FOODSERVICE MONTHLY'S Sauce on the Side

FOOD SMARTS by Juliet Bodinetz-Rich

Juliet Bodinetz-Rich is the executive director of Bilingual Hospitality Training Solutions. Ms. Bodinetz-Rich is a food safety expert and foodservice trainer who writes the occasional Food SMARTS column for Foodservice Monthly.

In the September issue of FSM, she offered a thought provoking look at the use of gloves in kitchen. Click here or click on the link in the right column under Inside Foodservice Monthly for a look at Food Sense.

At the upcoming Mid-Atlantic Food Beverage & Lodging Expo in Baltimore, Foodserice Monthly will be on the exhibition floor at Booth 747 during the show dates of October 7 & 8.

Each day FSM will feature appearances by our columnists including Bodinetz-Rich (Food Sense), Becki Young (Immigration Law), Linda Roth (The Latest Dish) and Randi Rom (Whining & Dining).

For my restaurant/chef readers, if you sign-up at the EXPO for a free subscription to Foodservice Monthly you will be automatically registered to win a FREE two-hour food safety training class from BHTS in your choice of English or Spanish at your location.

Riderwood ‘Aha’ Cupcakes … Made With Experience and Love

Riderwood, with 3,000 residents in Silver Spring is the largest retirement community of its kind in the U.S. A sprawling campus on a 120-acre wooded setting, Riderwood is an amazing facility ... like nothing I have ever seen.

Many activities are driven by the residents … and their first ever week-long Aha Cupcake Challenge week was a series of delicious activities. The resident Sugar and Spice Bakers club led by Barbara Doyle got the idea rolling with Dan Dunne, from the branded public relations side of the management company Erickson. They partnered with a host of sponsors (General Mills, Georgetown Cupcakes, Cakes Plus, G&K Services, Restaurant Association of Maryland, Riderwood’s Catering Services were some of the names I saw prominently displayed) to host this high-energy magical baking challenge.

I attended the “Most Scrumptious-est Cupcake Contest” on Wednesday, where I got to meet residents, chefs and Riderwood staff. I sit with Magdy Mishraky on the Restaurant Association of Maryland Education Foundation. Tom Foulkes from RAM judged cupcakes that day.

I had the most fun this morning at the “Yummy Cupcake Contest.” Starting at 7 a.m. two teams of four gathered in the Seasons Restaurant kitchen for a “friendly” competition. Team “Cupcake Capers” competed against Team “Two + Too Sweet.” They had to bake 200 cupcakes, and then their “marketing” team members had to sell their edible treats (for $1.00 each) on campus. I had to include a picture of the cheerleaders.

Yummy Cupcake Contest – Team Members

Team 1: Cupcake Capers

Eloise Achhammer - Captain Age:  (not disclosed) ... Baking experience: I’ve baked many cupcakes over the years for family, friends and of course for bake sales.

Norma Jean Wigfield ... Age: (80’s) ... I grew up on a dairy farm in southern Minnesota. My father always had two “hired men” to help with the demanding job of running a farm and a milk route. They ate one or two meals a day with us, so a big part of my mother’s work was cooking and I was her helper.

Norma DeCaroli ... Age: 76 ... I have two children and was a room-mother for many years – thus, providing the opportunity to bake (yes, cupcakes) for my sons and their classmates.  Cupcakes were the perfect size for any occasion and easy to transport

Helen Watkins ... Age: (not disclosed)

Team 2:  Two + Too Sweet

Bonnie Balzer - Captain ... Age: 67 ... I have cooked cupcakes throughout my life.  This was my first cooking/baking contest.

Nancy Ferrant ... Age:  74 ... In 1975 she won an award at Montgomery County Fair for sweet rolls.

Mary Catucci ... Age: 87 ... Started cooking at age 22; she has cooked many cupcakes throughout the years.

Kitty Titus ... Age: 82 ... Started cooking at age 17 – has always baked birthday cakes.

As you can see from the fotos, they were doing everything with some careful guidance from the Riderwood chefs. For a look at all the fotos I took ... go to my Web Gallery by clicking: Riderwood fotos.

