Category:

Food

Toronto kitchen provides fresh meals for homeless in the city

by Rhea Singh April 22, 2021

written by Rhea Singh

Unity Kitchens has created a safe community for those facing homelessness and food insecurity

With its walls of pale yellow bricks standing in stark contrast next to the metallic walls of the Eaton Centre, there is a place much warmer, safer and welcoming for those experiencing homelessness and food insecurity in the city of Toronto.

This is where Unity Kitchen was born, a community service kitchen located in The Church of Holy Trinity (TCHT) which provides those who are facing homelessness in Toronto with fresh food and resources such as tents, jackets and sleeping bags. The kitchen operates out of the Trinity Square Cafe located within the church.

Every morning, the smell of sage from the morning meeting and fresh ingredients engulf the church. By 10 a.m., head chef Tara Currie is here. She washes her hands, heats up the food for the morning service, and at 11 a.m., food service begins.

“We’re always busy here,” said Currie. “Sometimes we have 100 people, or more than 100, but usually it’s just 100 or under.”

In March 2020, the church began offering sandwiches and soups to those living in encampments around the church, as well as those living unhoused in Toronto’s downtown eastern core. The pandemic created food insecurity for those facing homelessness as a result of food programs around the city closing, which led to a higher demand for the kitchen’s services.

According to research, conducted by the University of Toronto, one in eight households faced food insecurity prior to the pandemic. Since the pandemic began, there has been a jump to over 600,000 residents in the city facing food insecurity, according to Toronto Foundation. However, for those facing homelessness, rates of food insecurity were much higher, with a 200 per cent increase in people connecting with food banks since the pandemic started.

Unity Kitchen — much like the church itself — exudes a type of familial warmth, with the aromatic smell of freshly cooked meals, shared conversations amongst staff and volunteers, and the comfort of a safe space.

With the help of Trinity St. Paul’s Church, St. Matthews Church, the Korean Catholic Church, Indigneous community groups, ex-prisoners and the Toronto Jummah Prayer Hall — to name a few — Unity Kitchen began to expand. The program is a partnership between the Church of Holy Trinity and Toronto Urban Native Ministry who provide financial support, guidance, leadership and outreach work. Other outreach groups such as Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction, the Indigenous Support Project at the University of Toronto, Equitable Action for Change and Trans Pride Toronto also provide support to the church.

Currie initially began volunteering at Unity Kitchen before being offered her position of head chef. Prior to taking the job in THTC, she had been part of a culinary program at Christie Pitts that closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Currie explained that with most soup kitchens, frozen or donated foods are normally served but those also aren’t the best quality, with the lack of freshness. By providing fresh food, the kitchen destigmatized the negative narrative around homelessness and humanizes people that need care the most.

“People have said in the lineup that coming here and getting food from us is one of the only times that they feel validated as a human,” said Currie.

Currie recalls an instance where her cheese tomato and egg sandwich became the favorite of a regular, a sandwich that she had grown up eating. Another regular expressed how much it reminded them of growing up and what he used to eat.

Sinclair Bletcher-Lowman, who is an emergency community support fund project facilitator at Unity Kitchen, shares the same feeling of wanting to create a validating space.

“Here, we try to really create a space where anybody from anywhere [can]…feel affirmed in themselves,” said Bletcher-Lowman. “It’s really about expanding what we understand ‘community’ to be and who is included in a community.”

Their journey with Unity Kitchen began 10 months ago, when the church began its emergency food outreach service. During the beginning, Bletcher-Lowman would prepare large batches of soup each week alongside their mother at their childhood home for the church. Overtime, Bletcher-Lowman found themselves spending more time at Unity Kitchen, from volunteering to do food distribution services and more recently becoming the emergency community support fund project facilitator in January.

Now, Unity Kitchen serves one meal during the day, which includes a hot fresh meal and drinks, clothing and resources for shelter, and basic necessities.

“Collectively we realized that this was going to be a long-term situation of our organization…this need is present and appears to be growing,” said Bletcher-Lowman

The City of Toronto implemented a COVID-19 response plan for those experiencing homelessness in the city, which included prevention, mitigation and recovery. However, since its inception on April 16 2020, the city has seen a major increase in displacement and homelessness. The Canadian Medical Association Journal detailed that homeless individuals were five times more likely to contract and die from COVID-19, and most recently an outbreak occurred at Maxwell Meighen Centre that included cases of a variant virus.

Outbreaks in shelters have been reported at an alarming rate more recently with the introduction of the UK variant in Ontario. Since the start of the year, the city has seen over 274 cases, and a total of 1,118 positive cases linked to shelter outbreaks. For many, encampments are much safer and accessible.

“The city and the federal government were relying on this network of small organizations to shuffle people from place to place, from meal to meal,” said Zachary Grant, community director at TCHT. “When all of the networks shutdown, it really revealed how dismal our care for the community was.”

Grant detailed that during the pandemic, they had been told that formal agencies that provide resources were closed, revealing an absence of good policy for the most oppressed in Toronto’s community. “Before COVID-19 happened, we were already in a crisis of houslessness of a growing scarcity of public space and social policy that was being dictated by developers.”

When Grant first began working with the church, they noticed that there was an ongoing battle between those who were facing homelessness and what they called the developer class; those who were working on initiatives of policing public spaces and using it for private purposes.

“Yonge and Dundas Square would be one of them, where it was initiated as a public gathering place,” said Grant. “Now, it’s under public-private partnership…private security firms that govern the territory there are able to dictate who can and cannot be there, this is a phenomenon that’s happening across the City of Toronto.”

These actions are also seen in public spaces. Over the past year, through the increase of encampments across the city, we have seen the city use force to remove tents and resources from public parks. On Dec. 9 2020, two white trucks removed a tiny house shelter near Lake Shore Boulevard and Carlaw Avenue. More recently, the city removed multiple tiny shelters from Alexandra Park in February, this was just after the city filed an injunction against Kahleel Seivwright, carpenter and creator of the tiny shelters.

Recently, city officials have given encampment residence eviction notices to relocate to shelters through the Pathway Inside Program, which include shelters located in Novotel. This is currently only accessible to those in the four major encampments in the city: Alexandra Park, Moss Park, Lamport Stadium and Trinity-Bellwoods.

However, with the cities lack of action Unity Kitchen and other folks have taken matters into their own hands. Grant remembers people who have impacted their community, such as a young woman who wanted to be a nurse, helping those with stab or gunshot wounds and going around the city helping those who need medical assistance. They also remember an Indigenous elder who started a project called Native Wishing Well, where he and a few other people would hold onto tents, sleeping bags and other supplies for people coming to Trinity Square at night and in moments of crisis.

