St. John the Compassionate Bakery at Carrot Cache

Counter Culture is a not-for-profit alternative food service that is owned and operated by students at York University. The café was first conceptualized in 1995 by Environmental Studies students who wanted to provide healthy and ethical food on York’s campus. Where possible, Counter Culture supplies organic, bioregional, locally produced, fairly traded products to students on a campus where corporate fast food has become the norm.

Unique to Counter Culture’s service is its support of student education and educational events. Some students have spent as much as 50% of their university degrees engaged in Counter Culture activities. The café has historically provided a space for students to gather, work, socialize, discuss food issues, and (of course) eat. Counter Culture has both catered to and helped organize Frosh Week events, World Food Days, poetry nights, story-telling evenings, Faculty of Environmental Studies media festivals, and Union meetings.

In April 2004, Counter Culture was displaced from its original home when the Faculty of Environmental Studies was moved to a new building. Counter Culture has been unable to secure a new space on campus, and the café has been closed for the last year. In the interim, an emergency board has formed to keep the momentum flowing and to find a new space for the café.

Board activities in the last year have focused on public education and have included sponsorship of the “Food for Talk” series and a series of “Animal Voices” radio shows, as well as the formation of a new group called “HyFIY”, which is seeking to connect various student initiatives related to food on campus.

The Food for Talk series gave academic and community audiences a chance to hear about important issues related to food security, agricultural transformation, and local food alternatives/networks at a monthly forum. Topics of discussion included Popular Democracy and Food, Food Sovereignty and Trade, and Urban Agriculture. The Radio Series (still in progress) has featured community leaders and academics who have discussed the relationship between food systems, globalization, consumerism, and small-scale local and organic markets.

The newly formed “HyFIY” group (an acronym for “Healthy Food Initiatives at York”) has been active in connecting various student groups seeking positive changes in the food systems on campus. The HyFIY group is also working to provide food on campus through bake sales and free vegan servings on campus.

Students have reacted very positively to these HyFIY events, and there is a strong desire to have Counter Culture back on campus to provide an alternative to institutional, corporate food and a space for students to gather. The general feeling on campus is that, “the food here is terrible,” and, “there needs to be an alternative in a Faculty like Environmental Studies”.

The Counter Culture Board has been looking to other student-run food service initiatives on campuses around Canada and the US to develop a sustainable business plan based on a working model. With names like “Radical Roots” (U. of T.), “The Seasoned Spoon” (Trent U.), “The People’s Potato” (Concordia), and “The Community Carrot” (U. of Guelph), these food service initiatives are as unique as the student communities that have created them. But they do share common features. These initiatives are generally seeking to supply locally produced, organic, fairly traded, healthy food, and are often exclusively vegetarian or vegan.

Student-run businesses provide employment for students on campus and give students a place where they can feel comfortable. Another common issue with these initiatives seems to be financial hardship. Many schools now provide a student levy or other financial support to maintain the non-profit initiatives.

Counter Culture’s future may lie with this type of financial support. We are working toward gaining a portion of a new student levy, which would help us greatly in securing a new space for the café and opening with a functional kitchen and staff. In the meantime, Counter Culture will continue to support student projects and promote education based around food issues that are important to us all.

www.animalvoices.ca