How to Change Institutional Food with Joshna Maharaj

Does thinking of school or hospital food make you turn your nose up? No wonder! The consensus is that it’s terrible, lame, and far from providing the healing and nourishment it should.

This podcast clocks in at around 48 minutes. You can also listen to it on iTunes, stream on Google Podcasts or Spotify or grab the RSS feed in your player of choice. So head out for a walk and let Joshna and I keep you company.

No matter where you are in the world, you probably need to look high and low to find excellent examples of the food menus that are being served at hospitals, prisons, and schools, what we call institutional food.

Changing institutional food

This week on the podcast my guest is Joshna Maharaj, a mighty chef who has devoted her career to change institutional food. She has worked with a number of hospitals and universities in Toronto, Canada to build new models for institutional food procurement, production, and service.

Joshna Maharaj

Joshna Maharaj is not only an award-winning chef, but also a two-time TEDx speaker, food activist, and author who believes strongly in the power of chefs and social gastronomy to bring values of hospitality, sustainability, and social justice to the table.

"My number one top priority is to remember that access to good quality food is a basic human right and that whatever of a new face of a food system that we try and build must be accessible to everybody and not just those who can afford it."

 — Joshna Maharaj

Her first book Take Back The Tray, which will be out in the spring, shares a blueprint for changing institutional food systems around the globe.

"The gift that cooks can offer to people is a beautiful plate of food."

— Joshna Maharaj [mc4wp_form id="25727"]

But despite the accolades, her journey has not been without its share of challenges. Joshna joins me on The Nourishing Workplace to discuss everything from how better food in hospitals leads to a better health system and more sustainable food culture to the changes she makes when she takes over an institution’s kitchen, and much more.

Show Notes A shortlist of articles and resources mentioned in this episode plus further resources:

WATCH: Joshna talks about the elderly Chinese patient, whom I refer to during the episode (TVO)

Joshna's upcoming book, Take Back The Tray

FURTHER READ: A great example of a school cafeteria – The Academic Tables at the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo by the Slow Food Movement (WE Factory)

Learn more about Joshna's work:

Visit Joshna’s website or follow Joshna on Instagram and her project Take Back The Tray.

Did you enjoy this episode on institutional food?

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