By Tayler Staneff
The halls of Brock University are often filled with student groups fundraising by selling baked goods and other foods to raise money for a certain cause.
An earlier vegan taco fest at Brock University that was not busted. File photo.
Walk through MCA Block on any given day and you are bound to see some sort of bake sale or food giveaway. Students line up to purchase vanilla cupcakes and other ‘goodies’… but doesn’t anyone stop and ask, “Where are the hand washing stations?
This is the reality that the Brock Animal Rights Club (BARC) was faced with this past Monday, March 14 during their annual Vegan Taco Day. BARC’s annual vegan taco day has been a huge success for the past five years, bringing line-ups of people to enjoy a cruelty free lunch. This March 14, BARC was at it again, promoting compassionate food choices by handing out free vegan tacos to anyone interested in trying one.
BARC has always distributed quality food in a health conscious and appropriate manner, using gloves, separate spoons and napkins etc. Although this is almost unnecessary due to the lack of animal products and therefore, lack of contamination issues, BARC has always strived to handle the food served in appropriate measures.
Walking through the hallway bake sales, I have never once, seen a table with a “hand-washing station” and rarely see gloves being used. However, BARC’s Vegan Taco Day fells victim to scrutiny this March 14 when the Niagara Health Board showed up saying they received a complaint about the fundraiser. Apparently, someone called in and complained that they did not have the cheese refrigerated (it was non-dairy, so there was no need) and they didn’t have a hand-washing station.
Clearly, there is a double standard happening from one fundraiser to the next. In this case, every single bake sale must have their baked goods refrigerated, everyone must be wearing gloves and hairnets, and there must be at least one hand-washing station available.
If Brock, Sodexo and the Niagara Health Board would like to work together to implement guidelines for on campus food fundraising, BARC is all for it. However, if we are going to be singled out and held to a standard that no other campus group is held to, this is an issue.
Was this really a concern over health board regulations or was this based on what the taco day promoted?
If it really was over a health concern, why is the Niagara Health Board not called on a daily basis for every bake sale? Was the call simply made because someone can’t stand the idea of animal rights and veganism? Was this really about health or was this an issue over lost profits from other food services on campus? I wonder if this had anything to do with Union Station’s “Taco Tuesday” being held the same afternoon.
To the individual, or group of individuals, who called the Niagara Health Board and made a complaint about BARC’s annual Vegan Taco Day, I say thank you, for only furthering the point that veganism is frowned upon and discriminated against on campus.
Tayler Staneff is a Niagara resident and member of Niagara Action for Animals and the Brock Animal Rights Club.
Niagara At Large contacted Niagara Region’s health department over this matter and Bill Hunter, a manager in the department, was quick to get back to say that from the department’s standpoint, the decision to shut down BARC’s vegan taco event had nothing to do with discriminating again that group or any other.
Someone called the department about the event and an inspector simply went out to make sure, as the department does with as food handlers as possible across the region, that proper steps are being taken to address “cross contamination” or any “food-borne disease.”
Hunter said the department has since contacted the university to advise them that the same standards should be applied to all groups distributing food on the campus. The department was “certainly not discriminating against BARC, he said, and has already advised the group that it would be happy to discuss in advance what steps it should take with respect to sanitizaton, etc. to hold its event.
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The inspector is still working under the meat centric food paradigm. This is vegan food. It is free from animal products. The inspectors on site even agreed that contamination was not an issue, after much discussion, and then instead moved on to the lack of a temporary hand washing station (both boys and girls washrooms were within 10 feet, all volunteers had on gloves and all food had separate serving spoons) as THE reason why the event had to be shut down. In my 5 plus years of being on and around campus I have never once seen a temporary hand washing station in place when a student group/organization is serving food on campus. It would be interesting to chronicle complaints and inspections made by the Health Dept. over the years for student groups on campus. I have only ever heard of two situations where a formal complaint was made, this instance and another when Food Not Bombs was serving free food on campus. In that instance, the GM of Food Services admitted filing a complaint. Both instances consisted of a group serving free vegan food to students on campus in hopes of highlighting inherent violence in our food systems and to present food healthy plant based food as a “right” and not a privilege. Without a doubt in my mind these groups were centered on because of their political motivations and because the food they offered was free and thus a threat to profit. I sincerely hope that moving forward students at Brock push for a student run food service that mirrors the Garden Spot at Carleton University. Food should be accessible to all on campus and students should have access to their own food empowerment. The success of vegan taco day, which ultimately led to its demise this year, is a sign of a student body wholly uninterested with the options they are currently presented with on campus.
Well said Dylan!
The reported incident was clearly about sabotage not hygiene. I hope the group gets up and running again because these are the students that are “in the know” good for them.