“I don’t know if there is a magnetic draw, but if you’re in a crisis… the city seemed to funnel you here, and they were ready for it.” said Grant. “When they came across someone in crisis they would work together to meet that person’s primary needs, get them stabilized and then work to find what the next thing was for their well-being.”

Grant said that they learn a lot from these folks, and that it’s inspiring to see unhoused people coming to help and volunteer as much as they can.

“Those folks who our society has written off and said ‘they don’t even deserve housing’ are really showing us and leading us each day in the ways that we should be in our heart…with one another,” said Grant. “(They’re) showing us that there’s no barriers to being a positive force in our communities.”

April 22, 2021

Entrepreneurship Food Food & Health Pandemic Tales

Hungry for change: The story of Alec Thomas

by William Dixon April 20, 2021

written by William Dixon

Chef navigates COVID-19’s disruption of the restaurant industry with street smarts

It’s New Year’s Eve 2020 and two small children play around an old, black, wooden dining table as their family look at old photo albums. Traditional Russian songs play softly in the background, as they reminisce and talk about how the children have grown since they were all together last.

Down a long hallway and into the kitchen, a 25-year-old, laser-focused chef named Alec Thomas puts the final touches on the signature dish of the night — duck à l’orange. Hours of preparation have boiled down to mere minutes. Execution and timing are everything. First, he gently ladles the creamy mascarpone risotto. Then, he fans out the sliced duck breast, cooked to perfection with golden, crisp skin. Next comes the fragrant à l’orange sauce, dashed generously over the duck. Lastly, he garnishes the outside of the plates with candied apricots.

The dining room in customer Tony Tikhomirov’s Toronto-area home falls silent as chef Thomas enters with dinner, a trail of steam and the sweet smell of citrus following him into the room. Murmured “oohs” and “aahs” build as he places a plate in front of each guest.

Thomas says, “ladies and gentlemen, enjoy!”

Now 26, Thomas has combined survival instinct with street smarts and business savvy to navigate the COVID-19 wreckage of Toronto’s restaurant industry. After they were both laid off from their restaurant jobs due to the pandemic, Thomas and his coworker-turned-business-partner Arya Hamedani launched a gourmet, home-catering business called Arya Hungry?

Thomas, a serial adapter, has seemingly found opportunity in the pandemic.

Last summer and fall, before winter lockdown, Arya Hungry?’s services were booked solid every weekend. They got great feedback from clients, and word spread — they’ve amassed more than 4,000 followers on Instagram at the time of press. The chefs’ abilities to quickly adapt allowed them to survive, which is increasingly rare in the struggling food industry. The Fifteen Group, a hospitality consulting agency, conducted a Canada-wide survey of its clients in December 2020. The outlook was bleak. The survey found that 98 per cent of the company’s clients have had their revenues negatively impacted since the start of the pandemic, with three-quarters of those reporting a decline in revenue of more than 50 per cent. Half of those surveyed were unsure they would survive the winter, and 93 per cent of restaurants laid off or terminated employees.

With many local food businesses closing, Thomas and Hamedani saw an opening. People still wanted to eat great food, they realized, but didn’t want to cook it themselves.

What sets Arya Hungry? apart from other restaurants and catering businesses isn’t just the high-quality dishes they cook, but the care they show their clients and time they spend on the experience, says Hamedani.

“When a client sets up an event with us, they are speaking with the two chefs that will be cooking in their home,” says Hamedani, “and I think that really means something to people.”

Tikhomirov, the CEO and founder of a digital marketing agency, says the food Thomas created on New Year’s Eve was beyond any of his expectations. “He transported us back to our times in France, to a place we loved and to the cafés we used to go before the pandemic,” he says. “It was like a small miracle.”

Thomas’s success is a far cry from his turbulent beginnings. After ongoing conflict with his father led to his banishment from the family home at age 17, he scrounged enough money to rent a tiny bedroom in a shared house in Bolton, Ont. It felt just a few square feet larger than a prison cell. Then, he burned through his money — buying weed, booze and cocaine — until he only had only $6 to his name. Thomas says will always remember the number six. He was verging on homelessness, had nowhere to go and no one to turn to.

He called up three different dealers who each spotted him half a pound of weed. In the span of roughly two weeks, Thomas had sold it, repaid his loans and delivered his rent. He soon had enough money to rent an apartment in downtown Toronto. Then, after roughly three years in the city, the course of his life changed in a few days. In April 2017, he got a job at Scaddabush, an Italian restaurant chain, at Front Street West and Simcoe Street. Within 48 hours, he was also accepted into culinary school at George Brown College and completed a one-year program.

Thomas’s longtime friend Justin Bailey, who’s also an employee at Arya Hungry?, watched his transformation: “It was like a switch just flipped.” He says Thomas went from “cutting up coke in our washroom,” to cooking up carbonara in the kitchen.

The late nights in clubs turned to late nights at the dish pit or at the sauté station, where Thomas worked closing shifts ending anywhere from 2:30 a.m. to 5 a.m. Once he got back from the restaurant, Thomas continued honing his culinary skills. He worked on school assignments or pulled a random cookbook from a pile beside his stove to try a new recipe. Around 6 a.m. he would pass out wherever his beat-up office was — either in his bedroom or in the living room. Thomas usually slept in his chef’s whites so at 7 a.m., he could wake up, go to class, and repeat it all again the next day. He also stopped using or selling drugs.

His rediscovered passion for food drove the frenzy. He’d always loved cooking; his fondest childhood memories are kitchen moments. On Christmas Day his entire Italian family would go to his grandparents’ house in Mississauga, Ont. There was an unwritten rule that his mother, aunt and nonna were the only ones allowed to cook, but they had to shoo him from the kitchen almost every other minute because he wanted to join. As he got older, however, his mother began sharing her cooking secrets. By age 10, he could make a béchamel sauce, a cheese sauce, and eggplant parmigiana.

If Thomas’s long, winding road from being that little kid in the kitchen to catering sophisticated events proved anything, it was that he could adapt. And that became important yet again this winter, when COVID-19 caused more disruption.

January’s stay-at-home order and evolving circumstances during the pandemic forced Thomas and Hamedani to adapt yet again. Arya Hungry? was put on the back burner, amidst rising case numbers and escalating provincial restrictions. And so, the duo pivoted again. Their next venture, ChickMagnet, is a fried chicken sandwich shop on Queen Street West, operating out of the Beverley Hotel. They have been consistently selling out since opening day on Feb. 2, 2021.