 

Yannick Cam's All Smiles: Bistro Provence Coming to Bethesda

I ran into Yannick Cam at Brasserie Beck tonight at a reception celebrating the launch of Bruce Rosen's Real Estate Counselors, PLL. Bruce helped Yannick put the deal together at the latest incarnation of one of DC's iconic chefs (that's Bruce and Yannick in the foto). Yannick told me he expects the 45-plus seat Bistro Provence to be open in four weeks with happy price points for this sensitive buyer's market. And with a bright smile, he talks about his open kitchen where you'll practically be able to shake hands with him from your table. I'm going to take a look at the menu next week -- but Cam assures me I will definitely see a greater emphasis on organic and local ... "Even I will be organic," he boasts.

It will be in March when he hits his full culinary stride ... that's when he thinks he will have his tasting room open on the second floor. Look for menus at $65 and $95 including wine.

Bistro Provence can be found at 4933 Fairmont Avenue in Bethesda ... the phone is 301-656-7373 (it should be working shortly).

It's a Beautiful Day for a Wine Festival

Today is part two of a deliciously entertaining weekend at the Virginia Wine Festival at Bull Run Regional Park in Centreville Va. The gates open at 11 a.m. and the festivities go on until 6 p.m. This is the Commonwealth's longest running wine festival -- now in year 34. There are over 50 wineries, plenty of foods and crafts and a lively music stage. I'll be there at noon preparing a chicken dish with Barboursville Sauvignon Blanc. More on that when I get back.

foto: The folks at AmRhein Wine Cellars are fully in the spirit of having fun while serving the crowds.

Joan Hisaoka 'Make A Difference Gala' 2009

There is no cause closer to my heart than the 2nd Annual Joan Hisaoka "Make a Difference Gala" which works in "assisting those living with cancer." The second annual Gala will take place at the Mandarin Oriental Washington DC Saturday, October 24 when CityZen chef Eric Ziebold will close his restaurant so that he and his staff can orchestrate an incomparable culinary journey. The evening will honor and celebrate the memory of the much missed and dear friend Joan Hisaoka and raise money for the Smith Farm Center.

Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts is a nonprofit health, education and creative arts organization that serves individuals, families and communities affected by cancer and other serious illnesses. Each year they serve more than 6,000 people in the Washington, DC area. The work is grounded in a single profound idea: Each person has tremendous innate abilities to heal in the face of illness. You should take a minute and take a look at this video that adds a human perspective to the work that the Center accomplishes.

The October issue of Foodservice Monthly will tell the story of the chefs and restaurateurs that make a tremedous impact in the community with their giving and their support of the many causes and charities. Joan worked closely with so many of these friends of ours in the hospitality community ... in the cover foto you see Eric Ziebold has put Joan's husband Marvin Rosskopf and her brother Robert Hisaoka to "work" in the kitchen as the meal's execution is just weeks away.

Additional Chefs Participating in the Gala are Todd Gray, Equinox, Robert Wiedmaier, Marcel's, Jeffrey Buben and RJ Cooper, Vidalia.

5:30 - 6:30 p.m. - VIP Reception

6:00 p.m. - General Reception and Silent Auction

7:30 p.m. - Program, Dinner and Live Auction

10:00 - 11:30 p.m. After Party

As my restaurant friends know, I am collecting the gift forms for the silent auction items for the October 24 date -- we need them all in by October 1 to get this all in order before the gala. Here is a pdf of the form for any who might have missplaced the information: Download 09_Auction_Form

FOODSERVICE MONTHLY: Safeway Misses the Point … Do You Get It for Your Restaurant?

Each month I write my Sauce on the Side column for Foodservice Monthly ... a personal take of what's spinning around in my world. Safeway gave me the center-of-the-plate for my view on customer loyalty and discounting ... and at the same time I relived some personal disappointments in "my" Safeway in the Maryland burbs. As I reprint my September column below, I continued my series of less than stellar customer experiences at the Safeway less than two miles from my house and less than four miles from the Safeway East Coast headquarters. First you will see my weekend account ... and then my September column.

