Deconstructing Dinner has been many things since it was founded in 2006, but what has been consistent is its commitment to expanding awareness of the origins of our food and sharing the potential for food to transform communities. Deconstructing Dinner is an archived radio series/podcast, television series and now-retired annual film festival.
Deconstructing Dinner (DD) was launched by Jon Steinman in 2006 as a weekly hour-long radio show and podcast produced at Kootenay Co-op Radio (CJLY) in Nelson, British Columbia. By the end of 2010, DD was being rebroadcast on over 50 radio stations across Canada and the US and was ranked by iTunes as the most-listened-to food podcast in Canada. Shortly after the show went off the air, Steinman was nominated for a Jack Webster Award – British Columbia’s most prestigious awards for journalism. The show also received awards and recognition by the Canadian Farm Writers Federation (CFWF) and the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA).
In 2011, a new DD project emerged between Jon Steinman, Declan O’Driscoll and Stornoway Communications. Deconstructing Dinner: Reconstructing our Food System was launched in 2013 as a six-episode television series with an accompanying 44 short-form webisodes. The series broadcast across Canada on ichannel (2013-2015) and continues to be available on the Deconstructing Dinner web site. In 2017, Deconstructing Dinner became available on Gaia – a streaming video-on-demand service based in the United States.
The Deconstructing Dinner Film Festival was an annual documentary film and food festival held in Nelson, BC and surrounding communities between 2012-2017.