While Arya Hungry? and ChickMagnet have been Hamedani’s concepts, Thomas is also working on his own brand: Covassi and Co., named for his maternal grandparents’ last name. The plan within the next five years is to open a café of the same name, with farm-to-table, northern-Italian-inspired cuisine.

Much like the days when he was sharpening his culinary skills at Scaddabush and in school, Thomas is still up until all hours creating recipes, developing menus and refining his palate.

“I have an opportunity to seize my dream and make it a reality,” says Thomas, “and I am not going to miss my chance.”

April 20, 2021

Accessibility Arts & Life Education Food Food & Health Health Students Top Top stories

Ryerson students trying diet trends to improve health

by Jonathan Bradley April 20, 2021

written by Jonathan Bradley

These diet trends involve unconventional eating habits, but they have provided students with some results

A person’s hand wrapped around a tape measure (Jennifer Burk/Unsplash)

Ryerson University students are embracing diet trends to see if they affect their health, but following through with them for a prolonged period of time has been tricky.

Certain diet trends have been gaining popularity over the past few years. There have been documented benefits to these diets, but they might not be ideal for all people.

Keyaan Nejad, a fourth-year politics and governance student at Ryerson, went on the carnivore diet in March 2020. Nejad has been interested in how his body reacts to different foods.

“I heard of the carnivore diet shortly after I ran into a plateau in the gym and found it was becoming increasingly more difficult to tone up my body,” said Nejad. “I was also having trouble sleeping and waking up and felt my mental state was foggier than usual.”

The carnivore diet consists of people eating meat, fish, eggs, and select dairy products. People on the carnivore diet cannot eat fruits, vegetables, grains, and nuts.

It stems from the belief that the diets of ancient people were meat and fish, and high-carb diets have led to chronic health problems.

Shawn Baker, the CEO at MeatRX, has been the most vocal proponent of the carnivore diet. Baker has reported people who go on the carnivore diet have seen improvements in body composition, strength, performance, and endurance.

Following the carnivore diet can lead to excessive sodium intake, which has been linked to an increased risk of high blood pressure, kidney disease, and other negative health outcomes. Processed meat intake has been linked to higher rates of certain types of cancer, especially colon and rectal.

Nejad says that on his first day on the diet he did not feel different than any other day, but he was craving foods with carbs and sugary snacks. The following week saw him experience a positive difference in his overall mood, increased energy levels, improved sleep, no brain fog, and weight loss.

However, he experienced temporary hair loss. The fluctuation in his body mass index caused physical stress on his hair.

He followed the diet again in December 2020. It produced the same positive effects, but it did not provide him with enough incentive to cancel out every other food.

Tim Yoon, a fourth-year accounting and finance student at Ryerson, went on the keto diet for a few months. Yoon was hoping to lose weight and improve his metabolism.

“Within weight loss, many people find themselves in positions of plateauing,” said Yoon. “Taking the steps into trying other unconventional diets allows for some individuals that extra step they may have needed to obtain their goals.”

The keto diet is based on taking in a low amount of carbs and plenty of fats. This increase in fats puts people’s bodies in a natural metabolic state called ketosis.

The body produces ketones out of fat, using them for energy instead of carbs. The keto diet has been linked to weight loss and reduced risk for various diseases.

People who go on the keto diet can experience low blood pressure, kidney stones, constipation, nutrient deficiencies, and an increased risk of heart disease. The keto diet is strict, which can cause social isolation and disordered eating.

Boxes of red peppers — Box of red peppers

Yoon lost a substantial amount of weight. He attributes this weight loss to him having a lower intake of food rather than from ketosis. But he says that what sucked about this diet was he felt tired more often, especially when he was exercising.

Yoon said while he loved how he lost weight on this diet, he would not try it again because of time and cost.

“I figured that this diet method was not going to sustain me in the long run,” he said.

Nilou Deilami, a registered dietitian, says there is no specific diet students should be on. A healthy eating pattern is one that is nutritious, enjoyable, flexible, and sustainable, she says.

“A healthy diet could look different for everyone,” said Deilami. “The key to healthy eating is to include a wide variety of whole and unprocessed foods in your diet.”

Deilami recommends setting Small, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely (SMART) goals. An example of a SMART goal would be eating one piece of fruit for breakfast every day.

She said setting SMART goals can help people build healthy habits in the long term.

“Following a healthy diet has many benefits, including increased energy levels, potential improvements in academic performance, and the prevention of chronic diseases in the future,” she said.

Nejad said people should be open to diet trends because they can be challenging and give opportunities to test limits.

“I am by no means an expert, just someone who is open to trying new things and love challenging myself,” he said. “Make your own decisions and always do plenty of research.”

April 20, 2021

a full shelf at a grocery store with food

Accessibility Community News Finance Food Food & Health Health Monumental Challenges Prescribing Perspectives Ryerson News Security Stability Students Top stories

Racialized students face higher risk of food insecurity

by Ammar Karam April 9, 2021

written by Ammar Karam

Lack of access to nutritious foods can lead to deteriorating mental health, and performance

Sam Howden and Ewan Cassidy both laughed and then nodded knowingly when asked if they had ever faced food insecurity.

“I grew up going to soup kitchens as a child and there was a period of my life where I didn’t have a formal home,” said Cassidy, who is of Algonquin heritage and is involved with the Healing Garden at the Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM). “For me food insecurity was a part of my life but I was fortunate enough to find a job and be able to pay certain necessities, bills and such. One of the things I noticed was that it was really difficult to get good food.”

Food insecurity, as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is the state of being without reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. On the Canadian government website, the definition adds the qualifier of “household food insecurity is often linked with the household’s financial ability to access adequate food.”

A 2018 study done by PROOF, an interdisciplinary research initiative based in Toronto, found that one in eight households across Canada suffer from food insecurity — with the highest rates being in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut (23 per cent and 57 per cent respectively).

Multiple studies, from the University of Manitoba to Food Secure Canada, indicated that student populations are one of the highest risk population groups suffering from food insecurity, with rates up to 30 to 40 per cent. According to a report from the Good Food Centre, over 2,500 Ryerson students accessed emergency food relief in the 2013-2014 academic year.

Rates of food insecurity are even higher amongst Indigenous and racialized groups of students, due to structural issues surrounding their communities’ financial status and access to diverse cultural foods. Black communities were 3.5 times more likely to experience food insecurity, and rates amongst Indigenous populations are reported as high as 50 per cent.