Given the number of times I’ve heard of people getting food poisoning from Sodexo outlets on campus (esp. the terrible and over priced Market), it seems to me that the health department is misdirecting its gaze.
This sort of nonsense is going on south of the 49th at a great rate. I even follow Bill Marler’s blog where he is able to push the virtue of his work recouping expenses for those harmed by unsafe food practices.
Much as I don’t have any particular use for Maple Leaf Foods, for instance, listeria would not be such a problem if people did not have immune systems compromised from over-vaccination and plastics exposure.
BTW Germicidal hand washing stations as they are promoted by the state CAUSE health problems by adding toxins to our skin. They kill beneficial germs which live in harmony with our bodies and moderate immune reactions. That also means intruders have no native competition.
It’s all part and parcel of a program which causes healthy food raised by small producers to be demonized to deprive us all of options against processed trash which is not natural for us to eat. I’ve followed news at Care2 and noted stories which led me to look for the root causes of pasteurizing milk : it was never designed in that application and we’re the only people to do it ( U.S. and Canada ).
A raw milk advocate drew my attention to stupid regulations which do the same thing as when Ault Foods had milk holding regulations changed so that small cheese factories could not comply. 110 small factories in Ontario closed over that scam 40 years ago.
So don’t look for fairness and justice. ‘Authorities’ are even raiding traditional Amish farms exempt from their dictates these days. And if you want the Conspiracy Theory version just pop the words ‘Codex Alimentarius’ into Youtube Search. When you’re done being stunned by that you can try a Search ( I used Info.com ) on the terms ‘Rumsfeld Monsanto’
Hoo-hah!
Aug 9 2009 I put out info from a couple of bloggers I noticed at Care2 when their stories referenced facts known to few. Plus I have a file in the Topical Index called Corporate Farming.
If I was making this stuff up you’d wonder…but it’s in the public record. I know about the cheesemaking fiasco because my in-laws hired a cheesemaker displaced by changed Ontario regulations. With his help, the roots of the largest packing house/manufacturing operation west of Winnipeg ( in its day ) were formed. I even worked under him myself for a while.
Rules are rules and must be followed. I recall a well intentioned business person that purchased the old Niagara School Board HQ on Welland Ave in the 1970′s and converted it to a public coffee house. “The Chestnut Tree” was a great place for teen agers to hang out and the owners didn’t even charge for the beverages & snacks although they always gave the opportunity for anyone to donate money. This place became so popular that the owner spent a lot of money to build a kitchen and begin formal food services. Again, they chose not to charge for anything but collect donations only. Their error was that they thought because it was not a “business” that they were exempt of all rules. Not so. Two years into the venture and one of the patrons invited a friend for lunch. This friend just happened to be a reporter with the St.Catharines Standard. After lunch the reporter was introduced to and interviewed the owner. Photos were taken and a few days later a story appeared in the paper. It was well written and gave the “restaurant” a great review. (Doug Draper may remember this). The day after the story ran, the Health Department, City Fire Department and City Building inspectors all showed up, and not for lunch. Within 15 minutes the place was closed for multiple violations. Arguments that it was not business fell on deaf ears and The Chestnut Tree was now closed forever. I and many other teenagers (and parents) were unimpressed with the City of St.Catharines and Regional Health Department for taking away something to keep the kids off the streets. IN hindsight, the inspectors did the right thing. It’s about safety first and those things were not accounted for at The Chestnut Tree.
If any group wants to sell or give away food to the public, they must be prepared to follow the rules. IT’s all about food safety. Where is the fairness if groups at Brock U or anywhere else can get away without following the rules while the vendors at any public city market must follow them to the letter? Sure, the public market does not give away food but it is a place accessible to the public.
IT’s great when private groups can do fund raising or promote themselves and give away food, but if they don’t follow the rules, they don’t have the right to have access to public venues.
‘IT’s all represented as about food safety. ‘
Fixed that for you. Apparently you didn’t make it to the part where the ‘inspectors’ themselves didn’t promulgate that propaganda.
That’s like shutting down a kids lemonaide stand. I will never offer any of my homemade cookies to people again, I’d hate to break the law.
Too much damned interference by health inspectors. This pertains to everything today. Have you ever heard of anyone dying from eating a cupcake bought at a bake sale fundraiser? This is getting to be really anal!!
Will we eventually have to abide by these food safety laws when we have dinner parties in our own homes? This would be a great in for the factory farming and processing plants – to provide us all with “safe” pre-packaged food that meets all the safety standards because we are unable to do our own cooking due to “safety” reasons….after all, its for our own good, right? Just like pasturizing dairy products, I guess I’m too dumb to decide if I want to have unpasturized products that the government needs to impose how my food will be prepared! Ontario, welcome to the Police State!