7: Owen Campbell on Gender and Food Security

Today’s AnthroDish interview is with Owen Campbell, a trans man with a passion for cooking, baking, and za’atar spice. He started his culinary journey with a small fib, in order to get a job at a soon-to-open restaurant on the West coast. After landing the job, and working his way up, he eventually left the restaurant industry to cook for a housing program in Vancouver’s downtown east side, where he remained, until he and his husband decided to move to Manitoba. After a brief “retirement” from the food industry, to start and finish a BA and then a Masters in Linguistics, he came back to his first love, food, to find a career in food security at Food Matters Manitoba.

We talk about his experiences working with youth in Winnipeg through Food Matters Manitoba, and some barriers youth face when accessing food. We speak about the gendering that goes on in different food realms, and how these impact queer and trans youth particularly. We also look at the food landscape in Winnipeg and discuss some of the challenges and creative ways he teaches youth to overcome these barriers.

You can find the Dan Jurafsky lecture he was referring to here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_tceXVOcls

Want to learn more about Owen? Contact him here: [email protected] or check out some of his work with Food Matters Manitoba here:  http://www.foodmattersmanitoba.ca/2018/07/a-queer-cook-off/