Q. What is a Yam Daisy?
A. Yam daisies, indigenous name is Murnong, were a staple food in the Melbourne area before European settlement. Their delicious yam roots were dug up communally and their bright yellow flowers are like a dandelion. Good local food and a bright face make the yam daisy a perfect symbol for these cafes.
Q. There are little community cafes around that provide low cost healthy food. Why the YamDaisy Cafe?
A. It is great to see little community cafes that have started up, usually to provide training to apprentice chefs as well as cheap healthy food. YamDaisy is different because of the nutritional standards and portion sizes that mean customers can be confident they are eating everyday meals, and doctors can recommend them. Also YamDaisy Cafes are designed to be part of a bigger franchise system, and so part of a systemic solution to making sure everyone has access to healthy daily meals.
Q. If people are educated and organised, they can cook up a nutritious meal in 15 minutes. I can! YamDaisy just encourages people to be ignorant and lazy.
A. The worse your health is, the poorer you are likely to be, and the more difficult it is to shop, pack, prepare and cleanup meals three times a day every day. You are less likely to have a break from daily cooking and, if you do, it will be the easiest and lowest cost one. People with poor health are generally aware of the need for the best food, and become great organisers of the quick cheap nutritious meal. But they need a break! YamDaisy makes that easiest, lowest cost meal a fabulous one! Have a walk through the ABC of people who would use a YamDaisy Cafe.
Q. Cheap healthy food sounds so boring and worthy. Why would anyone want to eat it?
A. Many people find the thought of healthy cheap food utterly wonderful, but for some people it has connotations of chewing away at undercooked second class vegetables and leaving the table unfulfilled. Our challenge is to make sure that YamDaisy food is delicious, nourishing food that keeps people coming back for more! Read about our Comfort Food Poll!
Q. What is ‘Sometimes’ food and ‘Everyday’ Food?
A. Health educators use these terms to get away from the idea that some foods are good and others are bad. All delicious food is good! But the more processed, the more sugar, fat, and/or salt it contains, the more it is ‘sometimes‘ food, eaten occasionally. The less processed, the less sugar, salt and fat it contains, the more it is an ‘everyday‘ food. YamDaisy makes ‘everyday‘ food so that people can eat there every day!
Q. Isn’t Meals on Wheels available for people in need?
A. Meals on Wheels (now the Community Chef program locally) was set up to provide meals for people who could not manage their own; but they are being inundated, not everyone is eligible for their program, and it doesn’t suit everyone.
Q. Have you heard of Lentil as Anything?
A. Yes! Lentil As Anything is the brainchild of Shanaka Fernando. It aims to build trust, inclusion and multiculturalism in the community. Lentil As Anything are vegetarian organic restaurants staffed largely by volunteers. There are three restaurants and a school canteen in Melbourne. They are not for profit and the customer decides what to donate for their food. They provide training for new migrants, refugees and youth.
YamDaisy Cafes focus more on being a business unit with community membership, providing meals to local members. There would be many ways Yam Daisy and Lentil as Anything can work together, such as: chefs trained at Lentil as Anything could find employment at YamDaisy Cafes.
Q. Have you heard of Community Kitchens, Kitchen Gardens, Slow Food, Permaculture, Food Sustainability, Anti GM, Wholefoods..?
A. There are many wonderful projects, produce and concepts that work toward better food in our community. All those mentioned can work with or be involved in the YamDaisy Cafe. Wouldn’t it be great if YamDaisy Cafes sourced some ingredients from local community gardens? If school and community cooking programs networked? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if YamDaisy Cafes became so powerful by their number and support, they could lead the way in introducing menus around sustainable fish and meat sources, local produce, etc.? It would be a great way to make things happen at a community level.