LOCAL BECOMES A GLOBAL CONCEPT AT THE FAIRWOOD SAFEWAY

For the last month, we have been pretty much a one-car household while my wife has been working seven days a week at a Rockville wood shop on her latest sculptures. As always it's exciting to see her work come into being ... but it's cut my time on the road. I haven't been to a farmer's market for over two weeks. That brings me to "my" Safeway with its local program. I saw a sign that indicated they had "local" white peaches. The floor display had bright four-color graphics for Kingsburg Orchards but nowhere did it say where the peaches were grown ... other than USA on the fruit stickers. Not only that, but the white peaches were nowhere to be seen ... the display had white nectarines. The peaches were on sale for 99 cents/pound ... but I suspected the nectarines would be a different price. I saw a store supervisor walk by and asked her about the pricing. She referred me to a produce clerk who had appeared and he said he didn't know. He did go to check the sku in the computer: indeed he came back with a 2.49/pound price and then placed the nectarine back in the same place. When I told him that doing that would cause a "surprise" at checkout for an unsuspecting customer, he stopped a higher ranking associate from produce who explained the white nectarines had just come in that morning. Then I had to remind him consumers have a right to have items marked with prices as he moved them into the center row of the display barely away from the 99 cent price sign. He shrugged his shoulders. I walked away. 

Tonight I went just to see how things had progressed 24 hours plus later. Tonight there were no replacements for the white peaches and now the nectarines are marked. And the local sign for the California produce is still up, so am I to believe that USA is local on the Safeway map. On my way to buy some Central American bananas I saw another local sign ... this time behind asparagus and yellow/green squash. Now I know local asparagus is long gone ... but yes, spring is just a couple of weeks away in Peru where this asparagus is grown. Nice, but now the local map for Safeway has expanded to North and South America. 

I did send an e-mail to Kingsburg to see if by some chance they are contracting local peach orchards. Their mailbox is full ... my e-mail server sent me a note saying six hours later they are still trying to deliver. In the morning I will call. I didn't talk to a Safeway manager because after five on the weekends it appears they turn the store over to the cashier supervisors and it's pretty much an auto-pilot store. 

Safeway Misses the Point … Do You Get It for Your Restaurant?

An article in the Drug Store News by reporter Michael Johnsen had a headline that caught my eye: “Safeway chairman, president and CEO addresses promotional pricing bust.” It appears that Safeway’s top exec Steven Burd is convinced in Johnsen’s words, “It just doesn’t pay to be too promotional anymore.” Is there a lesson here for restaurants during a time when we see more and more discounting? I see restaurants and groceries with synergies that come together more often than many realize when you consider the appearance of chefs selling their own lines of foods in the grocery aisles, ready-to-eat foods from grocery chefs and buffet and sandwich businesses inside the stores.

Maybe you’ve seen the ads that have come out for Safeway since this story broke. “Everyday low prices.” Safeway has made a change in the way they do business.

The Safeway CEO went on to say in the story that especially during a recession economy, the change in pricing strategy will create more “loyal” customers. This is a break from their deep discounts on selected items to get people in the door.

The quote that got me thinking is Burd’s, “The budget shopper is not very loyal at all.”

Then he described exactly how I shop at Safeway, preferring only to buy the deep discounted items. Buying only those promotional items, “ … would really hurt you from a P&L standpoint,” he said.

The point the Safeway chief misses here is that there is much more than price that goes into a satisfying grocery shopping experience. It is why I am more willing to drive 25 minutes to the nearest Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s than go the one-mile to buy anything other than the deeply discounted items when I go to Safeway now.

 “My” Safeway is less than two years old. It is the perfect sized store for the way I like to shop … meaning it’s not one of those mega/entertainment stores that are so popular these days. I’m not always into sensory overload so my Safeway has soft comfortable lighting … is well designed and easy to maneuver through. When it opened most of the cashier lanes were open – showing how efficient they were. It has a laundry/dry cleaning center and a bank. Later it added a Starbucks. And they had a sandwich department. All was well in the world.

I gave up on the laundry almost immediately … the customer service desk was never staffed to handle customer issues and laundry. Lost laundry, long waits and an unwillingness to back the on time guarantee drove me away. I gave up on sandwiches when I knew more about the ingredients and the steps to make a sandwich than the person on the other side. But I was not seriously dismayed, neither of those things were a primary reason for me to go to the store.

It’s in the area of declining store cleanliness, a filthy restroom (yes, they are a foodservice operation like a restaurant in many ways), surly counter staff, indifferent management, poor restocking practices, understaffing to the point of making the checkout experience a daily challenge and a lack of awareness of the deterioration of the store … all within three miles of the East Coast headquarters. They accelerated the depreciation on the store by aging it prematurely by ten years. In the beginning the store had two big stacks of hand baskets at the left and right entrances. Today they only have 30 baskets left from the opening inventory and they are only kept at the left entrance. When I reported the dirty restroom, I was greeted with a smirk. When I questioned a price, I was mocked. One Sunday when the checkout lines were insufferably long, the manager had staff loading his SUV with his personal groceries.

