Community Food Program
For over 25 years, we’ve been offering practical food and garden education to our community. Beyond backyard gardens and outdoor classrooms, a large part of our programming involves advocating for healthy local food systems and food justice for everyone. Healthy food is a basic human right and our work seeks to address the structural barriers that prevent access to nutritious meals for all.
Food justice for all
We take an informed approach to food justice. Our goal is to shift away from white, middle-class input and welcome multicultural, intersectional feedback. Especially from those in the communities we aim to make a difference within. Together we are working towards a food sovereign, sustainable, and inclusive food future.
Creating food access requires collaboration. By working alongside meal providers, food retailers, farmers, Indigenous communities, public institutions and a diverse array of organizations, we strive to make food better for people, for communities, and for the planet.
Connecting people with good food
As Chair of the Steering Committee, we’ve provided leadership for the Food Share Network since its inception in 2013. Through the Network, we’ve been able to help distribute food from the Fruit Tree Project and Farm Gleaning to the community via the Food Rescue Project, an initiative started in 2017 to address food insecurity in the capital region.
Everyone should have consistent access to healthy, safe, and culturally appropriate food. As a signatory of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Canada has a legal obligation to “…respect, protect and fulfil the right to food.” This means every Canadian should be able to feed themselves with dignity. Through our work in the community, we strive to connect people with fresh, healthy produce in a dignified manner.
Fighting food insecurity
Income is a critical barrier to healthy food and food insecurity adversely affects people of colour, single parents, and those in low-paying jobs. According to PROOF, a research team investigating food insecurity in Canada, in 2017-18 1 in 8 Canadian households was food insecure (that’s roughly 4.4 million Canadians!).
Food insecurity is a direct result of inadequate or insecure access to food because of a lack of money. We want to be part of a sustainable solution to food insecurity in Canada.
Building a resilient food future
With the impacts of COVID, the number of Canadians who are food insecure is expected to double (read more about food insecurity and the pandemic here). We support a Guaranteed Livable Income (GLI) as a step towards alleviating food insecurity in our country. We also support the Indigenous-led coordination of food system planning as we strive to centre Indigenous voices in the discussions around our food system.
