Background: the market snack bar run by park staff sells a great deal of non-organic food, even when it’s outdoors, i.e. not part of the rink. It didn’t use to, but when Dufferin Grove stopped being a city-CELOS partnership run by on-site city staff, the market snack bar changed its menu. Organic hot dogs gave way to ordinary hot dogs, which became one of the biggest sellers: about 200 hot dogs every Thursday in summer, a bargain at $2 each, slathered with non-organic toppings and enclosed in a little “Sunshine” brand bun. The market snack bar still sells the tasty salads and soups that Mary Sylwester cooks, but the supplies for preparing these dishes are now ordered centrally. That means that during high summer when the market is overflowing with just-picked vegetables, the current purchasing system doesn’t allow the cooks to buy organic peppers, cucumbers, onions, zucchini (really), tomatoes, potatoes, carrots and herbs from the market. Olive oil no longer comes from market vendor Angelos, and the park’s current oil is not organic. Coffee, tea, and maple syrup are no longer organic, nor are the sugar and butter used for muffins, cookies, and cinnamon buns sold at the snack bar. Nor, of course are the juice boxes, or the pop. A happy exception is park cook/gardener Leslie Lindsay’s mostly-organic focaccia, for which she uses produce picked from the park garden whenever she can.

Market rules: What this menu means is that for some time now the park’s market snack bar has not followed the market’s vendor rules, that say “Products must be organic or it must be clear to customers that they are not organic (and with a good reason).” Another rule is “Vendors have to produce the majority of what they sell.” This used to be true for the park table when the market was young – the park bread was all baked in the park ovens, entirely with organic ingredients, and the snack bar was a sideline, serving food prepared mainly with farmers’ market ingredients. In the past few years, though, the balance has turned. In summer the snack bar outsells the bread, partly because of re-selling cheap hot dogs and drinks.

Dufferin Grove market manager Anne Freeman pointed out the problems to recreation management more than two years ago, as did the park staff who cook for the market. But there was never a solution, so for a time everyone gave up. Recently, the issue was put back on the table. Near the end of August, Anne was asked to a meeting with management (sadly, the park cooks were not invited). It was agreed that organic hot dogs would be tried again, organic box drinks (Kiju) would be investigated, and the market would offer “market bucks” to allow park staff to buy fresh market produce for making the snack bar food. In addition, there is to be clearer signage pointing out which park snack bar foods are not fully or even partly organic.

The good news is that until the purchasing for the park’s market snack bar is fixed, market customers have a lot of other options. The market is full of good mostly-organic locally–made food for people who want to have their supper there. Many of those offerings are reasonably priced and filling, even if they aren’t quite as cheap as the city-staffed park snack bar. Hopefully the promised changes in the park staff’s menu will be coming through soon.