So I say, there is more to loyalty than pricing.

That gets me to restaurant recession-discounting and everyone’s favorite: “restaurant week.” The head of Safeway is right: deep discounts will not build loyalty. Reasonable discounts and “restaurant weeks” work when the effort to make the experience a real one is demonstrated by the owner, managers and staff. It works if the product is not compromised in quality or size; it works if the service is splendid. It works if the restaurant is spruced up to reflect the pride of ownership. It works if we are relentless in our desire to serve and exceed expectations. It works if staff is trained to relate to the customer who may be there only twice a year for the special pricing – be happy they are here for the deal.

Working the front lines of the people, hospitality world is not easy … but I cannot imagine anything more rewarding when we pull it off. My Safeway doesn’t get it … I hope your restaurant does. I know next year I’ll be getting a Wegmans in my neighborhood … and I can tell you they do get it. Your restaurant may have a Clyde’s or a Great American Restaurant concept moving next to you. They get it.

Reinvigorate your passion as you discount. Rededicate your commitment. The customers will take notice. That’s how you build loyalty.

FOODSERVICE MONTHLY: RAMW-EF and NRA Provide 'Green Kitchen' Audits to Local Schools by Josh Gibson

Josh Gibson is executive director of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington Education Foundation. Comments or questions can be sent to josh@ramw-ef.org. His article on Green Kitchen Audits appears in the September Foodservice Monthly and is presented here as part of an ongoing series of features from the current issue.

foto: The use of the stocked rolling cart at Roosevelt High School limits the number of energy wasting trips into walk-ins.

RAMW-EF and NRA Provide 'Green Kitchen' Audits to Local Schools

The staff in DC’s public schools’ culinary teaching kitchens are used to being on the providing end of education. But, over the past two months, the tables have been turned and the teachers have become the students. The subject matter? How to design and run a “green” kitchen.

Through a partnership of the National Restaurant Association and the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington Education Foundation (RAMW-EF), the teaching kitchens at two DC schools, Roosevelt Senior High School and Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School, underwent an informal “green” kitchen audit. RAMW-EF coordinated the logistics for the exercise, and the National Restaurant Association conducted the audits.

Wearing the “green eyeshade” for the visits was Chris Moyer, manager of the NRA’s Conserve: Solutions for Sustainability. Through Conserve, Moyer has visited more than 100 restaurants in nearly a dozen  states that are embracing the environmental movement.

“Making your operations more sustainable is fundamental in order to be more profitable,” says Moyer.  “It started for me with a dripping faucet. Once I saw the financial benefit to doing the right thing - not to mention the amount of energy and water savings on my P & L report - I was hooked.”

During his kitchen visits, Moyer could have been mistaken for a Health Department inspector. He turned the sinks on and off, flipped each light switch, peeked in each refrigerator and oven, and even sought out the janitorial supply closets.

The kitchens at both Roosevelt and Carlos Rosario, both built in the past couple of years, passed their audits with flying colors. Nonetheless, Moyer had some suggested changes for each kitchen that would be easy, inexpensive, and impactful to implement. 

These included:

• Install aerators on all hand washing, restroom and utility faucets (by reducing water flow slightly, an aerator can save thousands of gallons of water a year)
• Fix all dripping faucets
• Place motion/occupancy sensors on all lights in low-traffic areas. Lights will automatically switch themselves off when the kitchen, a storage closet, or the restroom is empty.
• Have kitchen lights on multiple switches (if possible). It makes no sense to light the front of house in the morning if you don’t open until the afternoon.
• Make sure all gaskets for refrigerators and freezers are clean and in good repair. Keep the cold air inside and the warm air stays outside. Clean refrigeration coils routinely.
• Install curtains in walk-in refrigerators. Moyer recommends swing curtains over dangling strip curtains for cleaning and sanitation purposes.
• Invest in rolling cart to be used the walk-in cooler. Reduce trips and times you need to open walk-in doors by taking out everything you will need at one time (or less times rather than making multiple visits, reopening the door each time)
• Unplug appliances when not in use or put on power strips that can be switched off easily. (especially receipt printers, chargers, coffee machines and non-programmable microwaves)
• Install side panels on cooking hoods so they ventilate just the cooking area, and not the entire kitchen

Moving forward, RAMW-EF will work closely with the NRA’s Conserve program, so that any future teaching kitchens that the Foundation has a part in designing incorporates green principles from the start. Moyer points out that kitchen staff who have worked in a “greener” kitchen become evangelists for the cause, with future employers “picking their brains” for advice on how to implement money (and environmental) saving measures in their own kitchens.