“Our traditional foodways taken away from us through not being able to hunt, not being able to fish, not being able to grow and gather based on the fact that we were put back onto reserves in particular areas,” said Howden, the first Indigenous Field Assistant at the Ryerson Urban Farm, which operates rooftop growing spaces on campus. “In the Indian Act, there were things we could not engage in and not make money off of, so even if we had the knowledge of how to skin, and to use every part of the animal and do that to support community members, it had to happen within certain boundaries.”

This lack of access to good nutritious food can have negative effects on mental health and make it difficult for students to study and maintain good grades. Debbie Field, the co-ordinator for the Coalition of Healthy School Food and collaborator with Ryerson’s Centre for Food Security, said she hopes COVID-19 would begin to set a more robust meal plan on campus.

a woman holds a green box filled to the brim with vegetables and other produce — Debbie Field, co-ordinator of the Coalition of Healthy School Food said the food Ryerson offers students is too expensive and not healthy enough. (Laura Berman)

“Do we make it easy for students of all income levels to buy healthy food? To access healthy food during their school day at Ryerson?” she said. “I don’t think we do. I think the food is too expensive and it’s not healthy enough and it’s some private sector component of the operation rather than a component of education.”

Food deserts are places where there is a lack of access to healthy food. In Toronto, according to a 2015 report, 31,000 households in the city’s lowest income areas were over one kilometre walking distance from a supermarket. Additionally, 9,000 of those households were one kilometre or more from any kind of food outlet.

By contrast, a food swamp — a contested term — is a place where there is an overabundance of less healthy food options. Ryerson campus is more of a food swamp, according to dietician Leigh Merotto.

Merotto, a former nutrition student at Ryerson also previously worked at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She explained the link between mental health and nutrition in her blog, saying it is something that often gets missed when discussing food insecurity.

Not only is the act of being food insecure mentally draining and psychologically scarring in some cases, but the food that an individual receives as a result can also further exacerbate their mental health problems. A study done in 2017 showed a correlation between the two but not enough evidence was found to pinpoint food insecurity as a cause.

Food banks are not an effective long-term solution for food insecurity, considering that one of the causes of food insecurity is financial instability.

One of the ways that community organizers are combating food insecurity, particularly on campus, is through food sovereignty initiatives. Food sovereignty is when the people who produce the food also control the mechanisms of its distribution. The Ryerson Centre for Food Security has teamed up with Afri-Can Foodbasket to form the Black Food Sovereignty Alliance of Toronto, with the aim of addressing food issues affecting Black communities and laying down a framework for Black self-determination in food systems in the city.

But a more pertinent question is, if someone is experiencing food insecurity, what can be done about it right now?

a close up shot of people giving food to others across a table — Food banks are just part of the solution to address food insecurity. (Joel Muniz/Unsplash)

Fields has some advice, “It’s very hard because money is tight but yet within that tight money situation, we can put food first in your thinking. Don’t go to the corner store to buy a banana, go to the No Frills. Be wise about your own limited budget and stretching it and making better decisions with whatever limited money you have.”

More options are: buying produce from FoodShare, a non-profit organization that delivers food to communities across Toronto, applying for food assistance from Black Food Toronto, participating in Ryerson’s Harvest Share program and, if you’re an Indigenous student, contacting the Ryerson Aboriginal Peer Support Program.

“There’s obviously a social determinant of health that comes into play because you don’t have access to nutritious foods,” Howden said. “Even if it’s traditional or non-traditional foods, you won’t be as nourished from the space of your body which is the container that carries forth all of what you do. It’s harder to study. It’s harder to produce results.”

a doctor's note, a pen and a stethoscope on a table — Prescribing perspectives (Ryersonian/Rosie Leonard)

April 9, 2021

A wooden table pictured from above, with plates of different foods.

Arts & Life Features Food Food & Health Prescribing Perspectives Top Top stories

Rediscovering the joy of food through intuitive eating

by Natalie Michie April 9, 2021

written by Natalie Michie

Intuitive eating is a lifestyle that rejects all food rules and aims to repair body image issues caused by dieting

food on a table — Intuitive eating aims to help people to remove guilt from food and rediscover the carefree and innate joy of eating. (Stefan Vladimirov/Unsplash)

For many women, keeping up with shifting beauty standards, body dysmorphia and diet culture is exhausting. Society’s ever-evolving image of the ideal body encourages people to change themselves and leaves women hyper-aware of their bodies at a young age. As a result, people often find themselves turning to a restrictive diet.

Food rules like, “don’t eat after 7 p.m.” or “cut out carbs” are commonly found in the descriptions of different diets. New food rules are introduced every time a diet makes its way to the forefront of popular media, claiming to have the solution to all weight-related problems. As more and more food rules enter our lives, the way we think about eating becomes increasingly complicated.

In recent years, a lifestyle that advocates call “anti-diet” has been gaining traction: intuitive eating. Intuitive eating rejects all food rules and aims to repair people’s relationship with food and their bodies.

“The goal is to reject the diet mentality, honour your hunger, and make peace with food,” said Toronto-based registered dietitian Trista Chan, who works with clients on intuitive eating practices.

“Oftentimes, after years and years of restrictive dieting, most people are very out of touch with their internal bodies’ cues.” She said this can cause people to have anxiety around food and to lose the natural satisfaction that comes from eating. “(Intuitive eating is) really about tuning out all that outside noise … and trying to place your body as its own expert.”

Intuitive eating has 10 guiding principles — like “discover the satisfaction factor” and “feel your fullness” — which work to help people rediscover the carefree and innate joy of eating.

Simply put, it is done by eating what you want when you are hungry and stopping when you are full.

A pink graphic that reads 10 principles of intuitive eating: reject the diet mentality, honour your hunger, make peace with food, challenge the food police, discover the satisfaction factor, feel your fullness, cope with your emotions with kindness, respect your body, movement-feel the difference, honour your health-gentle nutrition — Intuitive eating has 10 guiding principles that aim to help people repair their relationship with food. (Natalie Michie/The Ryersonian)

Listening to your body’s hunger cues sounds simple enough, but putting it into practice can be difficult to do. This is because diet culture’s prominence in our lives has led many of us to fall out of trust with our bodies, said Stephanie Cassin, a Ryerson psychology professor who specializes in disordered eating and body image. Intuitive eating aims to challenge the eating behaviours many people have adapted as a result of diet culture.

