What do the groups featured in this event propose in terms of systemic/structural solutions to address food insecurity?
Community Food Centres Canada (CFCC) emphasizes a multi-faceted approach to addressing food insecurity through both community-based and systemic and structural solutions. CFCC builds inclusive, culturally responsive Community Food Centres (CFCs) that act as hubs for people to grow, cook, share, and advocate. These centers provide fresh, nourishing, and culturally appropriate food while offering food skills programs that empower individuals with the knowledge and confidence to make healthier choices. These programs, such as interactive cooking classes and gardening workshops, help people improve their health and build social connections, creating a strong community foundation.
On a systemic level, CFCC is advocating for significant policy changes. By prioritizing the involvement of individuals with lived and living experiences of food insecurity and poverty, CFCC ensures that solutions are grounded in real, practical experiences and effectively address the most pressing needs. They support income-based solutions by calling for targeted income support, which involves rethinking benefit thresholds to ensure financial aid reaches those who need it most. Additionally, CFCC is pushing for the establishment of federal food insecurity targets, akin to poverty reduction goals, to ensure that progress can be measured and achieved. By integrating community-driven ideas into policy development and setting clear, measurable targets, CFCC aims to address the root causes of food insecurity and ensure long-term, equitable solutions.
Structural/Systemic Solution Examples:
- Community Food Centres (CFCs): Integrate food assistance with skills training and community engagement. They address immediate needs and build long-term resilience by empowering individuals, fostering social connections, and enhancing self-sufficiency. This approach drives structural improvements in community health and cohesion.
- Federal Food Insecurity Targets: Setting specific, measurable goals for reducing food insecurity to track progress and guide policy efforts.
- Targeted Income Supports: Revising benefit thresholds to ensure that financial assistance is accurately directed towards those in greatest need, thus tackling the root cause of food insecurity—insufficient income.
These systemic solutions aim to integrate immediate support with broader policy and income-based reforms, creating a comprehensive approach to addressing food insecurity.
Food First NL advocates for systemic and structural solutions to address food insecurity, focusing on both income-based reforms and reimagining traditional food assistance models. Their approach includes pushing for the implementation of basic income programs, a strategy that has garnered significant attention through recent recommendations by an all-party committee and the Health Accord. They emphasize the need to maintain pressure on provincial governments to fully implement these programs. Food First NL also explores reimagining the food charity model, suggesting that food banks, which hold considerable influence, could be leveraged to drive broader systemic changes. This includes developing well-rounded programming and infrastructure to support access to affordable, local, and culturally appropriate foods.
On a systemic level, Food First NL calls for a fundamental shift in addressing food insecurity. They advocate for addressing its root causes by supporting actions such as increasing the minimum wage, enhancing income supports, and implementing a guaranteed livable basic income. By highlighting the limitations of charitable food assistance and the importance of income-based solutions, they seek to create sustainable changes. Their strategy includes actively engaging communities, incorporating insights from the Lived and Living Experience Advisory Group (LLEAG) and ensuring that policymakers are held accountable for addressing food insecurity comprehensively.
Structural/Systemic Solution Examples:
- Basic Income Programs: Implementing a broad basic income to provide unconditional financial support directly addresses the root causes of food insecurity, including insufficient income, social inequalities, and systemic racism. By ensuring a reliable financial foundation, a basic income can help mitigate these interconnected issues and support individuals in achieving greater economic stability and well-being.
- Reimagining the Food Charity Model: Transforming food banks from emergency relief services into catalysts for systemic change, potentially influencing policy and funding shifts.
- Advocacy for Income-Based Reforms: Supporting increases in the minimum wage, enhancing income supports, and implementing measures to ensure benefits are indexed to inflation, thus providing a robust safety net that addresses both immediate and long-term needs.
Food First NL’s systemic and structural solutions encompass financial stability through basic income with broader reforms and innovative approaches to food assistance, ensuring a comprehensive strategy for reducing food insecurity.
Maskwacîs Education Schools Commission (MESC) presents a holistic approach to addressing food insecurity through Nanâtohk Mîciwin, their Universal School Food Strategy (USFS), grounded in Cree culture and values. This initiative goes beyond merely providing meals; it seeks to integrate food into the broader educational and community framework. By developing a Central Warehousing collection and distribution system for traditional foods, MESC via its USFS ensures that local and culturally appropriate foods are accessible within schools. The program emphasizes sustainability and efficiency, working closely with local vendors and communities to support a local food system. Through these efforts, MESC via its Universal School Food Strategy, has created a model that not only addresses immediate food needs but also strengthens community ties, cultural connections, and sustainable food practices.
Structural/Systemic Solution Examples:
- Central Warehousing and Local Food Systems: Establishing a system for distributing traditional and local nutritional foods within schools, which supports community food sovereignty and sustainability.
- Integration of Food and Culture: Using school food programs to teach traditional food practices and connect students with their cultural heritage, thereby reinforcing community values and promoting cultural continuity.
- Sustainable and Flexible Food Programming: Designing nutrition food programs with sustainability in mind, including efficient use of resources, flexibility in menu planning, and strong local partnerships to support a resilient food system.
Nanâtohk Mîciwin’s systemic and structural solutions focus on embedding food into the educational and cultural framework of the community, creating a comprehensive approach that addresses both immediate food needs and long-term cultural and environmental goals.
Regroupement des cuisines collectives du Québec (RCCQ) supports and connects more than 1200 collective kitchens across Quebec, and defends principles of food autonomy and dignity through popular education and community sharing of sustainable, accessible and nutritious foods and food resources. They are advocating for a transformative approach to food security through their proposed framework bill on the right to food. This bill aims to establish food as a fundamental human right, which would represent a significant shift in how food insecurity is addressed at a systemic and structural level. By framing food as a right, the legislation would require the government, civil society, and private sector organizations to adhere to regulations and develop structures (e.g. programs, policies, etc.) that ensure everyone has access to culturally appropriate, nutritious and sustainable food. This would involve ensuring that food is available and accessible while fostering practices that protect the environment and support long-term food security.
The bill incorporates the four UN dimensions of the right to food:
- Availability: Ensuring sufficient food production and supply.
- Accessibility: Guaranteeing that food is economically and physically accessible to all.
- Adequacy: Providing food that meets individual needs, including nutritional needs and cultural preferences.
- Sustainability: Promoting environmentally sustainable practices in food production and distribution to ensure long-term food security.
By addressing these dimensions, the RCCQ’s framework bill not only meets immediate food needs but also enhances the quality and sustainability of food systems, recognizing the importance of both environmental responsibility and cultural significance in achieving food security.
Structural/Systemic Solution Examples:
- Collective Kitchen Models: Supporting and expanding collective kitchens that provide nutritionally sufficient and culturally relevant meals. These kitchens not only address immediate food needs but also promote community engagement and empower local food systems.
- Legal Framework for Food Rights: Establishing a legal basis for ensuring food security and sustainability by passing a framework bill that guarantees the right to food. This would require both government and private organizations to uphold access to adequate, nutritious, culturally relevant, and environmentally sustainable food, thereby integrating food system sustainability into the legal and structural framework.
RCCQ’s proposed framework bill aims to enshrine food as a fundamental human right in Quebec, ensuring access to adequate, culturally relevant, and sustainable food. The bill thus seeks to address food insecurity through systemic and structural change.