Maple Leaf paired together with Matchstick - a Toronto based word of mouth marketing company that is a member of WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) and put together the Maple Leaf Roundtable event. It was wonderful meeting so many lovely new people including my email buddy Sumaya from Matchstick, as well as Jeanette Jones Vice President, Communications for Maple Leaf and Sharon Beais Senior VP, Food Safety & Quality Assurance, and some fantastic Vancouver bloggers! Everyone was so warm and friendly, I immediately felt comfortable even though I did not know anyone prior to attending the event. The dinner was held at Quince Cooking School. It was a cute place. We started the evening with some mingling and appetizers.
This appetizer included a slice of Maple Leaf’s Natural Selections Oven Roasted Turkey Breast.
The re-sealable packaging on the Natural selections was a crowd pleaser. J One less baggie in the garbage is definitely a good thing!
Next we sat down and Sharon talked with us about Maple Leaf’s commitment to becoming a global leader in food safety as a result of what occurred in August, 2008 and the Listeriosis illnesses and tragic deaths that were linked to their products.
What stood out most to me was the commitment Maple Leaf has made to become a transparent company, and in their words do what is right. They take the deaths linked to their products seriously and are looking to reach out to the community, admitting mistake, and wanting to do everything in their power to prevent an outbreak from re-occurring. We were able to learn about the length of what they have gone through as a company in terms of replacing $20 million in infrastructure, intensive cleaning practices, piloting new food safety programs such as Sistem, and working towards their goals of becoming GFSI and BRC certified.
It is my hope that in their transformation they are successful in educating others, both individuals and companies, to be as safe with food as possible and prevent future deaths. While Sharon talked with us and answered the group’s questions we enjoyed a loaf of Dempster’s vacuumed sealed baguette.
It was served with garlic, butter, and asiago cheese, yum!
We also learned about Maple Leaf’s Think Food program and the $12 million investment in their culinary division, rendering a stunning place to collaborate recipe testing.
For dinner we enjoyed Maple Leaf’s Prime stuffed chicken breasts.
Here are a few group shots
It was a great time and my favorite part of course was meeting such delightful people!
Erica Co-Author of The Survival Guide for Rookie Moms and myself Naomi of Monkee Mama and Erica.
There are so many new blogs I look forward to checking out and sharing with you in the near future! Thank you for a fun evening Maple Leaf and Matchstick! Now, on to the giveaway!!! This giveaway bag that Maple Leaf has provided for one of you includes Dempster’s Baguettes in both white and multigrain, an apron, coupons, a digital meat thermometer (no more under or over cooking your food!), an apron, and my favorite part, the bag itself! It is a cute insulated bag great for helping keep food cold. I think you’ll enjoy using it this summer the next time you want to make sure the ice cream makes it home safe from the grocery store ;-)
To enter all you have to do is leave a comment!
Are you a Multigrain lover or is it White Bread that has your heart?
The giveaway will be open until 12 noon (Pacific Time) on Monday May 24, the winner will be picked randomly and will be announced first thing Tuesday morning, so be sure to check back and see if you have won!