When Adrianna Chiofalo first saw posts about intuitive eating pop up on her social media timeline last year, she was intrigued. The third-year nursing student had been meticulously calorie-tracking for a year and was feeling a disconnect in her relationship with food.

Chiofalo is the student lead of The Body Project, a body acceptance advocacy program at Ryerson. She said getting started with intuitive eating was a challenge because her restrictive eating had caused her to lose her hunger and satiety cues.

“It was a bit freaky to be like, ‘How did I lose track of something that’s so innate? Something that you’re just born with?’ I (was so) brainwashed that I lost the attention towards those signals completely,” she said.

Falling out of touch with these cues can be caused by the fact that binging and restricting are normalized as a part of dieting, said Cassin. She said that some processed foods are created with the intent of being binged on; to make the person eating them feel a loss of control.

“When you see commercials (saying), ‘You can’t just eat one’ you know there’s some truth to that. Some of them actually have been produced or manufactured to make them really difficult to resist,” she said.

This loss of control around food can have a harmful impact on someone’s body image. In Canada, approximately 85 per cent of women and girls are unhappy with the way they look, according to a study by Canadian Women’s Health Network. Often, this can lead someone to pursue quick weight loss through chronic dieting, said Cassin.

“If you’re feeling negative about body image, it’s hard to convince yourself to just adopt healthy lifestyle changes for the long haul (that are) actually going to make you feel better. People typically want to go for the quick results,” she said.

This leads to a “vicious cycle” of trying new fad diets that actually cause more weight gain over time and worsen body image, said Cassin. Psychologically, it’s more difficult to adjust to the weight fluctuations that come from yo-yo dieting than to eat in a way that nourishes your body and maintain a steady weight, she said — even if it’s a bit higher than what your ideal would be.

Research shows there is a clear link between dieting and eating disorders. A study done by the National Eating Disorders Association found that 20 to 25 per cent of pathological dieters — people who follow extreme food or calorie restrictions — develop eating disorders.

For many people, Cassin said eating behaviours are a way of regulating emotions like depression, anxiety, or loneliness — all things people have been experiencing during the pandemic.

People overeat or restrict to feel a sense of control in a situation where they might otherwise feel out of control. Intuitive eating aims to relinquish this need for control by removing the power placed on food and calories.

When starting her journey of intuitive eating, Chiofalo said it was difficult to let go of the “computerized structure of eating” that she had been following with calorie-tracking. After a year of intuitive eating, she said her body weight has stayed mostly consistent, but her mindset has changed.

“I was constantly thinking about food and trying to fit as much food as possible into the target of calories. Now with intuitive eating, I go with the flow. I’ve learned to just kind of accept my body as it is, and eat what I want,” she said.

Intuitive eating isn’t about quick physical transformations. In fact, it separates itself from the weight loss mentality entirely and aligns with the Health At Every Size (HAES) movement, according to Sarah Berneche, a nutritionist and intuitive eating counsellor based in Toronto.

The guiding principles of HAES are that you don’t have to wait to be thin to pursue health; anyone can pursue it at any time and at any size.

“It’s about eating foods that feel good to you, as opposed to trying to restrict food. It’s about moving for the joy of it, as opposed to trying to punish yourself through movement,” said Berneche. “And it’s also acknowledging that we all have different degrees of privilege and that’s going to inform our ability to pursue health.”

HAES and the practice of intuitive eating make it clear that health is not always a personal choice and can be influenced by social determinants. There are many barriers in place that can make it harder for people to lead healthy lifestyles, such as someone’s income level and physical proximity to accessible healthy foods.

Although intuitive eating may not yield the physical changes that some people are after, advocates say its physical and mental benefits are healthier than most weight loss methods. Along with providing weight stability, there are also many psychological benefits to intuitive eating, said Cassin. One of them is a reduced feeling of loss of control.

“The research shows in a pretty compelling way that it’s actually the experience of loss of control that creates more of a feeling of psychological distress than the amount of food that people eat during a binge,” said Cassin. Intuitive eating brings people a neutral relationship with food, which she said can help improve mood and anxiety.

One goal of intuitive eating is to separate weight from self-worth, by pushing back against weight-related stigmas perpetuated by the diet industry.

“Diet culture is all about this idea (that) everybody should be walking through the world in this thin body and anybody that doesn’t meet that sociocultural ideal (is) lazy, or there’s something wrong with them and that’s not true at all,” said Cassin.

“Intuitive eating recognizes that people’s bodies come in different sizes, shapes and weights. And that’s okay. Body diversity is okay.”

It’s not hard to trace people’s complex relationship with food and eating habits back to society’s demanding beauty standards. If mainstream media celebrated more diverse bodies, we would struggle less with food, said Chan.

Listening to your body and rediscovering its needs is a process that starts with self-compassion. Chan said in order to rebuild a healthy outlook on eating, it’s important to remove “good” or “bad” labels from food and think of all food as neutral. Then, make it a habit to check in with your body before and after meals, to assess how hungry or full you are, and to take note of what your mood is.

Intuitive eating relies on innate hunger and satiety signals that humans were born with, but that get lost overtime as a result of dieting and disordered eating. Principles such as “honour your hunger” and “discover the satisfaction factor” refocus eating on what it should be: a natural, fun, vital part of life.

“In an ideal world, we’d all be intuitive eaters and I think we all have that within us,” said Chan.

April 9, 2021

a cartoon image of a woman baking with various cakes and pies and baking supplies around her

COVID-19 Food Food & Health Fun Stuff Health Local News Prescribing Perspectives Stability Students Top stories

Baking your way to better mental health

by Ekaterina Giannikos April 9, 2021

written by Ekaterina Giannikos

Some students have turned to measuring, mixing and decorating as ways to alleviate stress and anxiety

Some students have taken on baking as a way to relieve stress, hone in on a new creative skill and have a fun distraction from the world around them.

New data shows that isolation measures followed during the pandemic have left a negative impact on people’s mental health.

In May 2020, Statistics Canada conducted a survey to determine how Canadians’ mental health has changed since the onset of physical distancing. The study found that 52 per cent of participants said their mental health had gotten worse because of the pandemic.

Ranilyn Amede, a fourth-year biomedical science student at Ryerson University, said that throughout the pandemic, he has experienced symptoms of anxiety; including questioning his self-worth and doubting his abilities. He said he took on baking as a new hobby because it was accessible to him. “I already had all the ingredients I needed in my pantry,” said Amede.

Not only does Amede find success in baking, but he also finds that it boosts his self-confidence.

