Community & Alumni Blog
Stefan Epp-Koop: Working toward healthy, sustainable food for all
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Most of us don’t think twice about the food we eat, but Stefan Epp-Koop (CMU 2002-04) does.
As the acting executive director of Food Matters Manitoba, it’s Epp-Koop’s job to help make Manitoba a healthier place by building healthy, fair, and sustainable food systems that make food available and affordable to all.
“In a province where... there is such abundance, it’s important to remember that there are a lot of people who don’t have access to the basic, healthy food that many of us take for granted,” he says.
Food Matters Manitoba works with a variety of different people, from Manitobans living in remote northern communities who are having trouble accessing food because it’s too expensive, to inner city Winnipeggers who can’t get to a grocery store, to newcomers who are adjusting to life in Canada.
“All Manitobans deserve good food to eat,” Epp-Koop says. “That’s what we’re working for.”
Epp-Koop’s involvement at Food Matters Manitoba began with a nine-month policy internship he started in 2008, shortly after completing his Master’s in History at Queen’s University in Kingston, ON.
The internship was exciting because it allowed Epp-Koop to use the skills he had acquired in university, like researching and writing, in a practical setting.
The internship also allowed Epp-Koop, who served with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Lusaka, Zambia from 2006-07, to combine a number of his interests, including policy, poverty, social justice, and issues surrounding food and hunger.
After working at the University of Manitoba for two years, where he coordinated a handful of research projects, Epp-Koop returned to Food Matters Manitoba in 2011.
Over the past five years, he has worked in a variety of capacities, including coordinating research, evaluation, and policy analysis.
In his current role as acting executive director, Epp-Koop oversees the organization’s programs, shaping them with staff and ensuring they are responsive to the needs of the community.
Epp-Koop advocates for better access to healthy food for all Manitobans by engaging with municipal and provincial leaders, and shares the story of Food Matters Manitoba by talking to the media and meeting with people interested in the organization’s work.
In addition to his work at Food Matters Manitoba, Epp-Koop sits on the board of Mennonite Central Committee Manitoba. He is also the author of the 2015 book We’re Going to Run This City (University of Manitoba Press), which explores the history of Winnipeg in the aftermath of the 1919 General Strike.
His various interests and acts of service recently earned him a nomination for the Future 40, CBC Manitoba’s annual list of people under 40 who are making a difference in the prio
For Epp-Koop, interacting with the people that Food Matters Manitoba helps is the biggest thing he enjoys about his work.
“What’s really exciting for me is getting to talk to people involved in our programs and seeing the difference our programs are making for them,” he says. “It’s really inspiring.”
For Epp-Koop, working at Food Matters Manitoba is a way to live out his faith.
“We are called to feed the hungry, we are called to care for the least of these, and I really see that my work is an expression of doing that,” he says. “(It’s) an expression of trying to live out a mission of caring for people around us, for loving our neighbour, and being a helpful and caring presence in society.”
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