Sally Henry Memorial Award Winner—2000
Jan Main
Written by Marsha Rosen, presented by Marjorie Paradine at the AGM
This award honours a Home Economist whose interests and accomplishments, like Sally’s, go beyond the traditional role of Home Economist. This year’s recipient, Jan Main, exemplifies everything the award stands for.
Jan graduated from the University of Guelph with a degree in Family and Consumer Studies. She first worked for the Ministry of Community and Social Services at a very grass roots level, with women living in Ontario housing projects, teaching purchasing and preparing meals within a tight budget. She utilized these times to discuss life’s challenges with them. With colleague Judy Smith, they produced a cookbook that was sold as a fundraiser for their self-help group.
Jan began catering in 1975 – it’s amazing her arms aren’t 6 feet long from all the lifting and carrying. The OHEIB executive were among the beneficiaries of her delicious catered suppers.
Since 1978, Jan has operated cooking classes from her home, currently on a beautiful setting at the edge of the Scarborough Bluffs. Her small, informal, and always hands-on classes cover the range of culinary interests of the day.
Jan has become quite a prolific food writer – for Elm Street Magazine, Homemaker’s Magazine, President’s Choice Magazine and the Toronto Star as well as the local Beach community newspaper. In addition Jan has had a twofold relationship with Canadian Living Magazine, she worked in the test kitchen developing and testing recipes and has written independently for them.
Her writing and her own personal need to be vigilant with the foods she eats led her to write two very creative and useful cookbooks focusing on those who are lactose-intolerant and people concerned with osteoporosis, The Lactose-Free Family Cookbook and Bone Vivant.
Jan has travelled with other ‘foodies’ to such food Meccas as New York, Montreal and Stratford. She is a member of many professional associations and has been involved in many aspects of those organizations.
Jan volunteers at her daughter Alexis’s school with a Literacy Program and the Milk Program. Working on a one-to-one basis with Grade One children, who have been identified as having difficulty with reading, gives them a head start. Within a year they have often caught up with their schoolmates. Jan instigated and continues to co-ordinate the Milk Program, having milk delivered to the school and providing information about the health advantages of milk over soft drinks.
Jan Main is a very deserving recipient of the Sally Henry Memorial Award for 2000.