The Garden Spot
While it doesn’t take long to realise that most of the eateries on campus are owned by the same profit-driven corporation, finding an alternative can. The student-association run restaurants do offer some fine grub but what options are there if I don’t have cash for Mike’s Place? The scents and lineups of Tupperware-holding people extending from the Unicentre’s Room 426 suggest that the Carleton community has finally found its G-Spot.
In a sentence, the G-Spot is a student-run, volunteer, pay-what-you-can, vegan lunch service. The G-Spot aims to provide healthy, affordable and inclusive meals to the Carleton community. Healthy eating is encouraged with balanced lunches rich in vegetables and protein. By serving meals on a donation basis that are cooked without animal products and avoiding common allergens, G-Spot meals are the most affordable and inclusive on campus.
Volunteers collect food in the Ambulunch, a converted ambulance, pick up donations of surplus food too ripe to sell but perfect to eat, from local grocers like The Herb and Spice and prepare and cook lunches at an off-campus kitchen. The food is then delivered to the G-Space where volunteers serve the delicious goods and tidy up afterwards.
Look out for Garden Spot lunches from 12:30-2:30pm in room 426 of the Unicentre. Volunteers are always needed, so check out the sign-up at the G-Space.
The OPIRG-Carleton Centre
The Ontario Public Interest Research Group is a non-profit, student-run organisation involved in research, education and action on social justice and environmental issues.
All grad students are members of OPIRG through a re-fundable levy included in the student fees they pay: 3.24 per semester for full-time students, pro-rated for part-time grad students.
OPIRG-Carleton recognises the rich history of social creativity and resistance, and works to maintain and build a community that embraces plurality and participation. As an organisation, we believe the foundation for social change lies in the promotion of social and economic justice, deep ecology, and the realisation of a peaceful world.
OPIRG-Carleton’s resource centre has an extensive collection of books, periodicals, and documents on the environment, international issues, social movements, energy, women’s and native rights, the prison industry, militarisation, community organising and much more. A catalogue of our materials is accessible on our website, at www.opirg-carleton.org.
Volunteers are always welcome to help with research, to assist in running the resource centre, or to join any of the working groups that raise awareness and take action on a variety of social justice issues.
OPIRG-Carleton also offers the Terry Cottam Research Bursary to graduate students whose research is related to OPIRG’s mandate. Stop by the OPIRG office for more information on this bursary or to get involved in any of OPIRG’s projects.
Photos: Check out OPIRG’s extensive library on social justice and environmental issues; you’ll know you’ve found OPIRG’s front door. Photos provided