“Following a recipe provides a sense of structure and makes me feel that I’m in control when other things in my life may be overwhelmingly hectic,” said Amede.

a side by side image of a chocolate chip cookie box and cookies — Following recipes can be fun and meditative for students struggling with their mental health. (Ekaterina Giannikos/Ryersonian)

Surveys conducted between May and December 2020 by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) identified a pattern of how anxiety levels have fluctuated during the pandemic.

The study reported that last year, the highest levels of anxiety were in the spring and late fall, and the lowest were over the summer months.

Rosetta Rocco, a registered psychotherapist in Toronto, said that finding something new and different keeps one’s mind away from feeling overpowered by loneliness.

Rocco said baking keeps the mind active and can be used as a tool to improve mental health.

Rocco advises when isolating alone it’s always good to “reach out to a best friend or family member or find a group of like-minded people to create quality time with.”

As Rocco suggests, Amede uses his baking hobby to connect with loved ones. He sends pictures of what he has baked to family and friends, drops off bags of cookies for them and bakes with them over video calls.

“I never thought baking would turn out to be so therapeutic,” said Amede.

Although baking may not be a helpful tool for everyone to relieve stress and anxiety, it can be a good distraction from negative thoughts as it requires total focus and mindfulness much of the time.

a close up shot of hands kneading dough — Baking for others with loving hands may help make one feel less isolated. (Ekaterina Giannikos/Ryersonian)

According to The National Library of Medicine, mindfulness-based therapy of being conscious and aware, such as during the process of baking, is a promising way to help reduce anxiety and mood swings.

Sue Fleming, professor and chef at the centre for hospitality and culinary arts at George Brown College, said mindfulness is key when it comes to scaling ingredients, mixing and baking.

“Baking is tremendously therapeutic, whether it is the physicality of kneading the bread by hand, the focus needed to decorate the perfect cookie, or the reward of a smile from a neighbour happy to get a delicious treat,” said Fleming.

Baking also improves mental well-being, because it requires creativity and can provide a feeling of calmness for the baker.

Tawnee Ahrens, a full-time baking and pastry arts management student at George Brown College, struggles with perfectionism and said completing school work from home was like living in a pressure cooker. She said there were some days where she felt like she was breaking down mentally.

Ahrens said that through baking she finds peace. “I never thought of myself as a super creative or artistic person, but I couldn’t see myself doing anything else,” said Ahrens.

Julie Ohana, a culinary arts therapist, recommends baking to those struggling with mental health, if they are open to it. “There are varying degrees of benefits depending on the circumstances of the baker,” said Ohana.

Jennifer Lakhan-D’Souza, a professor and program co-ordinator of the baking and pastry arts management program at George Brown College, believes that baking gives people the ability to create and be creative.

She advises that if one is going to try baking as a way to relieve stress, it’s good to start with something that’s meaningful to you, like your mom’s classic chocolate chip cookie recipe.

“Something that reminds the baker of someone they love, something that brings them comfort,” said Lakhan-D’Souza.

April 9, 2021

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Restaurant owners reopen patios across Toronto following government announcement

by Ammar Karam and Tashon Daley March 25, 2021

written by Ammar Karam and Tashon Daley

After just an eight-hour notice to open patio dining in Toronto amidst rising COVID-19 numbers, restaurant workers are confused about directives from the government

Pomarosa manager Luis Hernandez is happy restaurant workers are included in Phase 2 vaccination plan. *(Tashon Daley/Ryersonian)*

When the Ontario government announced the reopening of outdoor dining in grey zones for last Saturday, restaurateurs were happy, but also a little surprised.

The decision came on Friday around 4:30 p.m., giving restaurant owners less than eight hours to turn around and begin service.

Many restaurant workers across the city were relieved, but frustrated at the short notice given to reopen. Setting up a restaurant requires time to prepare food for service, receive stock from suppliers, rehire staff that had been temporarily laid off and organize the dining area.

“It’s all the moving parts that make business planning difficult — if they’d just locked us down fully and said, ‘plan to be open in 90 days,’ we could have worked with that. (But) telling us with seven hours notice…was the opposite of that. It boggles the mind,” said Adrian Ravinsky, owner of popular Queen Street bar, 416 Snack Bar. “The hardest aspect for us over the course of this whole situation has been trying to steer carefully around icebergs while adapting to knee-jerk, mostly politically driven changes to what’s allowed. It’s felt like a Japanese prank game show at times.”

Among the guidelines given for reopening patios is the stipulation that only people from the same household can sit at a table together. One of the criticisms of this rule was that it places restaurant workers in a position of being at the mercy of guests’ honesty.

Many commenters in the Facebook group Food and Wine Industry Navigator, a Toronto-based restaurant networking group, decried the idea of enforcing and checking whether or not guests actually did live in a single household. Luca Vitoli, the owner of a café in the Niagara region, posted about making guests at restaurants sign and release the restaurant from liability. According to his post, Niagara Public Health approved it, with even a health inspector calling it “perfect.”

Ryerson fourth-year creative industries student Alanna Colaiacovo said that at the restaurant where she works, they use an honour system.

“We ask people if they are (part of the same household) and we kind of just have to take their word for it,” she said. “Even if we know they aren’t, it’s hard to turn people away at this time.”

In a media briefing, Toronto Mayor John Tory said, “It’s not going to be realistic for us to be sort of checking every driver’s licence and interrogating people, nor would anybody want to with respect to whether they live together. People should just decide if they want to help themselves and their own health.”

According to an article by Bloomberg, accommodations and food services lost 110,000 jobs in 2020 due to the pandemic, accounting for about a third of all job losses in Ontario that year.

“We just felt like, after everything we’ve been through, (the government) didn’t care. We didn’t know what time we were allowed to close, what was the last call, what were the rules,” said Enza Ruscillo, a manager at T&M Sidewalk Café, a restaurant on the Danforth. “We just winged it. We’re like, ‘all right, let’s just operate like we did when we opened up the last time, right?’”

In an initial announcement on March 5, the Ontario provincial government said restaurant workers would not be included in the Phase 2 of the vaccination strategy for the province, which meant that in light of patios opening up, restaurant workers would be unvaccinated while serving guests.

The idea didn’t sit too well with many restaurant staff. Many front-of-house workers would be dealing with anti-maskers and enforcing public health policy, while in the back-of-house cooks are one of the highest risk worker groups for COVID-19-related deaths, according to a study done in California.

However, the provincial government confirmed on Monday that restaurant workers would be included in the Phase 2 vaccination rollout, which is due to start in April. According to some restaurant workers, it was more a clarification and just another reiteration of the earlier announcement.

