Healthy products can taste good and do good things

This week I was invited to attend a NEW PRODUCT BOUTIQUE event of SPEED PITCHING of Health and Wellness products.

The event was hosted by Registered Holistic Nutritionist Andrea Donsky and Randy Boyer, Co-founders of The Healthy Shopper and Naturally Savvy, Co-Authors of UnJunk Your Junk Food.

I met Andrea at another event so I was happy to see her co hosting this event.  I really thought it was an interesting concept to have a Speed Pitching session set up for Healthy Brands present their new products to food writers/bloggers.  We were assigned a table and the brand reps had about 10 minutes to tell us about their products.  We stayed seated and sampled or listened to what the benefits of their products were.  Once the time was up they moved to the next table.  It was very fun and easy for us as they would drop stuff off as apposed to going to a trade show and having to lug samples and info materials around the room.  I have never been to a media event like this so I congratulate Shari Cogan for organizing this unique way of presenting products.  I am sure this format will be copied by others. The idea came from the Dragon's Den concept and translated well to a fun and informative lunch event.

Here are some of the lovely people I met during the pitches:

1. Simply Protein - Jaclyn and Nathalie  2. Nature's Path - Justine & Debbie
3. Love Child - Donna & Emma 4. Orange - Norman, Brett and Jennifer  5. Now Foods - Joy
6. DeeBee's - Dr. Dionne Baker

Other reps I missed were Nutiva - Chris & Tyler, Skinny Pasta - Margot & Wendy, The Healthy Shopper - Randy,  Nudge - Amy

Because there was so much information presented by these great Health & Wellness Brands I just wanted to acknowledge them in this post and will write a couple of other posts to spotlight them in more detail later.   That way I can list all of their social media info and other info about each product.

But what I will tell you now is that I was pretty impressed by all these brands.  Some I have used or heard of before but there were new products in the line or new people to the market.
One of the new ones was Dr. Dionne Baker's Tea Pops, a concept her kids came up with while in the kitchen fighting for attention.  I sampled the berry flavour and really enjoyed the fresh fruit taste and I hope to try some other flavours soon.  You will never go back to regular popsicles once you have tasted these tea pops.

Another new product to a brand that has been in business for a long time was Superflakes by Nathure's Path.  I have been having this for breakfast this week because it's got a great crunchy flake that has coconut and chia in it.  It's a great replacement for the usual cereals that have a lot of junk in them.

I also tried a new product called MagPop a Magnesium Glycinate effervescent Drink Mix.  It was mixed into a bit of water.  It tasted like orange and was pretty good.  I was interested in this because most people don't get enough Magnesium and it was explained that this was the best kind for you.  I hate taking pills so this was interesting to me.   I mixed it with a bit of the great juice that was at the event and it was really refreshing.

There were a couple of products for kids that I will taste test with my friends daughter soon and then post her reactions.  Kids never lie so will see how she likes them.

If you want to see more from the event you can check out #newproductboutique and #mediaden on social media.

I will be posting more detailed information including how to reach these brands in further posts so that I don't overwhelm you with it all in one post.  But if you see these brands sampling in stores near you try them out, I think you will like them.



*disclaimer- I attended the media event and was provided samples but the opinions in this post and photos are my own.

Is Easter about the food or religion?

Has Easter become a holiday like Christmas where the food becomes more of the thing than the religious aspect?  Also has commercial marketing been bombarding your feed lately?

I don't celebrate Easter so I don't have any Easter traditions.  Probably the closest thing to an Easter tradition for me is buying the Cadbury Mini Easter eggs over the lead up to Easter.  They are addictive little things.  

It struck me that I see people talking about the food they are going to eat a lot more than any of the religious aspects anymore.  Has it turned into a feast or marketed holiday?  I am not the one to ask but I will ask you if you celebrate Easter what is the most important part of it for you?


I have also been thinking about kids that live in food insecure households who don't get to have Easter Egg Hunts because their parents just can't afford to buy the Chocolate eggs.  They can get pretty expensive especially if you have more than one kid.

Since I don't have any Easter traditions or family recipes to share I just wanted you to think about the people that aren't celebrating Easter because either it's not their religion or they don't have family to celebrate it with or maybe they just can't afford to participate in the usual Easter traditions like the Fish, Easter eggs, and whatever else is part of a family Easter tradition.

Gastropost  @gastropost and Maple Leaf Foods @MapleLeafFoods are teaming up to help the people that aren't able to afford to put healthy food on their table with a new campaign.  You can nominate an individual that volunteers or works in food for a $10,000 donation.  You will benefit too.  It has to be someone involved in a not for profit registered charity.  Food Insecurity affects 1 in 6 children in Canada.  Hard to believe for a country that everyone thinks is free and progressive.

