How and why did PRD get started?

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We got inspired by the G-Spot (Garden Spot) at Carleton and were disenchanted with the quality and cost of food on campus (unhealthy, Chartwells, etc).​

 

How did it work?

 

We leveraged the relationships from the G-Spot who had connections with a number of local stores. We picked up day old / ugly veggies from a green grocer on Bank Street. We also picked up day old bread from the bakery in the market.

We borrowed a friends' dad's mini van on Wednesday mornings at 7:30 am, picked up the food and arrived at the kitchen in a Church basement for 8:30 am. There were at least 4-6 volunteer cooks. We'd look at what we had and invented a meal to be ready by 11:30 am and transported to the university for lunch time. 

 

We collected donations, people brought their own bowls/cutlery and with the donations (since we were volunteer-run) we could buy spices, rice, wraps, etc. We had all the kitchen supplies donated when a friend's cousin was deported :( We used kitchen space at the residence in the university and in a Church basement.

 

We served one lunch per week (usually Wednesdays) in the university centre. 

 

Eventually we were able to use an awesome vehicle called the 'Ambulunch' which was a refurbished ambulance to transport the food. It also had a loud speaker that we had tons of fun with - especially when we were serving at rallies.

 

We believe at some point the PRD started to get a student levy, but not sure. We were also able to get support as a working group through OPIRG (Ottawa Public Interest Research Group).

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How did you work together as a group making decisions?

 

We operated through SWACC (Students with a Collective Conscious), which was already organized as a platform for collective student organizing. We functioned based on participatory leadership, consensus decision making, and role rotation. We met weekly and decided who would pick up, cook, serve and clean. We had different teams which changed weekly

 

What was the long-term vision for PRD?

 

To serve healthy, accessible food on campus and to support collective actions for social/ecological justice through nourishing activists. We served at demos on the street. Not sure if this was documented somewhere, but this must have evolved as the direction was determined by whoever was able to participate.

 

Is there a recipe list/book anywhere?

 

We believe someone after our time began to compile this. Remember catching wind of this but never saw it. We came across the PRD FB group - built after our time - maybe it's worth posing this question to? We remember making a lot of curry wraps and apple crisps! It was also where I learned the magic formula of equal parts tumeric, cumin and coriander as a yummy spice mix! We also tended to only serve vegan food, due to risks taking old meat and dairy products.

 

Anything else to add? 

 

Having a group where people were in relation, trusted each other, and communicated well was the basis of the organizing capacity of PRD. We grew together in developing schedules, norms etc.

 

It also helped us to have folks from the G-spot mentor us; mentoring was a critical part of us being able to grow into our own team.

 

Getting support from university was helpful (ie. a kitchen space). Getting student body support is also key; offer to cater events; reach out to folks with shared values helping make the world a better place!