Introducing our November Ambassador of the Month!
Ambassador of the Month is a feature which highlights the amazing volunteers we have around the world. Ambassadors who have been chosen show an unwavering desire for change in their communities. They are fighting for real food and food education skills and donate their time every month to make this happen.
Our ambassador for November is Susan Ng from Toronto, Canada.
Susan is a mom to three young boys, a recipe developer, culinary consultant and food blogger at
Susan’s Savour-It! She has been involved in the food industry for nearly 15 years, from catering to product and recipe development to writing for food magazines. Her mission is to get families excited about getting their kids in the kitchen, exploring different foods, and cooking together. She believes that we hold the responsibility to preserve cooking skills and celebrate the importance of eating good food made from scratch. She’s passionate about empowering kids from a young age by teaching them food smarts and engaging them in the kitchen: she is confident that this creates a lifelong appetite for adventures and fosters healthy relationships with food.
Tell us a little about why you wanted to get involved in the Food Revolution.
It is an honor to be part of the Food Revolution. It’s an amazing campaign that is directly connected to my mission of teaching people about the benefits of eating real food and of getting kids (no matter how old) immersed in cooking and food literacy.
I have always enjoyed and appreciated good food. Growing up, my mother always provided me with home-cooked meals, even with both my parents working regular jobs. I don’t know how she pulled it off, but my two siblings and I rarely ate anything that came out of a can or box.
These values were already instilled in me by the time I became a mom myself, and I have been committed to preparing from-scratch meals and passing my cooking skills on to my children. Processed food is ever more available and it’s staggering to read about how rarely people (especially kids) consume home-cooked meals nowadays. Many young people here in Ontario lack the skills to prepare a meal from scratch because they have never been taught how. They have become so used to food that comes out of a box and into a microwave, they rarely consider there is another – better – way to live. Cooking is an invaluable skill that’s being lost. Though this is a disappointing prospect, it is also a preventable trend.
I was thrilled to come across Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution around the time I started my blog on family meals. It was exactly what I was trying to do and it shaped my blog posts with defined purpose and meaning. If any of what I was doing with my own family resonated with someone and made a difference in how and what they were eating, I feel I’m getting this important message across … one family at a time!
How has the Ambassador Program helped you accomplish your goals?
The Ambassador Program has allowed me to connect with other like-minded, passionate individuals around the world and to be inspired by the amazing things other ambassadors are doing within their communities. It’s a platform through which we can support each other’s initiatives and exchange information and experiences. Being part of the Food Revolution has given me opportunities to engage in partnerships for my blog to spread our universal message for the Food Revolution across a wider audience. Instead of acting as one small voice, I am now part of a powerful, united front making a world of a difference.
What have you been able to achieve since being an Ambassador?
This is my first year with the Food Revolution. I participated in the annual Food Revolution Day (FRD2014) with a personal challenge with my own family. Two weeks before to the big day, I had the idea to do something food education-related with my kids each day leading up to FRD. I chronicled these activities on my blog and tried to get others inspired to do the same. I invited my older children’s school to participate in FRD and the students engaged in fun and productive activities, suggested on the FRD website. To this day, my blog post about FRD at my kids’ school is one of my most widely read articles.
I was recently involved with
Jennifer Tyler Lee’s 52 New Foods Challenge, creating recipes inspired by her book. Each of my six posts featured a new food with details of the eating challenge I had to overcome with my family and some of my success tips discovered along the way. This was all part of spreading awareness of the deep change trying new foods and cooking together can bring to a family’s life and traditions.
What real food initiative are you currently working on in your community?
In keeping with Jamie Oliver’s "keep cooking skills alive" premise, our
Food Revolution Toronto team is holding a free family fun cooking event at the end of November. This will be at Sobey’s test kitchen, a supermarket that Jamie Oliver partners with to bring better food to Canadians. We were fortunate enough to have leftover funds from FRD2014 to make this event free for the public.
A fellow Ontario Ambassador and I are in early stages of talks about organizing a community cooking event in our neighbourhood for individuals and families for Food Revolution Day 2015. I have been an active member of our
Food Revolution Toronto Facebook page to keep our community aware of food, cooking and education events happening in our greater city.
As our local team continues to meet, exchange ideas and run our own activities, I believe we will generate real excitement in our community to keep the Food Revolution momentum going and create some positive change in our eating habits and food system.
Get a list of all of our global ambassadors at
www.foodrevolutionday.com/ambassadors
The Jamie Oliver Food Foundation (USA)
@jamiefoodfdnUSA