FOODSERVICE MONTHLY: Just Coffee ... Coffee and US Immigration Policy by Becki Young

The September issue of Foodservice Monthly is in the mail ... and as promised every day for the next week, we will feature a column from the magazine beginning with Becki L Young's insightful take on coffee and immigration. Ms. Young has been working in the field of immigration law since 1995. Her practice focuses on employment-based immigration law. Ms. Young has represented employers in a variety of industries, including investment banking and securities, information technology, health care, and hospitality, providing advice on work permits and related immigration issues, and is the co-editor of Immigration Options for Essential Workers published by the American Immigration Lawyers Association. To learn more or to schedule a personal consultation, call 202-232-0983 or e-mail becki.young@blylaw.com. 

Just Coffee ... Coffee and US Immigration Policy

Can coffee help solve the United States’ illegal immigration issues? Café Justo (www.justcoffee.org), a coffee growers’ cooperative based in Chiapas, Mexico, thinks so.

In the 1990s Mexico’s agricultural economy suffered heavily as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) allowed cheap American corn to flood Mexico, undercutting small farmers. At the same time large international coffee conglomerates cut their prices, driving small growers out of business. Mexicans began fleeing north into the United States, in search of better economic opportunities. According to the Migration Policy Institute (www.migrationinformation.org), the undocumented population from Mexico increased from two million in 1990 to 4.8 million in 2000 and to 5.3 million in 2002.

So how can coffee help?

In 2003, with a $20,000 micro-loan from Presbyterian border ministry Frontera de Cristo, Café Justo was established. According to its Web site Café Justo is “a grower cooperative based in Mexico, formed to address one of the root causes of labor migration from Mexico to the USA.” The company’s mission is to deliver the highest quality, organic, environmentally conscious fresh roasted coffee to customers at a price that is fair and just.

Café Justo produces coffee that is not just “Fair Trade,” but “Fair Trade Plus.”  A February 8, 2007 article in the Tucson Weekly explains the difference: Regular coffee, which comes through channels dominated by large coffee companies, may only fetch 40 to 60 cents per pound. Fair Trade coffee (raw beans) go for $1.25 to $1.50 per pound wholesale. Fair Trade Plus (which includes roasting, packing, and selling the coffee) nets $5-6 per pound.

Because Café Justo earns a sufficient profit for its Fair Trade Plus coffee, it can pay a fair price to its growers and a fair wage to its workers, thus significantly reducing the incentives for economic migration to the United States. In addition to providing training and jobs to the local population, the company’s operations have already had a multiplier effect on the resources coming into the community.

Café Justo has amassed substantial support from local church and justice groups on the U.S. – Mexican border, through which it sells much of its product. 

The next strategic step in the company’s growth is to make the jump to regular retail sales. The coffee has been featured at the Tucson Culinary Festival, and the company is working on a marketing plan to get its coffee into the critical grocery and restaurant markets.

The U.S. retail/ foodservice coffee market represents a huge opportunity for Café Justo and other Fair Trade/ Fair Trade Plus producers; according to www.coffeeresearch.org: In 1999 there were 108,000,000 coffee consumers in the United States spending an approximated 9.2 billion dollars in the retail sector and $8.7 billion dollars in the foodservice sector every year. It can be inferred, therefore, that coffee drinkers spend on average $164.71 per year on coffee.

The National Coffee Association found in 2000 that 54 percent of the adult population of the United States drinks coffee daily. They also reported that 18.12 percent of the coffee drinkers in the United States drink gourmet coffee beverages daily. In addition to the 54 percent who drink coffee everyday, 25 percent of Americans drink coffee occasionally. As Café Justo continues to expand its business, it will increase its ability to address the root problem behind illegal immigration:  economic inequality. 

The U.S. currently spends billions of dollars each year on border enforcement, with limited success. The human tragedies caused by the current flow of illegal migration from Mexico to the U.S. are immense – families split, and migrants dying trying to cross the desert.  