“It was an unnecessary and disorganized way of letting us know we’ll soon have to worry a bit less about getting sick while staying in business,” said Ravinsky, regarding the back-and-forth from the government.

Luis Hernandez, a manager at Pomarosa, said he was more than relieved.

“I’m very happy about it because we are dealing with this issue and we haven’t stopped. No vacations, no nothing. Dealing with customers who don’t want to use a mask. I think it’s very fair that we are in (Phase 2).”

According to a TVO article by Corey Mintz, a Toronto-based food writer, one of the positive aspects of the pandemic has been the focus and awareness of mental health within the restaurant industry. Initiatives such as the Toronto Restaurant Workers Relief Fund have been the result of such awareness and support for the industry.

“I’d be very grateful to be vaccinated,” said Amy, a Ryerson student and server at a King Street bar. “I’m not worried about the numbers anymore. I just know that mental health wise, myself and a lot of other young people just cannot handle another lockdown.”

March 25, 2021

liquid is poured into a green alcoholic drink in a mug on a dark wooden table

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St. Patrick’s Day: A historical look into the famous festivities

by Ammar Karam March 17, 2021

written by Ammar Karam

What started as a religious holiday in Ireland has crossed the pond and grown into one of the biggest cultural heritage celebrations in North America

A day of green beer, cabbage, corned beef, shamrocks, singing and drinking: St. Patrick’s Day, or Paddy’s as it’s more affectionately known, is a celebration of Irish heritage and culture. But how did this holy holiday become widely celebrated all over North America? The answer lies in Boston.

Let’s start at the beginning. Saint Patrick was born in Roman Britain in the 4th century and was kidnapped and taken to Gaelic Ireland at the age of 16 as a slave. There as he grew up, the voice of God told him how to escape slavery, and he finally did after six years. He was ordained in France and eventually became a priest.

When he returned to Ireland as a priest, he set about converting the Pagan Irish to Christianity and widely evangelized great parts of northern Ireland. His efforts against pagan Druids were retold as “driving snakes out of Ireland” in Irish folklore, which contributed to some of the legends — another was that he used the shamrock to explain the Trinity. He died on March 17, 461. People then soberly celebrated the day with religious festivals and feasts in Ireland.

As time went on, the day grew into a religiously observant day in Ireland — pubs were even closed that day up until the mid-1960s, and it was officially recognized by the Vatican in 1631. It became a public holiday in Ireland in 1904, and is also a public holiday in Newfoundland and Labrador (don’t get too excited–it’s only for provincial government employees).

Boston has long claimed to have had the first St. Patrick’s Day celebration in North America, when two dozen northern Ireland immigrants gathered on March 17, 1737 and formed the Charitable Irish Society for distressed Irish immigrants. But the first parade took place in the 1760s when Irish-born soldiers serving in the British army went through Lower Manhattan for a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast at a local tavern. Maybe brunch isn’t as new a concept as we thought.

The day grew in significance in the U.S. as floods of Irish Catholic immigrants left Ireland in the 19th century (religious persecution and the potato famine were key reasons). By the start of the 20th century there were parades in most big American cities. The holiday grew in popularity due to the widespread tradition of drinking (which started because Lent restrictions were usually lifted for the day), and America turned the day into a mass marketing bonanza of selling anything green and remotely Irish. This opened up St. Patrick’s Day to a population without Irish heritage.

Mike McCormack, a national historian, said in an interview with the History Channel, “Modern Ireland took a cue from the festivities happening in America.”

The Dublin St. Patrick’s Day festival attracts millions of people a year from around the world.

Chicago also dyes its river green every year — a practice that even the pandemic didn’t stop — and the New York parade attracts two million visitors and has approximately 150,000 participants, making it one of the city’s largest parades along with Pride, the Veterans Day Parade and the Thanksgiving parade.

Here in Ontario, the unofficial Ezra Street event in Waterloo is considered one of the biggest in the province with a historically high attendance of 33,000 in 2019. Since the outbreak of the pandemic and lockdown orders instituted by the province there hasn’t been any significant gathering in the area. In a story by the CBC, Waterloo Mayor Dave Jaworsky said, “things are looking promising but we never take our foot off the gas pedal around this time.” Police were also patrolling the area to make sure that no public gatherings were taking place.

That doesn’t mean that celebrations aren’t happening. New York’s parade has moved to a virtual format, Tourism Ireland launched a special 90-minute broadcast featuring traditional and contemporary Irish music from three pubs in Dublin, Belfast and Dingle. Boston, besides being the backdrop for the legendary movie The Departed, is also having an Irish Film Festival and is highlighting the city’s Irish Heritage Trail.

Despite the pandemic’s best efforts, Irish spirit won’t be kept down. So let’s raise a glass and toast to Ireland, but also to America’s interpretation of this historic day.

Below we’ve got two drink recipes for you to make to celebrate at home. All you need is ice, the ingredients listed, a tall glass and a shaker tin (a mason jar will work too).

Irish Apples

Ingredients:

1 oz. Jameson

1 oz. Apple Sour Puss

1 oz. lime juice

0.5 oz. simple syrup (1:1 ratio of sugar:water)

Soda (as much as you like)

Preparation:

Combine the first three ingredients in a shaker tin with ice.
Shake until outside is cold to the touch.
Strain onto fresh ice (or if you’re feeling particularly lazy, just dump it all into the glass).
Top with soda.
Garnish with a cherry and enjoy.

This one is for the non-drinkers celebrating at home.

Irish N/A-pples

Ingredients:

2 oz. apple Juice

1 oz. lime juice

0.25 oz. grenadine (or a heaped tsp of a red fruit jam)

Soda (as much as you like)

Preparation:

Combine the first three ingredients in shaker tin with ice.
Shake until outside is cold to the touch.
Strain onto fresh ice.
Top with soda.
Garnish with lime and an apple slice.

Enjoy, and please drink responsibly.

March 17, 2021

Arts & Life Food Food & Health Mind the Gap Top Top stories

Food banks not enough: experts call on Canadian Food Policy Advisory Council to address causes of food insecurity

by Pelly Shaw March 16, 2021

written by Pelly Shaw

Community food centres in Toronto offer potential roadmap for building a more equitable food system nationwide

When Toronto’s first food bank, The Stop, was founded in the 1980s it never intended to last. The founders believed that they were fulfilling a temporary need to get food to the city during a recession.

More than 35 years later, The Stop Community Food Centre is still a keystone of Toronto’s fight against food insecurity. Food banks became “this really ingrained part of our social fabric,” said Kate Fane, communications manager at The Stop.