The campaign is called #FEEDITFORWARD and if you would like to nominate someone click on this link to register them.  http://www.mapleleaf.com/feed-it-forward-donation/

This Easter think about the people in your lives that aren't sitting down to a big Easter meal or can't celebrate Easter for whatever reason and invite them to dinner or start a tradition by bringing them one of your extra family treats.   #FEEDIT FORWARD if you can.  You never know how much it will mean to someone's life.

I am not a religious person but pray for the people that need a bit of help with all the challenges going on in this world we all need peace, health and happiness.

Feed it Forward

Food insecurity in Canada

Do you know what the face of hunger looks like?

·       

1 in 8 Canadian families struggle to put food on the table.

·       32% of the people requiring food assistance are children.**

·       25% of food bank users are immigrants.**

·       79,000 people each month access a food bank for the first time.*

·       Almost 40% of food bank clients have a diploma, degree or higher.**

·       On average, people who use food assistance programs do so for two years.**

*According to Food Banks Canada's HungerCount 2015 report.

**According to Daily Bread Food Bank's Who's Hungry 2015 report.

1 in 6 Canadian Children are affected by food insecurity.
*Source: Maple Leaf foods

Over the past couple of years I have learned a lot about Food Insecurity in Toronto and around the world because of my blog and in my work as an Ambassador for Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.  I got involved to see if I could do something to help people learn about their food and in the process I learned about the food insecurity issue from attending local charitable events that raise funds for programs like the Stop Community Food Program, who have various food training programs and they provide food to local communities in need.  This past October  a group of people and  I toured a couple of local schools and we learned about the Feed Tomorrow program that has school programs that provide food to school children who are experiencing hunger.  The older students volunteer to assist the program.
Second Harvest is another great non-profit that has great initiatives that many local restaurants in the city support by donating food.  And don't forget the food banks, one of the largest being the Daily Bread Food Bank who work tirelessly to get food and cash donations to provide food for people on various forms of assistance.

In a city as big as Toronto that is supposed to be "booming" why do we still have these organizations struggling to serve the local community?

Is food a Human Right?

While I am not a big fan of giving street people spare change because I don't believe it helps them in the long run, but I do believe there are a lot of people that need help.

Food Insecurity is a bigger problem than you think.

Recently the cost of produce shot up almost triple the normal cost and a head of cauliflower could cost about $8.  When you make $11.50 an hour you

If you think about the fact that the minimum wage is under $12 and the cost of living in Toronto for just a bachelor apartment starts at $900 if you are lucky, there isn't much left for enough food  after you pay your necessities but isn't food a necessity too?

If you are single on Ontario Works assistance you only get $681 dollars a month.  They believe you should spend $200 a month from that for food.  Good luck with that working out.
Disability is somewhere around $900 a month I believe.
In other words if you get sick or lose your job you have a good chance of going hungry at some point unless you have some other assistance.

As a regular contributor to Gastropost (The National Post's) community I am happy to support a new partnership campaign between Gastropost and Maple Leaf Foods.
Maple Leaf Foods will provide a $10,000.00 donation.

THE CAMPAIGN:

Feed it Forward by nominating a great Canadian in your community who has gone above-and-beyond to use good food to better the lives of others. Whether they have put in place a program to nourish school children, deliver nutrition education for people who need support, or use food as a way to bring people together and teach valuable life skills.

Nominate a great Canadian in your community who has gone above-and-beyond to use good food to better the lives of others. Whether they have put in place a program to nourish school children, deliver nutrition education for people who need support, or use food as a way to bring people together and teach valuable life skills.

They could receive a $10,000 donation towards their organization and enjoy free Maple Leaf groceries for a year.  And just by nominating them you could have the opportunity to receive free Maple Leaf groceries for a year.

The Nominee must volunteer or work for a registered not-for-profit organization or community group that uses food as a key component of supporting their program goals.

I mentioned a few of these organizations above.

To NOMINATE someone submit your information here:  

http://www.mapleleaf.com/feed-it-forward-donation/

This program takes place from March 21 to April 9, 2016.

Spread the word and get people talking about this great campaign that can make a difference in a lot of people's lives through this large donation. It's easy, all you have to do is nominate someone that is already doing good things to help them and you be rewarded for the great work.

Don't forget to follow along on social media and Tweet, Instagram, Facebook or whatever else you use to spread the word.

HASHTAG #feeditforward
Don't forget to follow @MapleLeafFoods on Twitter and Instagram
Follow fellow Gastroposter's feed using the Hashtag #Gastropost
Become a Gastroposter and submit your food photos for weekly missions and follow @Gastropost
http://gastropost.nationalpost.com/

This blog post was promoted by Gastropost + Maple Leaf Foods but the opinions are completely my own based on my experience.