In the Gender, Sexuality, Feminist, and Social Justice Studies (GSFS) 401 Winter 2020 semester class on Food, Gender, and Environment taught by Alex Ketchum, students are analyzing the ways that food accessibility and environmental threats are gendered, sexualized, and racialized within the global context. As part of the course, students visited McGill’s archives and special collections to have a hands on experience with historical cookbooks (more on that here: http://www.historicalcookingproject.com/2020/02/field-trip-to-mcgill-rare-books-and.html). The Special Series of Student Posts is a collection of student reflections on what information we can glean from cookbooks.
Culture, Connection, and Society Through a Community Cookbook
by Alissia Di Lonardo
Taking my last class in the Gender, Sexuality, Feminism, and Social Justice minor program at McGill University, I have really taken the time to think about what social justice issues have remained the most salient to me. Racism and feminism seem to be the ones which continue to touch me on a personal level throughout my educational career. That is why when I saw The Coloured Women’s Millennium Cookbook: a melange of island and southern recipes at the McGill Archives, I knew it was the cookbook I wanted to focus on for my project.
![]()
![]()
![]()
The cookbook is filled with poems and prayers stating the club’s view on society, including what they believe should be fixed along with what has not changed in terms of societal issues such as racism, climate justice, and how individuals treat each other and approach one another at a community level. The layout of the cookbook also takes an educational stance, expanding society’s knowledge on Caribbean and African herbs, spices and meals by including a Glossary and an “Herb and Spice Guide”. They also included a “Yields and Equivalents” section which was intriguing to me since I saw it as an economic aid for those of lower socioeconomic statuses (Members of The Coloured Women’s Club 1999). The section helps ensure people do not buy more of an ingredient than they need, and to possibly avoid having people buy ingredients at all if they only have small portions in their home. Coming from a family which struggles a lot with economic issues, I saw this section as a genuine tactic to help those who lack the economic resources to feel like they can cook proper meals for their family without overspending.
![]()
The opening poem to the cookbook, "The Paradox of Our Age," took a political stance by buttressing the importance societal systems put on issues that are not geared towards ameliorating human communities as a whole. For example, one passage states “We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space; we’ve done larger things, but not better things, we’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice; we write more, but learn less; plan more, but accomplish less”, aiming at saying how in the context of our time, the progress we have made has not made improvements to the way society interacts and treats one another (Members of The Coloured Women’s Club 1999). The cookbook aims to achieve peace through food, believing that through the regrowth of food, we can reach the regrowth of society.
![]()
Another reason I chose this cookbook to analyze is because it originates in Montreal, which is my hometown. Through cooking one of the recipes in the cookbook, “Buttermilk Biscuits” with my mother, and after reading all the poems and looking through the book, I understood how the cookbook is trying to educate patience, kindness and community. I chose buttermilk biscuits because I have an Italian heritage, and biscuits can be considered cookies in many Italian cafés, and I LOVE cookies. However, when I bought all the ingredients and told my mom we were making cookies, she made me realize that these were not cookies… they were original quick bread biscuits! This made me laugh because it made me realize how much people perceive things based on their own experiences and culture. I decided to stick with the recipe anyways since neither of us ever tried making biscuits and it would have been something new.
It was truly an amazing experience baking with my mom since we both love to bake. What made it most fun however, was the fact that she was struggling just as much as I was, which really forced us to work together and led us to laugh the whole way through. Making something outside of your usual cultural traditions can really make you think differently about what it means to cook and how it strengthens your bond with those around you, while also learning more about other ways of eating and cooking outside of your norm. The cookbook encourages team building, acceptance and working towards having a more inclusive community, and it promotes that by using it as a tool to help struggling young Black students to get the education everyone deserves in a system that continues to fail them.
References
Black in Canada. Shirley Gyles. Retrieved from http://www.blackincanada.com/2010/12/01/shirley-gyles/
Este, D., Sato, C. & McKenna, D. (2017). THE COLOURED WOMEN’S CLUB OF
MONTREAL, 1902-1940: African-Canadian Women Confronting Anti-Black Racism.
Canadian Social Work Review, 34(1), 81–99. https://doi.org/10.7202/1040996ar
Members of The Coloured Women’s Club 1999. (2000). The Coloured Women’s Club Millennium Cookbook: a melange of island and southern recipes. Self-Published.