According to a recent (April 16, 2009) article in the Tucson Weekly:

Just Coffee has taken a small but profound step toward easing immigration tensions in the United States. "It always seemed reasonable to use the coffee-cooperative idea to address migration," Bassett says. "And, in fact, over 70 people from Salvador Urbina who were working in the U.S. in a nonofficial status have returned home. The community has grown—the schools are actually too small now, because the kids don't have to work in the coffee fields anymore. They can go to class instead. They have clean water to drink, and they get to stay in their village."

Isn’t it time to take a closer look at the Café Justo model? 

For more information, see www.justcoffee.org; or check out the book Just Coffee: Caffeine With a Conscience. “a moving, colorful and refreshingly optimistic primer on how to solve the poverty that drives illegal immigration, one village at a time.”

FOODSERVICE MONTHLY, September 2009

The September issue of Foodservice Monthly is in the mail ... our annual Mid-Atlantic Food, Beverage and Lodging EXPO issue that previews the upcoming trade show at the Baltimore Convention Center October 7 and 8. For the cover, the three sponsoring Associations heads from Maryland, Virginia and Washington met at the new Hotel Monaco's restaurant B&O American Brasserie: Paul Hartgen, Restaurant Association of Maryland; Barry Hawkins, Virginia Hospitality & Travel Association and Lynne Breaux, Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington. They met the new chef at the B&O E. Michael Reidt who will be attending his first EXPO.

The issue has an exclusive 5-page preview of the EXPO along with columns by regular contributors Bill Miller (Real Estate 1.0), Mike Tash (Foodservice Technology Solutions), John Klakamp (Building Blocks) and Becki Young (Immigration Law in Foodservice). Alexandra Greeley returns with her occasional series Life Work with a profile of Jodi Lehr, Santa Lucia Estate Coffee. Of course you will find The Latest Dish by Linda Roth Conte, Whining 'N Dining by Randi Rom, Balti-MORE by Dara Bunjon and this month's Philly Fare by Laura Koster. The 48-page issue includes our monthly National Restaurant Association news, the Restaurant Activity Report and the news that our readers expect to find in Foodservice Monthly.

My monthly Sauce on the Side is a timely look (in the middle of Restaurant Week in Washington) at the connection between steep discounting and loyalty ... with an unexpected inspiration: my neighborhood Safeway. The full Sauce on the Side is here for downloading: Download SOS 0909rev1

Over the next 24-hours you will see the blog updated on both sides of the page as we add current columns for viewing and redo the links listing. Over the next week we will be back to daily updates as the synergy between the print edition, the blog, Twitter and Facebook comes together. My social media buddies know the last six months have seen an unprecedented expansion ... yet no one has any idea where this will end up. We are here for the ride ... enjoy the trip. Each day for the next week, we will feature a column from the September issue beginning on Saturday with Becki Young's interesting take on coffee and immigration. My music fans will be happy to note that the FOOD WINE DRINK series of iMixes from my song collection will be back as the Friday feature starting next week.

We're back ... and on all the current platforms ... well, we haven't Woofed yet. I'll let you try to figure our Woofer.

DC Chefs Pose at Policy for 'Save the Seals Soiree'

DC’s top chefs including Cathal Armstrong of Restaurant Eve and Todd Gray of Equinox have signed a pledge not to buy seafood from the Canadian Sealing provinces.  Together with the Humane Society of the United States, the chefs, restaurateurs, congressmen and invited guests gathered at Policy on 14th Street, NW to show their support and party to protect the seals. 

 

Celebrity photographer Nigel Barker photographed the participating chefs. Afterwards the chefs and restaurateurs created an artistic expression as they dipped their hands in red paint and marked a canvas with their handprint and signature; the canvas will be sent around the country to garner support for the seals. 

Important to Note: (Excluded from the ban are products from Inuit and Native American communities in Greenland, Canada, Russia and the United States. Items not banned are those used for cultural, educational or ceremonial purposes.) (There are three separate levels of the boycott. Restaurants have pledged at different levels-All Canadian Seafood, Seafood from Sealing Provinces; (Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Quebec), Snow Crabs (from Canada.) Since the ProtectSeals seafood boycott was launched, more than 600,000 individuals and more than 5,000 grocery stores and restaurants and notable chefs from around the country have pledged to avoid some or all Canadian seafood until the commercial seal hunt is ended for good.