I have absolutely loved the weather here lately.  It is gorgeous!  It makes me want to get my deck in order so I can spend some more time out there.  For Mother’s Day I received some flowers that I put in pots on the deck.  The colors really add to the beauty for me.  Now I am feeling motivated to sweep and put chairs out so I can enjoy it more.
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Next week I have been invited to attend a special event, the Maple Leaf Foods Roundtable.  It is an event put together by both Matchstick and Maple Leaf Foods.  Matchstick is a Toronto based word of mouth marketing company that is a member of WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association).  Invited to the event are a group of 25 female bloggers from the Vancouver area.  This type of event is a first for me and I am really looking forward to meeting other local bloggers as well as the people from Matchstick and Maple Leaf Foods!

The event is being held at Quince Cooking School which I have never been to before, and am thrilled about.   I am really excited to see the school in person because taking a few classes at a cooking school has for as long as I can remember been something I wanted to do.  Just a little bucket list item to learn more about food, and wine too!

The theme of the event is food safety.  In their words “Maple Leaf has made a deep 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.”
Part of what is appealing about this event to me is that I think food safety is extremely important, and this has only heightened for me with having children.  I have always been one to be careful when dealing with food, maybe sometimes too careful if that is possible.  There is something about raw meat and I that don’t always get along. J  It is definitely one of those silly things.  I think I get grossed out a little too easily, so Hubby is usual there to help out in that department.

Anyway, I am really hoping to learn some great information that I can pass on to you.  One of my absolute favorite things about blogs is that it can work as an education tool.  For example my friend Tina (whose blogs I totally !) went to a food writing class- A Fresh Approach: Writing about Food and she passed along some great tips that she learned.  Going to a food writing class sounds awesome to me and I love that even though I didn’t go to the class I was able to learn some of the best information just from reading her blog.  I guess it is just the inner geek in me ;-)


One of the great things about this event is that I will have the opportunity to ask questions directly to some of the Maple Leaf executives and food safety experts that will be in attendance.  This is where I can really use your help!

What questions about food safety or Maple Leaf’s commitment to it would you like answered?  

What happened is truly tragic, and really hard for me to imagine, but I do believe the most important thing a person, or company for that matter, can do in moving forward is learn from their mistakes, do better, and when possible educate others about it.

I would love to go to this event ready to ask some great questions, and because more heads are definitely better than one it would mean so much to me to receive comments on this post with any questions that come to mind.  At any time if you think of one- today, this weekend, or the beginning of next week I would love( I mean LOVE! J) for you to come back and post your questions.

Thank you, friends!

I hope you have a beautiful weekend! 
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Comments

05/15/2010 11:01am

Oh my goodness those flowers are beautiful! Hmm, a question: How about--- What enforcement mechanisms/quality control procedures will they have in place to ensure their food safety policies are properly implemented?

-Have fun!! :)

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05/19/2010 12:39pm

I just wanted to say hi! I will be attending the roundtable tonight too, look forward to meeting you.

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