yesterday)
  • 1/4 cup or so of finely chopped Onions
  • Salt + Pepper
  • Little bit of ketchup
  • Enough Rice Crispies to make the burgers thick enough to form into loose patties

For the toppings:

  •  Mixed salad, lettuce, or herbs

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Top secret corn photo

September 15, 2011 by Lesia Payne | 1 Comment

Saskatoon Food Basket ChallengeSo as some of you may have read, I only tried growing 3 corn plants this year in my garden. Just as a test… All 3 grew nice, small, organic, peaches and cream corn.

The frost damaged the husks last night and I got scared. So, I harvested them and we ate 3 small corn from my garden last night. Liam went to town on them, as pictured.

I didn’t want to post it on my blog yet because I was a bit ashamed for ‘cheating’. Hence why my husband named the photo from his camera “Top_Secret_Corn_Photo.jpg”.

But, I figured in the spirit of this challenge I shouldn’t WASTE food and I have been nurturing and providing compost for and various things those 3 little cobs of corn this whole summer, so I wasn’t going to let it get old and lose nutrients sitting out for a week.  I also let Liam have an apple that he pointed at from our neighbour’s tree.  So I lifted him up by the fence and let him pull off a small crab apple. He only ate half of it.

I heard something very positive in the comments of Amy Jo’s post:

“Eileen Gelowitz

Using veggies from your garden, or produce, or other goods, given to you, is NOT cheating! Other foodbank users do it all the time!! I know, because I have a lot of relatives and friends who use the foodbank who get produce or goods in this manner.”

This is fantastic news and I can’t wait to hear more stories of this happening in our community.