I first came across The Stop's Do The Math campaign in an article in the Star a couple of weeks ago. The campaign has been going on since August, but the media "noise" that The Stop has been trying to generate around the campaign has been getting louder lately.

The purpose of the campaign has been to raise awareness around the inadequacy of social assistance and to demonstrate what it's like to eat when most of your cheque goes to rent and transportation. Currently, about 700,000 people live on social assistance in Ontario.

The first ever Toronto Carrotmob attack will go down this Saturday April 10th at G's Fine Foods on Bloor. What's a Carrotmob attack? It's a 'buycott' - an organized consumer effort to reward businesses who pledge to invest in environmentally sustainable initiatives.

During February, local businesses in the Annex bid against one another in order to host Toronto's first Carrotmob, and G's Fine Foods won the bid by pledging to spend 100% of their revenues from the consumer mob on energy efficient renovations for the store. They also pledged to start carrying 15 new Local Food Plus (LFP) certified products.

Hopheads rejoice, starting April 15 you can enjoy six weeks of tutored tastings with the Harbourfront Centre's new beer appreciation classes.

And while there's already a lot to keep beer lovers in this city busy -- a growing local beer industry with breweries right here in the city, cask ale events at Bar Volo and the Victory Café, the Toronto Festival of Beer, the Beer & Cocktail Show, plus some great bars and a few brew-pubs -- there hasn't been a lot done in the educational arena.

When dairy cows start tweeting is it safe to say that Twitter is slowly taking over the world? OK maybe not, but a group of 12 dairy cows in Brant County, Ontario, have recently started "teat tweeting" and even have their own website.

It's all thanks to a collaboration between Marcel O'Gorman (head of the University of Waterloo's Critical Media Lab) and Ron Broglio (an English professor from Georgia Gwinnett College in the States). This new social media project, affectionately named the Teat Tweet Dairy Diary, aims to show consumers the often highly technological nature of farming and how the industry is changing.

The Stop Community Food Centre is spinning NIMBY into YIMBY with their new Yes In My Backyard Program.

Got a backyard you want to put to good use, but don't have the time or ability to garden? Want to garden, but don't have the space to do it? Just leave it up to the people at the Stop, who are matching up land with gardeners in and around their neighbourhood at St. Clair and Christie this spring.

As part of an under-the-radar volunteer program called Kids Cook To Care, this past Saturday 17 kids got down and dirty as they cooked for over 100 Torontonians in need. They washed, diced, measured and grilled under the direction of Cava's Chef Chris McDonald in the kitchen facilities of St. Olave's Church, with the results being a tasty and conscientious paella.

The idea for Kids Cook to Care came to founders Julie Levin and Jill Lewis, both mothers themselves, as way to create volunteer opportunities for their own children. And since I am essentially an over-sized kid myself, I decided to check the event out.