Inspector Steve Goodine from the London Police competes in disaster dining challenge
Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley (right) competes alongside London Fire Deputy Chief David Lazenby
London West MP Ed Holder and his sous-chef Sarah discuss their dish
Steve Goodine, from the London Police, makes quesadillas with chicken and black beans
London bloggers Christy Jolliffe (left) and Kelly Connor (right)
London Free Press reporter, Kelly Pedro (centre) and local radio personality, Bianca Marcus taste London West MP Ed Holder's dish
As some of you know, we love to talk about food at the Canadian Red Cross and on this blog, so you can be sure we were in disaster-foodie heaven this week as we attended two cooking events in Ontario.
The events were organized to kick off the annual Walmart campaign – a fundraising initiative across Canada where Walmart accepts donations at the till. This year, Walmart is aiming to raise $2.8 million, all of which will go toward supporting relief efforts right here in Canada.
We know that disasters can happen any time – our volunteers routinely respond to emergencies helping families affected by house fires, flooding or other disasters that force them to leave their homes.
The Red Cross advocates that families should have an emergency preparedness kit in their homes so that, if needed, they can sustain themselves for 72 hours.
And, of course, every disaster kit should have food! As such, we hosted two events this week – a disaster dining challenge in London and a disaster cooking class in Toronto.
In Toronto, two popular chefs, vegan chef Doug McNish and Neil Siomra of Pallucci Italian restaurant, put their culinary skills to test to show families how easy it is to prepare delicious, nutritious meals using foods that you would find in a disaster kit and without electricity or running water. These chefs cooked up a storm, preparing disaster-gourmet bean salad, chicken tacos and fudge. They even roasted marshmallows!
In London, notable community members competed to see who could come up with the best dish in a literal pinch. London West MP Ed Holder, Ontario Attorney General and London West MPP Chris Bentley, Deputy Fire Chief David Lazenby, Police Inspector Steve Goodine, and bloggers Kelly Connor and Christy Jolliffe were assigned the task to come up with a dish in 30 minutes using only non-perishable food, no heat or electricity, and lots of imagination. The dishes were judged by a panel which included London Free Press reporter Kelly Pedro and local radio personality Bianca Marcus.
The Deputy Fire Chief took a risk and used Spam (our favourite luncheon meat) in his dish. And it paid off - he won the competition!