Ryerson grad pushes to fight food insecurity with new store

By Josee Foster

Ryerson grad Miranda Malisani was familiar with food insecurity from a young age.

“I would see things come into my parent’s pantry and I knew it wasn’t part of what they would normally buy,” she remembered about the donated pantry items scattered in her childhood. This experienced helped her develop her interest in nutrition.

After completing her degree in journalism at Ryerson Malisani went on to become a certified nutritionist through the Edison Institute of Nutrition. Her holistic consulting practice ‘Live Light Nutrition’ was created to teach a holistic approach to nutrition so people can move from hollow-heaviness to light-living. Malisani also appears as a regular expert on the Marilyn Denis show.

With her certification Malisani is working to open a unique health shop in early 2017 in Uxbridge, and will provide for local families of all social ranks.

“You’re not being fed properly, your energy lacks, you feel disconnected from your body—yet you don’t feel well enough to feel motivated to get out of the struggle,” Malisani said.

The boutique-like store will stock all sorts. From nutrient-dense groceries to organic skincare products, Miranda is “hoping to carry items that help us feel nourished on every level.” An online store will launch in January, with the same percent-profit-product deal, to complement the physical location.

Five per cent of the monthly profits from ‘Eat it Forward’ will be given to food banks in form of products. But forget the usual donations of Hamburger Helper and Kraft Dinner. Only the same top-notch food products from the shelves of the store will go to the food banks.

“Food is such a direct sense of nourishment—both emotionally and physically,” she said.

Now a mom of two young boys, with and wealth of knowledge in the power of food, Miranda’s empathy for struggling parents is fueling the birth of ‘Eat it Forward.’ Malisani’s childhood suffering changed when she was able to eat the right foods. And now this experience equips her to influence others.

“People need to work together in communities,” Malisani said. “Like ‘OK guys, there’s ten of us and we all need to eat. So you take dinners Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and we’ll work on a budget. And we’ll all pool stuff together, and we all know we need to eat’.”