Jacqueline Chang
External: CAFE
The Canadian Association of Food Engineers (CAFE) always likes to start the year off with a bang, and we did just that at our 2021 Annual Kickoff Meeting! Although due to COVID-19 restrictions, we were not able to hold our kickoff meeting in person, that did not stop our audience from hopping on our Zoom meeting to learn everything about CAFE. If you missed our kickoff meeting, do not fret because this article will cover everything that happened during the event!
The kick-off event began by describing the upcoming events for this year, something everyone looks forward to at CAFE! Each term, CAFE holds three big events that range from hobbies & interests all the way to professional development. Not to mention, we do not limit our events to just UofT students, so invite your friends from other universities to our events! The first event following the kickoff will be the “Dining Out With COVID-19 Case Competition” where competitors in teams of 2-3 will design a solution to a case and be judged by food engineering industry professionals! The grand prize will be $500, so I would keep my eye out for the next annual case competition event! Our final event of the fall term will be the PEY and Industry Mixer! Food engineering professionals will be there, so be sure to use this chance to take a look at the article for the PEY and Industry mixer to learn more!
To start off the winter term, CAFE will hold a cafe (funny, I know)! Come out and enjoy some delicious food and drinks from the food engineering club. Following that, will be the annual Design Expo Hackathon. Unlike other events, the Design Expo will be held over a weekend, making it the longest event of the year. If you want another chance to win a grand prize and design a solution to be judged, keep an eye out for more information. To end off the year, CAFE will be holding a plant tour where you can learn where the delicious food that you eat comes from.
Events are not the only thing to look forward to this year. For the first time ever, CAFE introduced the liaisons! By becoming a liaison, all you have to do is post the marketing ads we made on your social media. Of course, we will not let your help go unrewarded. Liaisons can be entered up to two times for the monthly $15 raffle by commenting on CAFE’s posts and reposting our stories.
One of the biggest projects CAFE has is our magazine, The Engineer’s Bite. If you have not seen our magazine up till now, you better take a look at all our past issues as well which can be found on our website! Our amazing magazine team puts together a magazine twice a year with a different theme and design each time. Sometimes there are even little Easter eggs in our magazine, that if solved will be rewarded handsomely. If I were you, I would keep my eyes peeled for the next edition of The Engineer’s Bite.
If you are interested in being part of the magazine, the good news is that you can! Every semester we will release the theme of the magazine a little earlier and allow article submissions! Our magazine team will read each and every one of your submissions to decide what would be the best article to be featured in our magazine!
And just like that, our annual Kickoff Meeting came to an end. Thank you everyone for coming out, and we hope to catch you in person next year!