Judi Varga-Toth
Judi has been involved with non-profit organizations for over twenty-five years. She is currently the Co-Chair of the Deep Roots Food Hub.
Judi owned and operated her own café, cooking school, and catering company called Credible Edibles, which served ‘nutritious, delicious, and environmentally conscious’ food. Her goal for the Deep Roots Food Hub is to make it the place to go in West Carleton for everything and anything to do with good food like buying, learning about, knowing about, cooking, preparing, and growing good food. Essentially, her goal is to turn it into the hub for good food in West Carleton. |
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- What made you want to be a part of the Deep Roots Food Hub?
There are two main reasons why I was interested in the Deep Roots Food Hub. The first reason is that I’ve always been passionate about local, healthy food so when I moved to West Carleton three years ago, I looked to see what was going on about local food. I wanted to see where I could get local, good healthy food seasonally and in the winter. I discovered that not many people grew local food and that was surprising to me. My second reason is that since I was new to West Carleton, I was looking to meet people and make friends and I knew I wanted to meet people who are interested in the same things as me. That is how I met the other people who wanted to form the Deep Roots Food Hub.
- What does food security mean to you?
To me, food security means having access to healthy food and the knowledge about it. The security comes from people knowing what good healthy food is, and knowing where to get it, how to eat it, and why. Food security also gives people the nutrition they need and it helps the local environment.
- What goals are you working towards in terms of your professional career?
I’m working towards making Deeps Roots Food Hub the place to go to in West Carleton for everything and anything to do with for good food like buying, learning about, knowing about, cooking, preparing, and growing good food. Essentially, the goal is to turn it into the hub for good food in West Carleton.
- Who has been the biggest influence in your career?
I have two main influences, my personal role model and a food-related inspiration. My personal role model has always been my grandmother. She lived to be 95 years old and was extremely healthy. She was someone who to me embodied good living and how to have a good life. She cooked, grew her own food even in her eighties, and would can and preserve the food she grew. Due to this, we always ate in season.
My food related inspiration is Dr. Colin Campbell, a researcher and scientist who is also the author of The China Study. I was inspired by the book and it changed my entire attitude about food. The book was about a 20 yearlong study conducted in China about how eating habits affected people’s health. It turned out that what we eat is the most important factor in having a long and healthy life and this book made me realize that.
- What has been the most influential moment of your life?
The most influential moment of my life was becoming a parent because once you have children; you start to think about the long term. What I mean is that every person cares about themselves and their future but once you have kids, you think about their future once you are gone instead of thinking about just yours. A big factor in that is the way I feed my kids because it is important not only for them, but for the environment in the future. This made me into an environmentalist because my number one concern is now to preserve the environment so that we can continue to exist. When you look at the environment, it’s not looking great for the next fifty to a hundred years so it’s important that I do everything I can to protect the environment for the sake of kids.
- If you had the power to solve one food related problem, what would it be and why?
For me, it would be information and education by helping people understand that choosing to eat more plant based foods would not only give them a longer healthier life, but would also help save the planet. That’s what my business was about; it was about people realizing they should be eating more plant based food like veggies, fruits, bread, rice, etc. Instead of people eating mostly animal based food and a little amount of plant based food, it would be best if it was the opposite because it would change their health and the environment.
Mark Bittman, a food journalist, has the idea of VB6 which means eating vegan before 6 PM. If everyone did that, they would be healthier, the planet would be better, and it would be cheaper.
