Multicultural Food Festival gets a fresh start

By Chris Abbott

Editor

The cabbage rolls were the first to sell out at the Multicultural Food Festival on June 7.

Then the donated desserts.

“Also half of our perogies,” said festival co-coordinator Jon Kloepfer, noting the other half would be arriving soon.

It was only one hour into the four-hour food festival at the Delhi Tobacco Museum and Heritage Centre and there was still a lineup outside.

This year’s version of the Multicultural Food Festival was a new take on a festival tradition going back many decades, some of which featured displays and music, sometimes dance – but not always food.

“The Multicultural Heritage Association of Norfolk has been around for like 40 years,” said festival co-coordinator Judy Schaeffer, vice-president of the association. “So we have had many, many (festivals)… in the warehouse, at the arena, at the Hungarian Hall, but it always focused on Eastern European cuisine.

“So, Jon and I both had the same idea – let’s include the cultures of people that are joining our community,” said Schaeffer. “We wanted to do something different.”

“Norfolk County - 50, 60, 70 years ago - the vast majority of immigration was from Europe,” said Kloepfer, the association’s archivist. “Now we’re getting a lot of different cultures, like Caribbean, African, East Asian, South Asian… so we thought we should do an event that highlights some of the recent cultures that have come to the county. Along with the old guard.”

An admission of $5 (12-and-under free) allowed festival visitors to purchase food tokens to redeem at various food vendor tables, which included Korean, Philippines, Jamaican, Mexican, Indian, Ukrainian, German, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Belgian, Dutch, and Lithuanian cuisine.

Two live musicians donated their time and talent at the festival. 

“We’re happy with the attendance,” said Schaeffer. “We’ve been working on this for four months…”

“At least,” nodded Kloepfer, noting the organizing committee included another four other members.

“Basically, our real desire is to have a community-based, inclusive gathering,” said Schaeffer.

“There’s a bit of an educational element to it,” said Kloepfer, “because, to me, food is a like a really simple and easy gateway to expose people to other cultures. That’s another mandate of our club – to spread awareness of other cultures within our community.”

“We’re a non-profit, so the money we make goes back to student programming and the promotion of multiculturalism,” said Schaeffer.

“Education is definitely our main focus with the money we generate,” Kloepfer nodded. “We do a lot in the schools.”

The Multicultural & Heritage Association of Norfolk has a membership of about 30 people, meeting the first Tuesday every month, and they are always looking for more, said Kloepfer. They can be contacted through their Facebook page.

“We do want to expand this next year,” Schaeffer noted. The addition of a big outdoor tent has already been suggested.

“We really like to partner with the museums around Norfolk because a lot of their mandate is cultural awareness,” said Kloepfer. “Especially the one here in Delhi because it’s a heritage centre. We work really well together.”

chris@granthaven.com