The Coloured Women’s Club. History. Retrieved from http://www.colouredwomensclub.org/history-1.html
The Coloured Women’s Millennium Cookbook is a community cookbook which contains Caribbean, African and Montreal oriented recipes. The cookbook is self-published from 1999, by a group of women part of The Coloured Women’s Club (CWC) of Montreal, made accessible for all peoples through online orders on their website. The CWC was founded in 1902 by seven women from America whose husbands worked for the railroad, since their original jobs as doctors and educators were not credited once they immigrated to the United States. The club was established in Montreal in effort to foster social support for themselves within a community that alienated them, and to help support the Black community within Montreal (The Coloured Women’s Club).
Throughout the club’s evolution, these women have dedicated their lives to helping the Black community by providing them with winter clothing, organizing temporary shelters for soldiers coming back from the Boer War in 1902, volunteering at hospitals, counselling unwed mothers, and working towards helping the struggling youth (The CWC). The club’s reputation has been acknowledged as one of the earliest social welfare practitioners in North America through their efforts to promote a sense of community and safety for Black people living in the Montreal area (Este, Sato, & McKenna). Over time, the social needs in the community have changed their goals as a group, and now focus their time and work on education, by awarding scholarships to young Black students in need. The Coloured Women’s Millennium Cookbook is one of the many resources which go towards the CWC Scholarship Fund, along with proceeds raised from events planned by the club. Along with making sure all proceeds from the cookbook go towards the CWC Scholarship Fund, the cookbook itself is quite political in nature (The CWC).
The cookbook is filled with poems and prayers stating the club’s view on society, including what they believe should be fixed along with what has not changed in terms of societal issues such as racism, climate justice, and how individuals treat each other and approach one another at a community level. The layout of the cookbook also takes an educational stance, expanding society’s knowledge on Caribbean and African herbs, spices and meals by including a Glossary and an “Herb and Spice Guide”. They also included a “Yields and Equivalents” section which was intriguing to me since I saw it as an economic aid for those of lower socioeconomic statuses (Members of The Coloured Women’s Club 1999). The section helps ensure people do not buy more of an ingredient than they need, and to possibly avoid having people buy ingredients at all if they only have small portions in their home. Coming from a family which struggles a lot with economic issues, I saw this section as a genuine tactic to help those who lack the economic resources to feel like they can cook proper meals for their family without overspending.
The opening poem to the cookbook, "The Paradox of Our Age," took a political stance by buttressing the importance societal systems put on issues that are not geared towards ameliorating human communities as a whole. For example, one passage states “We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space; we’ve done larger things, but not better things, we’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice; we write more, but learn less; plan more, but accomplish less”, aiming at saying how in the context of our time, the progress we have made has not made improvements to the way society interacts and treats one another (Members of The Coloured Women’s Club 1999). The cookbook aims to achieve peace through food, believing that through the regrowth of food, we can reach the regrowth of society.
Another reason I chose this cookbook to analyze is because it originates in Montreal, which is my hometown. Through cooking one of the recipes in the cookbook, “Buttermilk Biscuits” with my mother, and after reading all the poems and looking through the book, I understood how the cookbook is trying to educate patience, kindness and community. I chose buttermilk biscuits because I have an Italian heritage, and biscuits can be considered cookies in many Italian cafés, and I LOVE cookies. However, when I bought all the ingredients and told my mom we were making cookies, she made me realize that these were not cookies… they were original quick bread biscuits! This made me laugh because it made me realize how much people perceive things based on their own experiences and culture. I decided to stick with the recipe anyways since neither of us ever tried making biscuits and it would have been something new.
It was truly an amazing experience baking with my mom since we both love to bake. What made it most fun however, was the fact that she was struggling just as much as I was, which really forced us to work together and led us to laugh the whole way through. Making something outside of your usual cultural traditions can really make you think differently about what it means to cook and how it strengthens your bond with those around you, while also learning more about other ways of eating and cooking outside of your norm. The cookbook encourages team building, acceptance and working towards having a more inclusive community, and it promotes that by using it as a tool to help struggling young Black students to get the education everyone deserves in a system that continues to fail them.
References
Black in Canada. Shirley Gyles. Retrieved from http://www.blackincanada.com/2010/12/01/shirley-gyles/
Este, D., Sato, C. & McKenna, D. (2017). THE COLOURED WOMEN’S CLUB OF
MONTREAL, 1902-1940: African-Canadian Women Confronting Anti-Black Racism.
Canadian Social Work Review, 34(1), 81–99. https://doi.org/10.7202/1040996ar
Members of The Coloured Women’s Club 1999. (2000). The Coloured Women’s Club Millennium Cookbook: a melange of island and southern recipes. Self-Published.
The Coloured Women’s Club. History. Retrieved from http://www.colouredwomensclub.org/history-1.html