The staff at The Stop quickly realized that their strength would never be in just handing out food, Fane said, because it doesn’t address the root causes of food insecurity..

When people think about food insecurity, they often think about donating to food banks, about food waste management and ways to divert leftovers to people who are hungry.

“I really want to flag this,” said Fane, “these are not long-term solutions and they cannot be the extent of the conversation around food insecurity.”

Over time, The Stop became a community food centre with gardens, community kitchens, classes in finance and nutrition, and a network of local support systems. The focus is on “providing the opportunity for folks to come together around food in ways that are dignified and collaborative,” said Fane.

In the late 1990s, Afri-Can Food Basket was coming to the same realization: that food insecurity could not be solved by handing out meals and non-perishables.

Through the purchasing of food in bulk and passing out food hampers, Afri-Can Food Basket has become the number one voice for Black food sovereignty in Canada. The nonprofit’s goal is “making sure we could grow our own food organically, and sustainably engage the community, especially young people in food justice,” said Anan Lololi, the executive director.

Black food sovereignty is “the right to healthy and culturally appropriate food, produced using ecologically sustainable methods, and the right to define one’s own food system,” explains Lololi. He believes that in order to achieve food sovereignty, and solve issues of food insecurity, communities need to grow their own food. In addition, they need to have access to education on food systems and policies.

Volunteers at the Ujamaa Farm in North York, where AFB grows food and teaches farming practices. (Afri-Can Food Basket)

“We don’t want to see more food banks,” said Dr. Monika Korzun, an instructor of the Sociology of Food and Eating at Ryerson University. “We want to move past those discussions. We want to see solutions that will address those underlying causes of why people are going to food banks. We want to start talking about policy changes.”

Addressing food insecurity and inequalities in the food system has been a long road in Canada — it wasn’t until 2019 that Canada even had a national food policy. This past February, the implementation of the Food Policy Advisory Council was announced. Although food insecurity has been an issue for decades, Korzun said COVID-19 seems to have pushed it to the forefront of the public agenda.

In response to the exacerbated food crisis caused by the pandemic, Afri-Can Food Basket launched Black Food Toronto (BFT), a food sovereignty initiative that seeks to address food insecurities faced by disadvantage, low income and undocumented members of Toronto’s African-Canadian and Black communities. Approximately one in five households are affected by food insecurity, according to the City of Toronto.

BFT partnered with the city to develop a set of policies forming a Black Food Sovereignty Plan, as part of the municipal unit tasked with confronting anti-Black racism.

“The plan advances food security for Black Torontonians. There would be a food centre, access to land, incubator kitchens and support for the development of the Black Food Sovereignty Alliance,” said Lololi. He hopes that their recommendations, which have been sent to city council, will be implemented as part of the city’s action plan to confront anti-Black racism.

Lololi looks forward to similar collaborations with the Food Policy Advisory Council.

“We are ready to work with the federal government,” he said. “The city could really be a model for the provincial government and the federal government for continuing to contribute to the development of our conversation around Black food sovereignty.”

I’m already excited for our 1st meeting!

Today, I announced the members of the first-of-its kind Food Policy Advisory Council in 🇨🇦.

Collaboration is 🔑and their advice will reflect many perspectives on 🇨🇦’s food system, & help point the way to a sustainable future for #CdnAg. https://t.co/WaZ1DwAUxz
— Marie-Claude Bibeau (@mclaudebibeau) February 19, 2021

Minister of Agriculture Marie-Claude Bibeau announces the Food Policy Advisory Council on Twitter (Twitter/ Marie-Claude Bibeau)

The council’s role will be to advise the government on how to implement Canada’s food policy goals. The vision, outlined on their website, is that, “All people in Canada are able to access a sufficient amount of safe, nutritious, and culturally diverse food. Canada’s food system is resilient and innovative, sustains our environment and supports our economy.”

“A lot of people in the food sector and food activists are very optimistic that ultimately the (Council) will improve the food system rather than simply perpetuate the one that we have,” said Korzun.

Korzun said she is pleased to see the diversity of voices represented on the council, including people from all levels and avenues of the food system, from farming to academia to cooking to distribution.

All three experts the Ryersonian spoke with agreed their main concern is seeing the policy council’s recommendations implemented.

“A lot of people are hungry for change, and real change, so it’s a good thing the federal government did this, but they need to put their money where their mouth is,” said Lololi.

“What I would absolutely love in my heart of hearts,” said Fane, “would be for the Canadian government to say, ‘we’re going to make food a human right, we’re going to work with communities across the country and find ways that we can create these targeted food solutions, we’re going to explore ways that we can return land to Black and Indigenous growers so that they can feed their own communities.’”

Staff at The Stop community garden proudly present their micro greens. (The Stop)

March 16, 2021

Arts & Life COVID-19 Food Local News News Off Campus

Seven individuals confirmed COVID-19 positive in Yonge Street Warehouse restaurant outbreak

by Odia Melissa Nyembo September 28, 2020

written by Odia Melissa Nyembo

Outbreak follows the closure of three downtown restaurants for failing to comply with pandemic protocols

The Yonge Street Warehouse had two customers and five employees test positive for COVID-19. Toronto Public Health is contact-tracing the affected individuals and is advising anybody who visited the restaurant between Sept. 10 – 17 to monitor for symptoms. (Cole Brocksom / Ryersonian)

Five employees and two patrons at Yonge Street Warehouse have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Toronto Public Health (TPH).

“TPH has followed up with all known close contacts. The close contacts have been asked to self-isolate for 14 days and to go for testing,” the agency said in a statement.

Roughly 1,700 people who visited the pub between Sept. 10 through Sept. 17 may have been exposed to the virus. TPH is asking anyone who has visited the location between those dates to monitor and report their symptoms and self-isolate for 14 days after their visit.

Yonge Street Warehouse remains open since it was following pandemic guidelines. However, TPH announced the closure of three King Street West restaurants after they failed to comply with COVID-19 restrictions. King Taps, Casa Mezcal, and MARBL are now closed.

Dr. Eileen de Villa, the city’s chief medical officer of health, said there were reports of workplaces neglecting employee and customer safety.

“Investigators with the city also became aware of concerns regarding staff being pressured to work while ill at one of the locations and found that the operators of at least one business were ‘frequently uncooperative’ with officials,” she told reporters.

Toronto Public Health reported 161 new COVID-19 infections on Sept. 25, bringing the city’s total to 18,679.

September 28, 2020