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Grand opening for the Hive Loyola

Food co-op welcomes patrons at second location.

The buzz about the Hive has been circulating through the Loyola Campus for years. At long last, the Concordia co-op opened for business yesterday, Monday Sept. 29, on the second floor of the Student Center (SC) building.

The opening was an informal affair, with doors opening at 10 a.m. and staff welcomingly ushering in their eager new customers with free coffee and an expansive menu, which highlights organic and local fare.

“Today was just a friendly little meet and greet,” said Fiona Keats, the coordinator at Loyola campus’ Hive. “In the fall we hope to have a big first Hive bash.”

Photo by Sara Baron-Goodman

A large part of the purpose of Monday’s humble event was to encourage member sign-up. As a co-op, the organization runs on a volunteer basis largely supported by the Concordia student body. Membership costs $5, lasts a lifetime, and garners you 10 per cent off of everything at the café. Members are encouraged to offer suggestions and get involved as much as they can or want to in order to keep the Hive running.

“Not everything is 100 per cent sustainable yet,” said Keats. “But that’s the ultimate mission.”

For now, they do the best they can, until more opportunities become available from community sources.

“Some stuff is local, some is organic,” she said. “We try to, in everything we buy, have at least one element of sustainability in it.”

At the very least, they’re transparent. Information on where each specific menu item comes from is designated on the wall by the cash register.

For now, that includes loose-leaf teas from Concordia’s City Farm School, fresh sprout salad from the Concordia Greenhouse, local Quebec apples, and sandwiches from Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce’s Café Zephyr, which has a farm-to-table model.

Also on the menu are gourmet scones, fresh-baked muffins, an incredibly hearty vegan chili, and grilled cheese on organic sprout bread.

The Hive also sponsors a lunchtime program, where they offer free vegetarian lunches (while supplies last) to anybody who visits.

In both cases, only the continued support of volunteers and members limits costs and allows them to affordably sustain such programs.

Their sprawling space has an abundance of room to sit and eat, or just hang out — stop by the SC building and see for yourself.

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Student Life

Find out what all the Buzz is about at The Hive

The much-anticipated homegrown cafe aims to provide sustainable food to students

What’s better on a crisp fall day than a warm bowl of chili or a grilled cheese sandwich on sprout bread? Picking it up on your way to class from a café where you are part owner.

This is the opportunity being given to Concordia students this year with the opening of The Hive Solidarity Cooperative. The Hive is the result of an ongoing project, which has already lasted many years. All the planning finally paid off when, in the Concordia Student Union (CSU) by-elections last fall, 87 per cent of students voted in favor of starting a student-run, nonprofit cooperative on the second floor of the Hall building.

The result of this vote is the café itself, the purpose of which is “not only to provide sustainable food on campus, but to have a food provider on campus that students can engage themselves in and have a direct say in,” said Jessica Cabana, Vice President of Sustainability with the CSU.

This business plan leads to two huge benefits for students.

First, it allows the Concordia population to own and have a say in what they want from a homegrown café. Membership to the co-op costs five dollars and lasts a lifetime. Benefits for members include a tantalizing 10 per cent rebate off of everything in store.  Concordia’s community has been eager to join the coalition, adding over 1,000 new members in the first two weeks of the academic year.

Second, it will aim to introduce sustainable foods into the diets of Concordians. At present, their sustainable food options are rather limited, with the exception of the excellent sprout salad grown in Concordia’s greenhouse. As a result, many items on the menu are brought in from outside caterers. The goal is to move towards more sustainable food, as the current catered items are not. According to Cabana this is only temporary, as The Hive will move gradually towards a self-catered food model as opportunities become available.

In the meantime, the food and drink will remain of high quality and reasonable price. The reason for this, Cabana said, is that the Hive is “for the people, not the profit.”

Already the co-op has been showing these words to be true in their involvement with the Loyola luncheon program. The luncheon program provides free vegetarian lunches on campus for students in need, similar to the People’s Potato initiative but for the Loyola campus.

The café’s work thus far this session has been impressive for such a young organization, but their work is far from over. On Sept. 29 at 10 a.m., The Hive will open the doors of its second location, on the second floor of the Student Center at the Loyola Campus, which is in the SC building.

With a location open on each campus The Hive will offer the Concordia community the unique opportunity to celebrate what we can do as a group, to watch a café grow and blossom, and to be a part of it every step of the way.

Grand opening of The Hive Solidarity Cooperative is on Sept. 29 2014, 10 a.m. For more information, go to:

https://www.facebook.com/HiveCafeCoop

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News

Freedom Relay at Dawson College

In Dawson College’s Peace Garden on Wednesday, Sept. 18, a demonstration against human trafficking was held by the Dawson Womens’ Services & Advocacy Centre, The HIVE. The Freedom Relay is an annual event that takes place across Canada.

Organizers of this event were inspired by the fact that so few people are aware of what human trafficking is and that it occurs inside our borders. The event at Dawson featured live music and speakers who talked about their experiences and knowledge of human trafficking.

According to The Comité d’Action contre la Traite Humaine Interne et Internationale, (CATHII) the definition of human trafficking is “The exploitation of people, i.e. Sexual exploitation through prostitution, forced labour, and other forms of modern slavery.”

There is a common belief that most human trafficking occurs in other countries, mostly developing countries, and that it is not a reality within Canada. However, the Freedom Relay is held to inform society of the human trafficking which takes place in North America.

“Once people know that [human trafficking] is happening in Canada, they can recognize it and denounce it. That is our goal here,” said Sabrina Tremblay-Huet, an organizer of the March, studying international law at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

According to the Canadian Women’s Foundation, the trafficking of women and girls in Canada, though illegal, still occurs often to women who have already been demeaned: Aboriginal women, abuse survivors, young girls or immigrant women. One of the most horrifying aspects about human trafficking is that higher prices are paid for younger girls. The average age of girls being trafficked is 13 years old.

“There is trafficking in every country in the world,” said Catherine Legault, also an organizer. Legault is the executive director of Chab Dai Canada, an organization that works to prevent human trafficking. “In Montreal, the police are investigating over 150 cases of children in prostitution every year.”

What can be done about a phenomenon that takes place worldwide? “The best way to help with any human rights issue is stay informed and learn as much about it as possible,” said Tremblay-Huet.

If you suspect that you know someone that is being exploited, call Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-8477. For more information on human trafficking in Canada in French visit cathii.org or in English canadianwomen.org/trafficking.

 

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