Fascinated by how a relationship to food can greatly affect individuals, Elaine Cheng is the owner of Food Connections.
Since graduating from her Bachelor’s degree in Food Nutrition & Health at UBC in 2007, Elaine combined her theoretical background with Culinary training at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. She soon realized that she wanted to cook food people will love, and left her position in the healthcare setting to pursue the foodservice industry. Combining her passion in connecting people to nutritious quality food in restaurant dining, Elaine worked for five years as a Nutrition Consultant and Recipe Analyst for a number of restaurants with the Heart & Stroke Foundation’s Health Check Restaurant Program. In conjunction with this, she developed a food and nutrition curriculum for schools, customizing each grade from pre-school, kindergarten to Gr. 7. She uses nutrition education as a way to inspire children to love healthy eating in a practical, hands-on and relevant manner.
Elaine now holds a Master Degree in Food Culture & Communications from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Pollenzo, Italy, and spent the last few months teaching cooking to vulnerable communities in London, UK, with the Food Academy, former Jamie Oliver Ministry of Food Foundation. Alarmed by how many of the children had never tasted the juice of real fruit and cannot identify where vegetables came from before arriving at the store, she believes that food education can empower communities and transform lives.
As a follow-up project to highlight one aspect of food security, she organized the first ever Feeding the 5000 in Canada on May 27, 2015 at the heart of downtown Vancouver, to raise awareness for the amount of food that is being wasted in America.
Elaine is an innovative entrepreneur with a people-loving personality. She is always dreaming of the next project to launch in the city to inspire and change the way people think about food. Her goal is to encourage the skill of cooking meals, and to make local, nutritious, quality food more accessible and convenient to busy Vancouverites.
Food Connections was founded in 2015 with a vision to connect individuals, from industry professionals to consumers from all walks of life, to their relationship to quality good food. It serves as a platform for information sharing within the food community, as well as a business offering professional services.
Food connections encourages the sharing of ideas and working together for a common purpose and goal – to uncover the great blanket of knowledge that surrounds the world of food we all try to perfect with our individual stories.
- We launch food sustainability projects and city events that align with Slow Food principles – good, clean, and fair.
- We love community building and promoting local organizations creating social impact in our city.
- We support reduction of food waste on all levels of the food chain and education.
- We believe in using food to bridge the poverty gap and support the sharing resources with those in need.
- We provide external services: cooking classes, nutrition education, restaurant menu analysis, consultancy work, grocery catering, and project start-ups.
Food connections believe in the power of relationships built upon the sharing of resources in community. As professional food consultants, we support food sustainability and education through project launches in the city. Our services include: event planning, cooking classes, nutrition education, restaurant menu analysis, consultancy work, grocery catering, and project start-ups.
Let’s get social!
